There has been enough emphasis laid on the fact that the website should be designed keeping in mind the likes and dislikes of potential customers. And this stress is not in vain.
Every customer has individual taste and would like the designer to imbibe that in the site as the website are nothing but a reflection of the customer’s personality. Therefore it is important to please the customer as it is only happy customers that get you more customers.
Having said that, it is not the website owner who is the end customer but actually the customer who will be buying from the site and it is their needs that should be catered to. Sadly most website owners are unmindful of this fact and would want the designer to design a site according to the site owner’s taste. The only focus of the website owner is to make money from the site and not really please the customer. This is one major reason why most websites fail after the initial takeoff. The website owners need to heed to the advice of the designer who is generally well versed with the preferences of the browser or end-user.
|
To design a successful site, define the following first:
1. What is the main purpose of the website?
2. Who is the target audience”
3. What is the goal of the website owner? and
4. What is the kind of content to be put on the site?
Once the above have been defined, get working on some more intricacies of the site
· Try and have a simple design that is consistent all through the site
· The design should be compatible to different browsers i.e., Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome etc
· The site should be quick loading and have an easy navigation menu
· And the penultimate – add relevant fresh content to the site regularly
|
Sales Letter
There is little doubt that the intent of your website is to sell and hence a sales letter is a must. Let your main page act as your sales pitch. Give your customers a strong message about your site and product and service with a keyword rich title, an introductory paragraph that is short but to the point.
You will need to make the sales letter interesting by adding variety to it. For instance explain the USP (Unique Selling Point) of your product or service, why you are special and why the customer should do business with you. Add credibility to your site through verifiable testimonials. Provide value added services like bonus or free gifts or trial offers.
Close the sale by prompting them to take immediate action – have clickable links like Order Now or Request a Quote or Sign Up.
Despite the best sales gimmick selling to the customer at the first instance is generally impossible. Hence have a mailing list designed into your site. Tell the designer to include a mailing list script wherein visitors can subscribe to your newsletters, update, new arrivals or similar things. This will help you grab vital information of the visitor who you can get in touch with regularly. When the customer reads quality information from your newsletters they will extend a relationship of trust and trust will eventually lead to sale
Increase your site’s visibility
Having successfully launched your website, get a professional to submit it to popular search engines (do not limit to the top ones only like Google, and Yahoo, submit to as many as you can). Refrain from spending too much on increasing your page ranking like through search engine optimization and other stuff, if your site is good you will eventually get there.
Advertise about your site outside the World Wide Web too like through business cards, word of mouth, paper classifieds etc. When people come across the name of your site time and again, they will have a natural curiosity to explore your site. And more visitors will mean better conversion rate to customers
There has been enough emphasis laid on the fact that the website should be designed keeping in mind the likes and dislikes of potential customers. And this stress is not in vain.
Every customer has individual taste and would like the designer to imbibe that in the site as the website are nothing but a reflection of the customer’s personality. Therefore it is important to please the customer as it is only happy customers that get you more customers.
Having said that, it is not the website owner who is the end customer but actually the customer who will be buying from the site and it is their needs that should be catered to. Sadly most website owners are unmindful of this fact and would want the designer to design a site according to the site owner’s taste. The only focus of the website owner is to make money from the site and not really please the customer. This is one major reason why most websites fail after the initial takeoff. The website owners need to heed to the advice of the designer who is generally well versed with the preferences of the browser or end-user.
To design a successful site, define the following first:
1. What is the main purpose of the website?
2. Who is the target audience”
3. What is the goal of the website owner? and
4. What is the kind of content to be put on the site?
Once the above have been defined, get working on some more intricacies of the site
· Try and have a simple design that is consistent all through the site
· The design should be compatible to different browsers i.e., Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome etc
· The site should be quick loading and have an easy navigation menu
· And the penultimate – add relevant fresh content to the site regularly
Sales Letter
There is little doubt that the intent of your website is to sell and hence a sales letter is a must. Let your main page act as your sales pitch. Give your customers a strong message about your site and product and service with a keyword rich title, an introductory paragraph that is short but to the point.
You will need to make the sales letter interesting by adding variety to it. For instance explain the USP (Unique Selling Point) of your product or service, why you are special and why the customer should do business with you. Add credibility to your site through verifiable testimonials. Provide value added services like bonus or free gifts or trial offers.
Close the sale by prompting them to take immediate action – have clickable links like Order Now or Request a Quote or Sign Up.
Despite the best sales gimmick selling to the customer at the first instance is generally impossible. Hence have a mailing list designed into your site. Tell the designer to include a mailing list script wherein visitors can subscribe to your newsletters, update, new arrivals or similar things. This will help you grab vital information of the visitor who you can get in touch with regularly. When the customer reads quality information from your newsletters they will extend a relationship of trust and trust will eventually lead to sale
Increase your site’s visibility
Having successfully launched your website, get a professional to submit it to popular search engines (do not limit to the top ones only like Google, and Yahoo, submit to as many as you can). Refrain from spending too much on increasing your page ranking like through search engine optimization and other stuff, if your site is good you will eventually get there.
Advertise about your site outside the World Wide Web too like through business cards, word of mouth, paper classifieds etc. When people come across the name of your site time and again, they will have a natural curiosity to explore your site. And more visitors will mean better conversion rate to customers.
