Your Website’s Purpose
Whether you are building a new website or redesigning an existing website you want it to achieve your business objectives. Four things you need to understand before designing your website:
- Your website’s purpose
- Mobile friendly options
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Simple + engaging = effective
The best designed websites are engaging, mobile friendly, professionally designed and search engine optimization focused. But before you begin the how-to-design-your-website process, you must understand your website’s purpose.
Meeting Your Objectives
Your website has the potential to be more than just your business’ online presence. Your website should get visitors to do something. That something depends on your business objectives and can include buying a product or service, leading visitors towards buying a product or service, educating visitors or providing a customer service experience.
It doesn’t matter how many people visit your website if they aren’t taking action or doing something, your website is nothing more than a costly, ineffective advertisement. The purpose of your website could be one or more of the following:
- Sales
- Lead Nurturing
- Brand/Online Reputation
- Customer Support
As we explore each of these further, think about your business and what you want visitors to do when they visit your website.
Sales
If you sell a product or service online then your website’s purpose is sales. Whether you are selling merchandise, music, software or memberships your website must facilitate the purchase process for your customers and optimize sales for you. The best website design results in online conversions meaning visitors take the action you want – they do something.
Competition in the retail world is fierce. In-store and e-commerce retailers must try to differentiate themselves from the masses by providing an engaging, unique, emotionally rewarding shopping experience for their customers. The best designed websites provide an optimal shopping experience turning visitors into loyal customers and maximizing sales opportunities.
Lead Nurturing
Lead nurturing is the process of helping people through the buying process.
The buying process looks different based on the product or service you are selling. For example, when buying a white t-shirt you look for the right size, style, fabric and price. When buying a laptop you consider the size, portability, platform, specifications, battery life, warranty, etc. And you will likely do a lot of research and read customer reviews before purchasing a laptop.
A website focused on lead nurturing assists visitors in the buying process by providing information and resources regarding your product or service. This includes specifications, product comparisons, customer reviews, how to videos – anything that engages a potential customer, answers their questions and leads them to purchasing in-store or at an e-commerce site.
The decision to purchase a laptop could involve several return visits to a website to verify and compare information. Your website must capture these leads. This is the contact information of visitors considering your product or service – your prospective customers. Capturing and nurturing leads allows you to remain front and centre throughout the buying process.
Options for capturing leads:
- Sign up to receive offers and promotions
- Subscribe to newsletter
- Contact Us form
- Email address for a free download
Brand/Online Reputation
The purpose of many websites is to impact the company’s reputation but developing their online reputation or brand. Visitors gain trust in a company when they see the professionalism of the website’s presentation, quality content, profiles of the firm/executives, etc.
Your brand and online reputation can also be increased by building awareness and trust through the content you produce or share. This includes articles, blogs, videos and whitepapers related to your market segment and the products or services you sell. If your website becomes a trusted resource, this further enhances your online reputation and could impact your rankings on Google and increase the number of visitors to your website.
Customer Support
If you provide customer service, your website is a great way to decrease costs and increase customer satisfaction. You can provide customer support for very little cost. Things you many want to provide include:
- product information
- manuals
- trouble shooting guides
- online technical support
The best website design for customer support is one that allows a visitor to easily locate and navigate the exact information they need. A fast response website is equally important as visitors will abandon their search and move onto the next website if it takes too long.
There are many factors to consider when building or redesigning a website. Find a web company that specializes in website design, online conversions, professional search engine optimization services, graphic design and online marketing strategies and you are one step closer to getting the website that is exactly what you need. But remember, you must start by determining the purpose of your website. Are you all about sales, lead nurturing, education or customer support?
The Story Web Design & Marketing is focused on helping companies to succeed in online marketing. Please contact us for a free consultation at 647-723-7046 or trevor@thestorywebsites.com.
Related Articles
This is the first of five articles on how to design an effective website. Here are all of the articles:
- Your Website’s Purpose
- Mobile Friendly
- Increasing WebSite Visitors
- Simple + Engaging = Effective
- The Checklist
Resources
If you want to learn more about your website’s purpose and how to design a website, check out the following links:
Elure – What is the Purpose of a Website
Fusion Farm – What is the Purpose of Your Website
Web Marketing Today – What is the Purpose of Your Website
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