These days almost every business is aware of the importance of having a good professional website. No matter how big your company is or what industry you operate in, a strong digital presence is crucial for success. What people often find less clear, however, is exactly what they should be putting on their website. In some cases, having a bad website is worse than not having a website at all, so it’s well worth taking the time to get yours right. Here are four key features that you should definitely try to include:
1. Basic information
The first step is to make sure that all the important information about your company is on your website. This will vary according to the type of business you run but could be details such as the opening hours and location of a physical store or cafe, prices and other information about the sort of products you sell or services you offer and contact details such as an email address and phone number. This should all be displayed in a clear manner and be easy for people to find – a confusing or unhelpful site is guaranteed to put people off!
2. Calls to action
One aspect to think about with your website is what the purpose of each webpage is and how you can ensure that it’s achieved. Often the answer will come as a ‘call to action’, which means a feature designed to get people to do a specific thing. For example, you might have a box highlighted where visitors can sign up to your email newsletter (which is another digital asset you should definitely have!) or a prominent button encouraging them to make an online donation. Just take care not to go over the top with these, or they won’t be as effective.
3. A blog
Blogs can function as powerful content marketing tools, providing interesting reading material for potential customers and driving traffic to your site in a natural and organic way. The key is to ensure that the articles you post are genuinely entertaining or useful to people in order to generate repeat visitors to your website and demonstrate your company’s expertise in your field. Blog posts can also help to create more interest in your specific products or services, ideally resulting in increased sales. The fact that they can have a more conversational tone compared to text such as product descriptions also humanizes your brand more.
Love it or loathe it, social media can be a wonderful tool for free marketing. It’s a way to engage directly with potential customers and connect with your audience, in addition to showcasing your brand’s unique personality. You don’t need to be on every platform – research which ones are most popular with your demographic and focus your efforts on those. You can always take a look at what other companies similar to yours are doing in order to get some inspiration (and maybe learn what to avoid!). Using high-quality images, posting regularly, and being authentic are some of the key factors to keep in mind when planning your strategy.
