Your website is your online face to the world. It says who you are and why people should believe you, lending credibility. And it’s just as important as the inside of a brick and mortar store. In other words, your website should convey your brand, be engaging and also be inviting.

But that’s not the only thing you’ll need. Websites have the additional challenge of needing to be easy to use and provide information that’s useful to your audiences.

Why are websites important?

If you’re not convinced you need a website or that your website is important, maybe these statistics will sway you.

• 88% of consumers research on your website before buying a product or service according to Lyfemarketing.
• Most consumers these days use a variety of devices to research products and services — smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops. So, your website needs to be mobile-friendly.
• Websites are convenient for your prospects and customers. They’re available 24/7 on any device … when they need you. We’ve all been in situations where in the middle of the night, we’ve needed someone — such as  plumber or dentist appointment —  first thing in the morning. Checking websites and making contact right away, even electronically, gives us peace of mind that an appointment will be set up.
• Websites are cheaper and more flexible than most marketing. Why? There’s the potential for a higher volume of prospects, through search, to find you. You can also use websites in conjunction with other digital marketing, including email, social media, and online advertising.

 

What should your website have?

You’re convinced you should have a website. Fantastic! But now you’re wondering what you need to convey on your website. Your website should have a range of things on it.

Information about you

Your website should have information about you. It should include who you are, what you do, what you sell (your products and services), a short history about your organization (including why someone should trust you), and who you serve (your customers). Think about it as an opportunity to introduce yourself and connect — your values in how you approach business to your potential customers’ values.

Typically, before people begin to write content for their “about” section or think about their website, they have a customer persona. A customer persona indicates who your ideal customer is. If you’re a financial advisor, they probably need financial assistance or are making a big transition where they need advice. If you’re a real estate agent, your ideal client could be a family who needs a house in your area or retail property for a new business. Whoever you want your client to be — that should be clear on your website — in your images and copy.

Your contact info

Most importantly, your website should have your contact information. Include your phone, email, text, and others ways you want to be reached. You can include a contact form, using a landing page.

Some people also include a physical map for a physical location. That encourages people to drop by. But be careful to only include that information if you want people to drop by.

Some organizations also include their social media presence. But only add it if you monitor it daily and are ready to answer questions in Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.

Landing pages to collect data

Landing pages enable you to collect info about prospects — name, phone number, email address, etc. — so you can continue to market to them. It’s a convenient way for people to get your information.

You can use your website to create those landing pages or a marketing app. Some marketing apps make it easy with drag-and-drop content blocks where no coding is necessary. That means you don’t have to hire a web designer to craft your landing page or collect marketing information. Best of all, if you use a marketing app, such as SwiftAgent, to create your landing page, you’ll get a side benefit of having your contact information already added.

Proof people should trust you

Studies show people want logical and emotional appeal when making purchasing decisions. In fact, studies use two popular characters when making decisions: Homer Simpson or Mr. Spock. Homer is the more emotional side, and — you guessed it — Mr. Spock is the more logical side. Typically, when even the most informed consumers make decisions, they channel both.

And that speaks to how you have to give both qualitative and quantitative information indicating how you’ve helped others. Include the following ratings, customer reviews, testimonials, quotes, awards, and other data (such as money saved, objectives met, etc.).

Qualitative

Provide customer stories of what life was like before you — difficult, less fulfilling, money and time wasted, etc. Then show them the turnaround — what life is like after using your products and services — easy, happy, saving money and time, etc. Include pull-out quotes and even videos and pictures of your very happy customers.

Quantitative

To appeal to those highly logical “Mr. Spock’s” or the Spock in all of us, give data. How much did you save? How much time did you save? What was the return on investment (ROI)? How many customers do you have? How many people have you helped?

In other words, look for the data behind the stories and pull those out. Of course, you can pick the data you’re most proud of and highlight it.

Ratings can be a form of quantitative data. For example, if Yelp users consistently give you five stars, then you’ll want to post that on your site.

Prices

Listing pricing is controversial. But … people want to know how much your products or services cost. It’s part of the decision-making process. Some businesses hide pricing hoping someone will contact them. But doing so is a risk for a variety of reasons including taking yourself out of consideration.

Consider your brand and values. If you’re about transparency and being upfront, provide your pricing. If you’re afraid it’s too much, before you add pricing look around at what’s competitive. If your pricing doesn’t stack up, consider revising it to something that’s more competitive.

General helpful information

To keep people on your website, provide meaningful content to your audience. That helpful information — your content strategy — can include events, classes, ideas, templates, eBooks, infographics, and more. The more helpful that information is, the better chance you have people will stay on your website or come back again.

It’s about building brand awareness to get leads and to acquire customers.

A good content strategy includes SEO — search engine optimization — the keywords people use to search for your products and services. Use SEO tools (from Moz to SEO Centro) as well as free tools (such as Google Search Console, previously known as the Google Webmaster Tools) to help. View Search Console, under Performance, and see the words people are using to get to your website.

Ways to engage

And that helpful information can include asking them to sign up for things — classes, events, newsletters, contacting you, downloading something, requesting a discount, getting an hour of free services or a free trial, and more. It’s just one more reason to have a good and easy to create landing page.

Websites are worth doing right

Lots of website software is available these days — Weebly, WordPress, Wix, and others. Some come with free trials and are relatively inexpensive. So you may not have to hire a web designer and developer. There are even free programs to help you with imagery if you lack some for your organization.

Testing still matters, though. Ask friends to review your site and ensure they find it easy to get around. Provide a series of tasks using these usability tips.

And for those who can’t get an entire site built, you can use landing pages to help your customers get around. Heartland Institute of Financial Education, in fact, uses SwiftAgent to help people navigate a series of webpages.