The end goal of a website is to sell. If you’re a nonprofit, the purpose of the website is to “sell” your mission. To complete that goal, you need to design a website that not only promotes your company’s products and services, but also convinces the visitor that they should do business with you instead of your competitors.
Notice the emphasis on design. It’s not just about building a website. These days it’s very easy to find a person or company to build a website. Many of them will use the term “design” in reference to colors and fonts. These are important aspects of a website, but if the order process is too complicated it doesn’t matter what it looks like. If people can’t find a particular page or are confused by your information, they’ll order from your competitors.
We design websites that are not only beautiful, but also functional and fulfill the ultimate goal – selling.
Collaboration, not commission
We can’t be commissioned to just deliver a website. Our process is a collaboration with you. You are involved in every step of designing the website. A design meeting with you and your team will help to understand your business and your processes. We’ll discuss who your customers are, and who you’d like them to be. We’ll review pages that you need (and the ones you don’t!), and make sure that each page is laser focused on the ultimate goal – selling your business. Then we do the work of building an initial prototype. Subsequent meetings will be iterative reviews and improvements to get this to a live website that sells.
Our Design Principles
Here’s are the principles we would use to design your new website, and how we’ve applied them to our own website. As you read through these, consider how they could be applied to your current website.
Think like a customer
Try to put yourself in your customer’s shoes. What would you be trying to accomplish when visiting this site? Would you be able to find what you’re looking for, if you had never visited the site before?
When describing your products and services, try to imagine what someone who is completely new to the market would want to know. How does it benefit them? How is your offering better than the competition’s?
Our application: This website has very few pages. Each page has a very clear title in terms that people would understand, and the wording of each page is very specific towards the title.
Figure out who your visitors are
One of the first questions to ask when designing a website is “who’s going to come to our website?” The answer is absolutely never “everyone.” We need to narrow that down to groups such as parents, kids, business owners, homeowners, pet owners, contractors, resellers, etc. Is your business local or nationwide? It’s ok for your answer to be multiple groups, even if they overlap.
Our application: Our target is business owners. While most of them are in the Southern Tier of New York, we have clients from around the country.
Promote your uniqueness
Figure out what your uniqueness is in the industry. Promote that as much as you can. If you have tons of competition, promote your company more than your products. If you should happen to have a product or service that no one else has, then you can promote that over your company. Be sure to focus on the value to them, which might be completely different than how you think of it.
Our application: This website promotes saving money for businesses through improvements related to technology. Many technology companies exist, but their focus is on IT related concepts. Since our services are different, we promote our services.
A website is a living thing
You can’t just build it and walk away. A website needs maintenance. At least once a year, you should review your site to make sure no outdated information exists – phone numbers, employee names, sales, things marked as “new,” etc. Depending on your business, you may even want your website to change with the calendar. For example, a landscaper may promote yard maintenance in the spring/summer and snow plowing in the winter.
Visitors aren’t experts
Most of your website visitors are uninformed. Speak on their terms, and eliminate as much industry lingo or abbreviations as possible.
Our application: There are no abbreviations used anywhere on this website. Every single time a technology term is mentioned, it is immediately followed with a description.
Show your expertise
Give away information to potential customers to show them that you have a thorough knowledge of your industry. People prefer to work with experts. Informed clients are more likely to purchase higher quality products and add-ons. Website content should generally but informative, but how-tos, frequently asked questions, etc. are specific things you can provide.
Our application: The purpose of this entire page is to show all of the different principles that are applied when we design a website.
Have a message
Overall, your website should promote an idea. Not the idea to buy something from you, but your company’s mission and/or vision statement.
Our application: The message on this site is that we can improve your business by improving the technology at each step. The different pages describe various parts of this process.
Describe your product or service fully
Take the time to put together detailed, descriptive information about your offerings. It may take a while to get this wording right, but it will generate sales (and upsells) in the long run. Be sure to give detailed specifics where applicable.
Our application: Each page on this site is a lengthy description of each of our various services.
Website Organization
Use your homepage to start selling instead of just as a welcome
It’s hard enough to get people to visit your site, and they will lose interest very quickly. Start your sales pitch as soon as you can. List your products & services (or at least some of them) on your homepage.
Our application: The homepage lists the first four pages of our menu, each with an introductory paragraph and a “learn more” button.
Don’t hide everything on a products/services page
The main goal of the website is to promote your business offerings. Why hide them? Put them right out in front where people can see them. Make your different product offerings as menu items so they are easy to find. This will also help improve your search engine score and get more people to your site.
Our application: Each of our product offerings is listed as an item on the site’s navigation menu.
Use descriptive page titles
A one word page title may make sense to you, but using two or three words can really help the visitor connect and be drawn in.
Our application: The title of this page is “websites that sell,” not just “websites.” Notice the difference?
Only put information in one place
Putting things in only once allows for much easier website maintenance and prevents accidentally losing customer confidence. When things are repeated (for example phone number, mailing address, employee names, features about your offerings) and those things are different on different parts of your site, it makes your business look haphazard. Existing clients may be willing to forgive this, but potential new clients will get confused and shy away.
If you do need to repeat things, be sure that the site is built in such a way that it can updated once and it will affect the entire site.
Our application: Under the “Don’t waste your homepage” section above, the phrase “first four pages of our menu” is used rather than list the pages specifically.
Sprinkle your testimonials
A well written testimonial is a great way to convince someone to become a client, but it’s not going to work if they never see it. Would you take the time to go to a testimonials page? Even if you did, would you take the time to read them all? Cherry pick your best testimonials and sprinkle them throughout the site. This way people are more inclined to see them. You can also target testimonials that refer to specific products/services and place them right near the description.
Our application: Testimonials have been chosen that not only have a great message, but also come from prominent businesses. They are woven into the pages for maximum visibility. Case studies of successful projects are included when they are relevant.
Increasing Engagement
Simpler forms means more responses
Nobody likes paperwork. Forms are online paperwork. Don’t use a form to get information, use it as a conversation starter. Ask for contact info and call the person. Not only will you get more responses, but now you have an opportunity for some one-on-one time to build rapport.
Our application: The form on the contact us page is very brief.
Make your website and Facebook page work together
As a general rule, your Facebook page is more your recent activity, and your website is for more in-depth and long term information. Rather than have reviews on both, embed your Facebook reviews on your website. If you have an “ask us a question” kind of page, make sure the responses go to your social media and website.
Our application: Case studies of projects that were highly impactful to clients are posted to our Facebook page and are automatically added to “Client Successes”.
Make connecting easy
It’s difficult to get people to your website, and to get convince them to do business with you. Don’t miss this opportunity. Make it as easy as possible for people to connect with you.
Our application: Every page has a form allowing you to engage with us on how we can improve your business.
What Not To Do
If you have nothing, don’t show it
When adding pages to the site, make sure that you have enough content to fill out a whole page. It looks weird to go to a page that just has one paragraph, or a handful of photos. It makes it look like the site isn’t done and reduces your perceived expertise.
Our application: Every page has enough content to interest visitors.
Don’t do news pages
It’s very rare to find one that isn’t years out of date. Most businesses don’t have frequent enough items that this page stays fresh. Even if they do, it has to be someone’s job to make sure these items get onto the page. If you have a Facebook account, use that for your news style items, and archive them onto the website somewhere if appropriate.
Our application: We don’t have a news page.
You don’t need all those pages
Having dozens of pages just makes whatever the person is looking for harder to find. The general rule in design is “less is more.”
Our application: This website has a minimal number of pages. Various services are grouped together under meaningful headings.
No one cares for your “about us” or employee bio page
No one is going to take the time to read about your ancestry. It doesn’t benefit them to know which old tools your grandfather used or that the business started in a shed.
People just won’t take the time to read bios of your staff. Many employees don’t like having their picture taken anyway.
However, you do want to promote that you’ve been in business for generations or decades as a way of proving your expertise.
Our application: No black and white photos with a story that no one will read.
Don’t show email addresses
As well intentioned as it may be, this just leads to spam. Use a very small (3 question max) form that people can fill out.
Our application: The contact us form asks for as little information as possible.