There is plenty of debate about the value of having a website for your business among marketing professionals. Some people believe you should only use rented platforms where the customers hang out already. Some argue that apps are all you need to bring in customers.
I am firmly in the camp that everyone needs a home platform even if most of your engagement and conversation happens elsewhere like on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. A website provides a business with its anchor where you can continually morph into a hub, resource or place for your customers to learn something new. But many websites are missing some of the fundamental mandatory requirements to communicate simply and clearly.
Are you missing these five critical website elements?
- A Simple Statement of Benefit. You have to be incredibly clear about what your product or service provides as a benefit to a customer. Maybe you sell shoes, but perhaps you are selling athletic dreams. Maybe you provide technical support, but what you provide is peace of mind that your systems will work. I am a big fan of the declarative statement that simply tells a visitor, in well-crafted words, work with us and here is how you’ll feel.
- An Environment Consistent with your Brand. If you are a heavy metal band or a yoga studio, the colors, the lines and the flow of website must be in harmony with your brand. Colors and design can’t be after thoughts but need to communicate how it feels to be a member of this community. Visit a few competitors’ sites and write down how it makes you feel to wander around their environment. What is the feeling and emotion you want someone to have when they have completed their visit?
- Ease of Movement that Matches Brand Intent. You want the navigation to align with the brand’s purpose. If you want to portray stability (like a bank), that requires a different navigation than if you are teaching ballroom dancing and want to communicate a fluid movement. How a visitors navigates around the site is similar to how you walk through a home. Does it flow naturally? Does it feel compartmentalized? Is it broken into pieces or one big whole space? Give some thought to the path you want your visitors to take. How do you want your space to feel – open, closed, safe, protected, fluid, ethereal or rock solid?
- What is the Singular Action you want Visitors to do? The CTA or call to action needs to be well-thought out so that your website design team can create what you need? If the goal is to make it easy for a visitor to get in touch with a sales person, then make that simple. One click, one button. If the goal is to get people to sign up and join your mailing list, make that easy and provide some simple incentive of value. (A PDF with some valuable information, for example).
- The Home Page tends to be your Primary Real Estate. Most visitors come to the home page and leave via the home page. They may stay for 30 seconds. Perhaps they leave because you aren’t giving them what they need quickly and simply enough. When you understand why you are building your web presence, you must keep focusing on the top priority. All of the subpages are going to get little traffic – but you must focus the home page on achieving your main goal. The hard part isn’t designing for the goal – the hard part is deciding the goal. Think of it this way – the front door and entry to your home is a signal to a visitor of what to expect. You might have beautiful interior rooms but if you can’t get people to come inside, they’ll never wander to these interior spaces.
Bring to your meeting with your web designer, examples of sites that were successful visits for you. Click through them together and notice why they give you a satisfying experience. What do they do that made things easy for you to achieve your objective?
Your website doesn’t have to communicate everything about your business. Think of it like the front door and foyer into your home. Work hard to make it feel inviting and to quickly and efficiently help the visitor get what they came for when the found your site.
A successful visit to a site means I got what I needed. It was easy to find the information I searched for and to complete the task at hand. The environment and navigation fit with the brand and made me feel productive and not frustrated. The website owner clearly and simply answered the questions, what is in it for me and how do I get started if I want to work with you. They helped to make my visit a success. They had a great about me page that helped me understand who was behind the site.
[Tweet “My rule of thumb is to keep the website simple. And, then make it, even simpler and remove more clutter. “]
Does your website make your visitors feel like they are achieving their goals? I’m sorry to share this news, but the design isn’t about what you want, it is about customers’ needs and feelings. Success will come when you align what your prospect needs to solve their problem with your intended business objectives.
Is your site missing these five critical elements?
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Photo Credit: Flickr CC Pink Sherbert Studio
Does your website deliver on all five of these five mandatory requirements? Need some marketing advice? Let’s connect.
