| Getting the most from your website |
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| If you started your small business a while back, you most probably did not start with a website. But as your business grew, you decided to get a website. Not many business owners articulate why they need a website or a good website design. Many business owners we have spoken to, created their small business website because they felt every credible business ought to have a website. A good website design proves crucial. |
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| Here are the steps that we would urge you to take to get most from your small business website. |
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| Step1: Define the objectives of the website |
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| Articulating the objectives of your website is really helpful in getting the most from it. Write down the specific objectives you want your small business website to contain. Be specific. Think of your new and existing customers. |
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| Your objectives may be as specific as: |
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Getting one hundred qualified leads a month. |
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Reducing calls to the office from existing customer by 30%. |
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| Step 2: Translate your objectives into customer actions |
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| If you are a doctor who wants to reduce calls to the office, first understand what the calls are about. They may be around: |
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if you take new patients, and |
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| All these things can be achieved over the web and you could free up your office staff on things that help your practice more long term. |
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| In this case, you need to build a site which will enable the customers to do all above tasks intuitively. Ensure that your website design is focused around this. |
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| Step 3: Also, your website design should be centered on tasks |
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| Make sure you don’t stuff your website with too much information. You want customers to be able to focus. The more you try to do, the more clutter you build. |
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| Step 4: Your small business website design should have a key objective. |
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| Each page should have a key objective. Think to yourself - What purpose does the page serve? Is the information provided really important for the customer to complete a specific action? |
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| Step 5: Be true to your small business brand in your website design |
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| Your website is your face to the world. Are you a luxury provider of the finest objects in your industry? Are you the cheapest provider? People often pay disproportionate emphasis on price. Your website is an opportunity to let people get to know your business. Also, there may be some brand erosion if all your customer can see on your site is "Free". |
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| Step 6: Get customer feedback to improve your small business website |
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| It is called a Usability Study; it does not have to be anything fancy. Just ask few of your target customers to perform the series of tasks that are in line with the key objectives of your website. Get feedback. You’re your website design simple. If you get a report on your site, improve your website and your website design on an ongoing basis than a peripheral activity. Use your website to meet the main objectives of your business and drive to even greater business success. Read more about web marketing for small businesses. |
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