Biz Tips: Websites that sell
Seven keys to an effective and profitable web presence
By Peter Koeppel
Gone are the days when an online presence was something only for multi-national companies with huge marketing and technology budgets. Today, having a website is a must for any business, no matter how large or small. Without it, your business is like a storefront with a perpetual "closed" sign: People may know of you, but they lack an easy way to buy from you, or to get more information about what you do.
Even if you currently have a website for your company, have you analyzed it lately? Have you looked at it from today’s perspective of web design? Have you thought about your website from the perspective of your current customers or clients? For many businesses, the answer is "no." They may have created a website several years ago, but have made few changes, if any, since.
Here are seven tips you can follow to guide your website into a more dynamic – and profitable – digital storefront for your business.
1. Whether you’re designing a site from scratch or revising an existing site, you must first have a thorough understanding of the business, product, or service your website is going to promote or sell. A good starting point is to research your competition and see what their sites look like. Find what you like or dislike. While you don’t want to copy your competitor’s website, you can get pointers based on their designs.
2. Make sure your website appeals visually to the target customer you have in mind. Unless you’re targeting a very young demographic, cool graphics and flash animation can turn off a lot of customers. And avoid clutter – it can overwhelm or confuse people – but don’t leave too much empty space either. It can make you appear as if you have nothing meaningful to say.
3. Give your website a consistent look throughout. If your home page is red and has a navigation bar across the top, then every other page must match that style. Designing each page differently confuses people. Other ways to ensure a consistent look include using the same font, graphic elements, color scheme, and layout.
4. Design your site so it’s easy to read. If you’re targeting seniors, make the font larger than if you were targeting teenagers. Use bullet points and lots of short paragraphs to break up the text. Additionally, keep the length of the text in your main message to one screen shot. Having a page that rambles on forever makes your site appear complicated.
5. Usability is more important than aesthetics, so if your website looks great but fails to convert prospects into buyers, then it’s ineffective. Blend your message and the technology used to deliver it seamlessly. When your target consumers can effortlessly interact with the site, they will have a better feeling about your product, service, or brand, which will lead to a higher conversion rate.
6. Your website’s main goal is to make sales out of prospects. You need to give visitors to your site a satisfying experience, which means having the technology that makes the site secure so that people feel comfortable shopping there and giving out their credit card. Your site should be entertaining, but you don’t want people to be too distracted from the goal of learning more about your company or buying your product.
7. Work with a web designer who can analyze your site’s performance and analyze its results to improve the conversion-to-sales ratio. Remember, your website should not be a static type of marketing tool. You need to constantly review and update it so you can improve it over time. The most successful Internet marketers frequently update their site to make it more usable.
Peter Koeppel is founder and president of Koeppel Direct, a firm specializing in direct response media buying, marketing, campaign management and creative strategies. His own company’s website can be found at www.koeppeldirect.com
WBJ Web Partners
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