The Marvellous Blog

Recommend us to a friend or colleague who is looking to develop a new website, and we will send you a bottle of bubbly and a box of chocolates!

It’s a common complaint – one that as web designers, we hear all the time. Oddly enough, very often it’s used as an excuse by businesses not to spend time or money improving their website so that it does perform effectively.

Of course it’s these websites that need the most attention.Business websites that don’t make money - or fail to attract potential customers - make a few basic errors. All too often, businesses are too busy thinking about “the company website” from their own perspective, and fail to consider their customers’ needs and expectations.

When devising your website, the three questions you should be asking yourself are:

• Who are your target customers?
• How will your target customers find you?
• What do you want your target customers to do once they are on your website?

Attract Hot Leads

Before planning your website, you must identify and understand your target market. This is a must for driving hot leads to your website. You can be performing miracles in the search engine rankings, but if your all your visitors aren’t interested in your products or services, it’s a waste of time. Avoid industry jargon, and write content using your customers’ language. This will bring targeted customers your way, and match their expectations when they arrive.

It is no longer enough just to have a website, and hope that it adds something to your business. 50% of UK SME websites are invisible: they cannot be found unless your prospects know your domain name, or your company name – not very likely, unless your brand is a household name. Your site must appear in the first 3 pages of Google, preferably the first page. If you are outside the top 30 results, then your website is a waste of time, energy and money.

If you want your website to make money, or generate leads, you must either invest the time to find out how to improve your ranking in Google yourself, or employ a search engine specialist help you do this.

First Impressions Count

Being found via the search engines is only half the battle. Successful commercial websites convert their visitors into customers. Recent research concluded that visitors make a judgment about a website within 50 milliseconds of the page loading. That’s not a lot of time to make an impression. Before reading a word, your potential customers have already decided whether you are any good or not! Even more interestingly, whatever they see or read subsequently, visitors are extremely unlikely to reverse their initial judgment.

It’s vital that your site matches your visitors’ expectations, and instantly convinces them that they are in the right place, and that their needs will be fulfilled. It must recognise their pain whilst appealing to their desires and passions; above all, it needs to trigger an emotional response. This sounds like a tall order, but given the fact your competition is only a few clicks away, it’s an essential one.

A Reason For Being

To convert your customer, your website must have a “Most Desired Response”. In other words you must have a clear idea what you want your customer to do once they arrive, whether that’s buy a product, register their details, or even pick up the phone. Whatever it is, make it the focal point of your website, ensure that your message is clear and succinct, then design your site’s structure and navigation so it is completely geared to obtaining the Most Desired Response. Then discard any excess baggage. If something doesn’t contribute to the Most Desired Response, get rid of it.

So many websites fail in this regard, lacking any clear purpose, and failing to convert their customers.
Remember, keep your focus on your customers throughout the whole process, and try to avoid thinking about your business from your own perspective. Will your customers really want to read a detailed history of your company, look at photographs of your staff? Will these help sell your products and services?

Websites that are geared around their customers’ needs and expectations will ultimately succeed, and leave the competition for dust.