Custom Web Design-Now A Requirement For The Success Of Your Business
A common misconception about the need for a website is that a website is a “nice to have” addition to your business or it’s nice to have an online presence where people can find basic information about the company i.e. phone number, address, email.
The truth is that, in current times, a website is usually your first point of contact with your customers (even before they become customers). The way people do business has changed and people have developed a habit of looking first online for information on who they would like to do business with. What does this mean for your business? It’s similar to building a house, unless you’re an architect, you wouldn’t try to draw up the blueprints to your house, buy a hardhat, some tools, and begin building it yourself. You would research and find the right people to build your house and let them do their job until it’s time to move in. At the same time, you wouldn’t just tell your architect and general contractor: “build me a house” and expect that you will get what you want. What would get you the results you want is finding a team that listens to what you want, draws up plans that reflect this and sets milestones where they check regularly with you to assure that things are evolving according to your plan.
It’s very similar when you decide to have a website designed for your business. When you pick who will design your website, you have to select a team that will listen to what your expectations are. Your team needs to understand the details of your business, through your eyes. Who knows your business better than you? Who knows who your customers are better than you? Who knows your product or service better than you? Your website needs to illustrate all these things and show your website visitors all these things as you see them in any easy to understand way. You only have one chance to make a good first impression! Most of the time, your website will be responsible for giving people a good first impression of your business.
When you find the right web design company, they should “draw up the blueprints” for your website just like your architect would. In addition, the company will set milestones throughout the development process to make sure that you are happy with the look and features of your new website as it evolves. Just like the architect and general contractor that builds your house, your web design company will be your consultant. They will listen to your hopes and expectations for your website and draw up the blueprints that reflect this.If you hope to conduct business online, then your web design team needs to learn about your customers and product or service. Your team will study your target market, find out what they shop for, place the right keywords throughout your site and use the right color and design scheme that will appeal to your target audience. All these things will affect your site visitor’s first impression and overall perception of what
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your company is about. Ultimately, this is a major influence on the decision of whether they purchase from you or not. When your target market is seeking a product or service, with the intention of purchasing, and they find your website, your ultimate goal is for them to purchase your product at your website or contact you to inquire. Either way, you will get your desired result because you will either make a sale or gain a new sales lead. Ultimately, the design of your website is the foundation of your Internet Marketing campaigns. If you have an effective campaign that drives many people to your site, but your site does not produce your desired result, then you wasted time and money in your Internet Marketing Campaign.
If your site visitors arrive at your website with a design that was made from a template or just poorly done with a home page, contact us page and a few other pages acting as “fillers”, they will move on and continue searching. With a custom web design, you have the power to influence people’s opinion about your company because you can deliver the vision of your company as you see it.
This illustrates the importance of having a “good” web designer that has an understanding of Internet marketing. A good web designer will learn the details of your company, your target market, your product or service, your plan for the future of your company and will research your industry to find what your competition is doing. He/she will act as a consultant and will take the vision you have for your company and develop a custom website out of that vision.
The ultimate goal is to deliver your vision of what your product or service is, as you see it. Just as important, as the first impression your visitors get of your business from your website, your website must create a “call to action” among your website visitors. A call to action is just as important as the perception people will develop about your company when they visit your site.
Ok, so what’s a call to action? It’s a set of words, images or a combination of the two that will get your potential customers to act in the way you want them to. It’s better explained using examples:
1.) Free Accessories – This technique is often used by the larger computer retail sites (because it works!), “buy a specific system and get a free printer or monitor”
2.) Offer upgrades – This is often used by infomercials, “The first 500 hundred callers will get X bonus or a big price reduction”.
3.) Free gift with your order – This one’s obvious, but it’s used a lot because people react to free gifts.
If you want your website visitors to perform a specific action like order your product or service and/or contact you to inquire so you can build a list of prospective leads, a correctly designed website and the correct call to action for your product or service is what will accomplish this for you.
Ultimately, what you are looking for when you spend money on a custom web design is a return on your investment. If you expect to make your first penny from your website, you have to get people to act. You can’t use the old “Contact Us For More Information”. It just doesn’t work. The Internet is full of alternatives to your product or service, and the competition is sometimes fierce. People don’t have time to fill out forms to find out about you. When they get to your website, they will browse, review points of interest and either take action or leave. Your website has to be appealing, interesting and easy to navigate in order for it to generate new business. Most importantly, it must give people what they are looking for.
It’s important to find a web design company that has a thorough understanding of Internet marketing and the psychology that goes into it. If you give your target market what they are looking for, the possibilities for the growth your online business are tremendous. Remember, information travels quickly on the Internet and, if you have something good to offer, you have only one way to go…UP.
Once you convert visitors into customers or leads, you will have their information. Why do I care about their information if I already made the sale? One word….Relationships. Sale or no sale, if you create a relationship with a customer, you have ongoing business for life…see the benefits??
I’m not talking about building an email list to spam customers, I’m talking about notifying your list of when you have a sale or special promotion. This will expose your promotions to customers. In addition, it’s nice to send them some useful information from time to time without selling them anything, just to keep your name on their minds. One example of benefitting from customer relationships is when business is slow, you can hold a special “limited time” promotion which is “exclusive” for previous customers only…get the idea? The exclusivity has a certain attraction that generates sales. Sales you would not otherwise have had without these relationships.
Ultimately, the right web designer will be your consultant for the business you will conduct online. Once your web design project begins, you should receive samples of what your website can look like according to what you have said you want. Then you can pick and choose items from each sample. This is a method of fine tuning the look of your site so that the end result is something you will be very happy with and will reflect the true vision of your company as you see it. Most importantly your website should expose your company to a much broader market and generate a lot of money for you, but the first step is to find the right web design company.
Joe
PS I would love to hear your thoughts, so don’t be shy and comment on this post!
Joe Almeida
