Have you recently embarked on a journey to create a start-up? Or have a small to medium business doing so well lately that you’re thinking of creating a website?
That’s great! You are ready to take the next step from establishing your business to telling the world about it. Creating your online footprint.
We know creating a website can be daunting, but before hopping onto a WordPress or Wix theme, you should consider a few things. Yes, these content management systems provide a lot of potential. But will it distinguish you from your competitors? Will your images connect with your audience, and will your text speak to your customer?
The success of creating a website comes down to planning, structure and goals.
Planning your website
- You know what you want, but do you know what your current or potential audience wants?
- Do you know what your current or potential audience looks like?
- Do you know where your target audience is located?
- Do you know exactly what you’re trying to put out there?
These questions are vital, and your approach should be customer-first. Modern users all ask the same question – ‘What’s in for me?’. With every product, service, or system advertised, you should clearly understand how it will solve a problem or eliminate a pain for your audience.
Before structuring your website, you need to think about the navigation. How would users move through your website to find what they’re looking for? What will be the first thing they’d be most interested in, and perhaps, what not?
Your overall website needs to convince your audience to buy, and many elements need to be webbed to achieve this. Your images, content and call-to-action elements will have to create an emotional connection with your users.
Have you analysed your competitors? Specific questions about who your competitors are, where they are located, what they are offering, and what makes you unique compared to them need to be clearly defined.
Structuring your website
When you have all the information from the planning phase, you can only then think about structuring your website. You need to think about the most essential content your users will want to see first. For example, if you have a nail salon, that is most probably what your audience wants to see – pictures of your work!
But pictures alone won’t convince them to choose you instead of the nail salon around the corner. The correct words need to be present to explain exactly what they can expect. An expensive yet personalised experience or a quick in-and-out with maybe a neck massage?
Users want the experience from your website first. Will you be showcasing your nail salon’s atmosphere, the type of products you use, or the additional services? For example, if you’re located in a business area, you’d want to convey that clients could come for a quick in-and-out with enough professional staff assisting during lunch breaks. On the other hand, a much more relaxed environment can be expected if you’re located in a residential area.
Even if you have all the answers to the questions above, how would you convey your message correctly? Planning the content of your website is crucial. For example, will you have a home page with additional pages, or will a one-pager (or brochure-type) website with a gallery (for a nail salon) be sufficient for your small business?
If you have a lot of content, additional pages will probably be the best. Additional pages (or continuous pages as we like to call them) include anything from extra product or service pages, who you are, your qualifications, staff with images to make your audience feel comfortable knowing who they’d be dealing with, and a contact page with all your contact details and location.
There are tools to assist with the planning and structuring, such as Slick Plan, Google Drawing, Google Slides, FreeMind, and Mind Meister, should you want to try this yourself. Start with the free trials or the basic plans to determine which one works best for you. But if you’re someone who tends to go down the rabbit hole with a new tool, we suggest good old pen and paper.
Another critical aspect to consider is how quickly you want to go to market? Do you want everything about your business to go live at once, or are you eager to go live with the minimum viable product (MVP)? Meaning not every bell and whistle, but instead of the core to start gaining traffic and get feedback from your users through analytics and build from there. If your website might be content-heavy, we suggest the latter because there are dangers in receiving feedback that you weren’t hoping for.
Your website goals
This brings us to the last, but not least, important aspect to consider when creating a website – your goals for your website. There are various website goals, including:
- Enhancing brand awareness among your audience
- Increasing overall website traffic
- Improving ranking for important keywords
- Improving on-site user experience (UX)
- Lowering the bounce rate
- Increasing the average number of pages visited by each user
- Increasing email subscribers
- Improving conversion rates
- Generating more qualified leads
- Generating more sales
Once you have a clear understanding of your website goals, you’ll be able to determine what needs to be done to reach your SMART goals, such as keeping your site running with regular updates.
In the old days, when you had a website, the likelihood for your website to be found was pretty good. But now, with competitors being so plenty, marketing is needed, especially where your target audience is. For example, if you’re a nail salon, they are probably on Instagram. But if you offer accounting services, they might be on LinkedIn or Twitter, where the business-to-business (B2B) marketing happens. Choosing the channel also depends on the age range. If you’re targeting youngsters, you won’t find them on Facebook but instead on TikTok.
There are various other factors to consider, but social media is a good medium because people can refer you, which is crucial because the modern audiences purchase primarily based on their peers’ experiences.
If you can’t afford an agency and want to do it yourself. It’s not impossible. But we can’t express the fact more that understanding the problem you’re trying to solve and who will be the most likely (primary and secondary) to purchase from you is the starting point.
If you need assistance in creating a website, reach out to us. We’ll set up some time with you for a detailed discovery process to understand your business and advise on the best way for marketing. Who knows, with all the questions we ask, you might just end up with another product or service in mind to add to your offering…
Best of luck,
Ribbit.