One of the most important aspects of running a modern business is making sure that you get your website right. After all, this may be the place that many of your customers are discovering your business for the first.
Of course, the design, navigation and load time are all important, so check out some website templates if you are in the process of building your site. But you also need to ensure that customers can find the information that they are looking for with minimal fuss. In order to do this, you need to work out what customers are trying to find when they are on your site. To give you a helping hand, here are some of the most crucial things that your clients want to know about your company.
What Your Company Offers
If you assume that people are going to decide whether they want to stay on your website or not in a matter of seconds, you need to find a way of conveying who you are and what it is that your company does in a very clear and concise manner. Your home page should have a general description of your products or services, as well as some links to them specifically. If you have the option of buying through your site, you need to give your customers enough information to do this.
Contact Information
You will want to make it as straightforward as possible for your customers to get in contact with you, so make sure that your phone number, email address and physical location are all clearly listed. If you have an instant chat service, you may decide that you want this to pop up from the moment the customer lands on the site. Even home-based businesses need to list their contact information as this is going to help instil a sense of trust amongst your customers and potential customers.
Validation and Reviews
One of the best ways of convincing people to buy from you is detailing the positive experiences of other clients. You can do this through a number of different mediums including testimonials, case studies, awards and any other media recognition that you have received. If you have some big-name clients, you certainly want to shout about this. There is still a lot of power in demonstrating that you have worked with recognised brands. Always make sure that you get the approval of clients before you list anything on your site.
Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
In an age when we hear more and more about data being stolen by hackers, people are becoming more wary about the websites that they use and the details that they are handing over. You can help to give them a sense of reassurance with an SSL certificate. Simply seeing this can play a big role in putting the minds of your customers at ease.
Clear Calls to Action
Customers need to be told on a regular basis what they should be doing next when they are on a website with calls to action. So, you need to make this as easy as possible for them. Signs like ‘buy now’ and ‘sign up to our mailing list’ are short and snappy instructions which are simple to follow. You don’t want to bombard your customers with this information, but you don’t want to leave them on your site not knowing what to do next. Running some website testing can help you out in a big way to check whether your site is easy to use and follow.
Special Offers
People are always looking for ways that they can grab themselves a great deal, and you need to make sure that any special offers that you are running are clear and easy to find. And if you are going to provide a discount or other deal, you should make sure that it is easy to apply or you could find that your customers become frustrated.
How Your Business in Unique
What is it that makes your company so different from all the other ones which are offering similar products and services? Though customers may not be directly looking for this information, you need to make sure that you are giving it to them. This could be the difference between making a sale and not. You should be able to sum up your unique selling point (USP) in a few words or a couple of sentences which you can convey easily.
