So, you’ve started your own business; put all your ideas out into the world and now you’re waiting to hit it big time. But, are you seeing the results you were hoping for or has business been slower than expected? Well, if it’s the latter then perhaps you’ve missed something crucial in terms of marketing your business properly in the digital spectrum.
It’s easy to focus on the big picture when developing your business, figuring out what you want your business to offer, how you want to brand it and the audience you want to reach. But, sometimes you can get so caught up in the ‘big picture’ that you glance over minor details that could actually be extremely vital to your businesses success.
To help you stay focused on fully developing your businesses website, we’re going to layout three common mistakes small businesses fall accustom to and show you how to optimize your online strategy in order to hit your target goal:
1. Be Responsive
Having a website doesn’t cut it in today’s world; this is the bare minimum your business will need to survive. But you want to do more than survive, you want to thrive right? Well, you’ll need to develop a website that’s responsive – meaning that whether individuals are viewing your site from their desktop, smartphone, or tablet their experience will be an enjoyable one.
Let’s look at some facts, 94% of users cited that unattractive web designs are the main reason they’ll reject a site altogether and 48% consider it to be the number one factor of determining a business’s credibility. Additionally, 40% of users will abandon a web page that takes longer than three seconds to load and 38% will stop engaging with a site that has an unattractive layout. So, if you’re looking to bring your business to the top then you’ll have to follow the steps of some of the best website designs and develop a responsive website in order to provide a seamless UX.
Take a look at Kona Brewing Co., their website responds effortlessly regardless of the medium that is being used. There’s no need to pinch the screen or scroll horizontally, it simply morphs to fit whichever screen it appears on. This allows visitors to browse their website easily and mitigates abandonment due to design flaws.
2. Easy To Read And Click Contact Information
The main reason businesses develop websites is to further their reach and ultimately gain additional clientele. Therefore, make it easy for visitors to contact you; they shouldn’t have to sift through 6 tabs of your website to find your phone number. Your businesses contact information – phone number, address, hours, etc. – should be provided in a streamlined manner that’s easy to find.
Take a look at Laser by Aleya’s home page, immediately your eyes are brought to the businesses phone number in addition to a CTA (call-to-action) button, ‘schedule now.’ The websites goal is to bring in more clientele, so that accessible contact information will allow for minimal effort from the visitor if they want to find out more about the business.
3. Readily Available CTA
Why are you developing a website for your small business? Do you want visitors to book an appointment, request a quote or sign up for your newsletter? Then lead them to this desired action. Depending on your main conversion goal, there should be appropriate calls-to-action throughout your website. Some websites get caught up in conveying who they are, what they offer and why they’re the best in the industry but they end up leaving the consumers’ needs in the shadows.
Your website should be able to direct users to the next step that should be taken once they have arrived. Take Ahdroot Oriental Rugs for example, they have CTA buttons driving users to contact them throughout their websites in addition to contact forms that can easily be reached and filled out from each page they’re browsing. This allows for users to immediately be able to get further information on the business without any hassle of browsing the website any more than they need to.
Keep these three elements in mind when developing your small businesses website to ensure that you don’t miss the mark in terms of marketing to your target audience online. Consumers have high expectations when visiting a website so deliver a seamless UX, accessible contact information and CTAs throughout your website. Providing these features will lead to increased conversions and overall better brand loyalty.
To explore some examples of the best website designs out there, check out Design Rush, and for more on small business online marketing tactics visit Blue Fountain Media.
[“Source-huffingtonpost”]
