Your Website is Impacting Your Bottom Line

Sometimes I feel like I am preaching to choir and everyone already knows that a website is a necessity, but I’ve been wrong.

Many small businesses still do not see the potential advantages that a website can offer. To that end, some business that have had a website for some time, have found out how easy it is to lose sight of why they have a website in the first place.

Over the past decade, businesses have been moving away from traditional marketing and opting to spend their advertising dollars online. This is partly due to the increased popularity of social media and the potential to reach more customers quickly. Another major factor in this migration is that online marketing is easier to measure and it’s more affordable.

Your website should be the foundation of your online marketing campaign and should be the home base for which all other marketing efforts should lead.

Why do I need a website?

You can bet that anyone that is interested in doing business with you will check out your website first. Having a website that is easy to navigate and has a pleasant design is essential to retaining visitors. On the flips side, a poor design or neglected website can do significant damage to your brand and sales.

The goal of your website should be to make an impression, but not a negative impression.

The number one reason to invest in a website is to educate your visitors by providing valuable information. By doing so, they can make an informed decision about your products or services and entice them do business with you. It also puts you in a place of authority that garners respect from those looking for information.

Is a website really that important?

Small business and startups tend to cut corners when it comes to their online presence and this is because they do not fully understand how important a website is for customer relations. The general mindset is to have a website just for the sake of having one.

There are not many things a business can invest in that has a higher potential return on investment than a well-designed and informative website.

Here are some more convincing stats:

• 52 percent of small business owners do not have a website (Yodle)
• Average annual revenue of small business: $3.6 million (Entrepreneur)
• Average annual revenue of small business with website: $5.03 million (Entrepreneur)
• 70 percent of U.S. households now use the Internet when shopping locally for products and services (The Kelsey Group; ConStat).
• 66 percent of small businesses are maintaining or increasing spend on digital marketing (AT&T Small Business Technology Poll 2013)
• 84 percent of people say that the biggest difference in small businesses between now and 5 years ago is the use of more online marketing tools (Constant Contact)

Tip: WordPress and low cost hosting has made it easier and more affordable that ever to get your business online, no excuses.

Is the design important?

Although, the old saying is still true that you get what you pay for, this doesn’t mean you have to hire the most expensive web design firm.

When you decide that time is right for your organization to dive in and budget for a website, look for a designer with an eye for design as well as, search engine optimization (SEO) skills, social media marketing knowledge and a true desire to manage the project from start to finish. Good web design incorporates all of the aspects of design including, functionality, colors, fonts, graphics, and most important, content.

Although, over the course of time developing websites, I have noticed that even a poorly designed niche website with valuable content can still rank well in the search engines.

Your website represents your company and your product and first impressions are crucial in capturing and retaining interest. You have about five to ten seconds to seize the day and make an impact and immediately convey to your visitors the purpose of your site.

The last thing you want your visitors to do is draw assumptions because you failed to identify your purpose. In addition, poor design and navigation has made finding information on your site difficult. By allowing them to draw assumptions, and usually incorrect assumptions, you are missing a prime opportunity to educate them and keep them coming back.

Conclusion

In the information age, news travels fast and with the increasing popularity of social media, you cannot afford for that news to be bad. Having a poorly designed website can be more damaging than not having a website at all, so if you are going to have a presence on the web, make sure it is the best it can be.

Remember, the number one goal of an online marketing campaign is to convert your visitors to lifelong customers.

Design Tips – Stop:

• Using frames
• Requiring visitors to download plug-ins
• Forcing users to scroll sideways
• Plastering your site full of banners
• Playing background music
• Embedding a “auto play” video
• Using pop-up windows
• Using obscure fonts
• Using hard to read text that too close to the background color
• Implementing a hard to understand navigation system
• Testing newly learned code or features on your visitors