Looking at the websites of some of your larger competitors with deep pockets, you might be wondering how you can show as well as they do on the internet. Fortunately, there are a number of simple tricks you can employ to get more from your small business website. With these ideas, plus free design templates and reasonable hosting prices available, you can easily claim an outsized digital presence.
Emphasize Quality Over Quantity
Yes, the content of your site is indeed important to getting your story told. However, the functioning of your site plays a significant role as well. Focus your efforts upon building a high quality site with just the essential information, rather than a mediocre site with everything anyone could ever want to know about you. Your goal should be to produce an aesthetically pleasing, informative experience that your customers can access quickly and easily. To this end, you also want to emphasize fast loading times and mobile optimization through responsive design.
Know Your Customer
Step outside of yourself for a moment and consider your website from the customer’s perspective. If you’re too close to be objective, gather a group of people you can trust to be honest with you and ask what they’d want to know about your business. Survey your current customers to find out what they’d like to see you do better. These steps will help you develop an informative site; one capable of generating leads for your business.
Strong Images Speak Volumes
Well-crafted, original photography is a must when it comes to creating favorable impressions. Run pictures big so they serve as major design elements—especially if your product or service lends itself to visual representation. Be creative, think of all of the different ways your services can be depicted in pictures, then photograph the best ones. Video can be an especially useful tool as well. Combining the power of images, graphics and words, video helps you tell your story in a much more compelling fashion.
Bold Calls to Action
It’s helpful to think of your website as a salesperson who is on call 24/7/365. One of the first rules of sales is to “always be closing”. Devise incentives to give leads a reason to complete your registration form, buy your product, or ask for more information. Then, make those incentives key to your robust calls to action. Some ideas:
- “Your Free Consultation is Just One Click Away, Sign Up Now!”
- “First Time Shoppers Get a 20% Discount, Save Now!”
- “Register in the next 15 minutes and Get $100 Off, Do It Now!”
Mobile Matters
As mentioned above, you absolutely want your site’s design to be responsive. In other words, it must adapt to show at its best, regardless of the device being used by the customer. Mobile has supplanted desktop as the platform of choice. Your site must perform well in a mobile environment, or your website will be missed by a broad segment of potential customers.
As for getting that professional look, with design templates like those offered by Yahoo Small Business, a crisp site can now represent you with very little effort on your part. When paired with these simple tricks to get more from your small business website, you will be solidly in the hunt with even your largest competitors. Go ahead, try it now!
