Web Design:
Your website is your company’s main web property online. It is where you house all of the information about your company, your products and services. It may not be the first point of contact for your consumers (they are likely hitting your targeted search engine marketing campaigns, landing pages and social profiles first). But it is definitely where your consumers end up validating your industry expertise and brand credibility. Which means it is important that your site is visually appealing, optimized for conversion and content-rich.
Start by making a great first impression
We all know how important first impressions are when it comes to person-to-person interactions. Similarly, your online interactions (specifically your website) will also result in critical first impressions, on many occasions causing you to either win or lose you a sale. The difference is that online the time you have to make a great first impression is quite short. Consumers will generally give your website 8 seconds of their valuable time to help them decide if this is where they want to continue learning about the product or service they are looking for. This means your website not only needs to be visually appealing, but it needs to be informative enough to help them determine in those short 8 seconds that your website is providing them the details they were searching for. A visually impactful site might be the determining factor of converting a mere visitor into a lead, and a lead into a customer.
Here are just a couple of things you want to consider when designing a website that you want to appeal your target audience:
- Don’t overuse flash or animated images – Elements like flash can take an ordinary website to something very visually appealing and innovative. But if you overuse these elements, you may make your website too distracting and ultimately do more harm than good.
- Find the right balance between graphics and text – Use images and graphics to make your site visual and help you tell the story, but be sure to include text on your home page that will help your visitors (and the search engines) understand what your company is about.
- Ensure your call-to-action is above the fold - Buying or reserving information should be prominent and above the fold (book now, checkout, shopping cart, etc) so your visitors can find it easily.
We have all heard time and again, consumers will often judge a book by its cover and you cannot risk losing potential customers because your site fails to attract and tell them what they need to know quickly. Content and design go hand-in-hand, so take the necessary steps to use your design to attract visitors to your content. WSI Digital Marketing Consultants are well versed in website design best practices, so be sure to contact your local Digital Marketing Consultant today to help your website achieve its full potential.
- 72% of marketers surveyed say they use Email as their primary tool to create a personalized experience for their consumers.
Source: eMarketer, 2011 - 68% of marketers still don't fully understand what conversations are happening around their brand online
Source: eMarketer, 2011 - Local businesses make up 17.6% of Facebook fan pages (the largest group across page categories). Source: eMarketer, 2011
- Worldwide social network ad spending is projected to rise 71.6% to $5.97 billion in 2011.
Source: eMarketer, 2011
