These days, everyone you want to
do business with will check out your website.
Your website is the foundation of
all your outbound marketing and your brand building efforts. Your great website
design enables potential customers to find, understand and remember your
business.
However, this will happen only if
your website is professionally designed from the ground up or it will just
another bad site that, (if you are lucky no one will find, or take notice of
even when they do get there!) will put off more of those hard-earned prospects
than it converts.
It’s tempting when money is
tight, such in as the current environment, to be tempted by the idea of saving
money by opting for a one of those cheap offers; you know; "get your own
website for just INR 4,999 a month - 100s of superb templates that work".
So, what are the key attributes
that will make your website stand-out and grab the attention of valuable
potential clients? It's vital that your website design is attractive,
impactful, interesting and professional. If your website doesn't look good and
hold attention, no one will bother to want to know more about your business
And to be really effective and
hold people’s attention, your website must be designed to must convey the
essentials of your business proposition clearly - and in your customers' terms
- not yours (more on this later!). And quickly - you have 10 seconds to make an
impact.
Now, what if your website design fails to achieve all this?
FACT 1 - A badly designed Website will distort your Brand Image
It’s crucial to your business
growth that the way that visitors to your site perceive you the way you want
them to perceive you. A badly designed website will misrepresent your business
and will destroy your brand image. If visitors are unable to find out what your
business represents through your website, then they will make all sorts of
assumptions. You want them to be absolutely clear about what you do and why
they should pick you.
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| Example: Bad Website Design |
FACT 2 - Bad Website Design Will Have a Negative Impact on Your Business
No one wants to convey the wrong
message through their website deliberately. But, if your website accidentally
conveys a wrong or negative message then it may actually make people dislike
you and your brand and you may never be able to recover from this. It’s hard to
change perceptions and one of the great things about the web and social media
is that word spreads fast - remember that this can work against you as well!
FACT 3 - A Bad Website will slowly and silently Damage your Business
If sales are not meeting target,
often businesses will spend time and resource trying to treat the symptoms, but
actually fail to realize that it's their brand image which is fundamentally
causing them trouble. These days your brand image is mostly recognized through
your website and these businesses continue to use a poorly designed website and
continue to scratch their head as to why all their efforts seem to be
ineffectual. This will cause significant damage to your business, but is fact
that a lot of businesses still soldier on with a badly designed site and talk
themselves into believing that its good enough and anyway a top website will
cost a lot of money.
FACT 4 - Cheap Website Design will actually Cost you more
Small and Medium sized business,
especially startups, tend to try and save money by investing the minimum they
can get away with on marketing. There is then a great temptation to either do
it themselves (it’s pretty easy if you have basic IT skills) get a friend to do
it, or they hire a cheap designer.
If they are smart they will eventually realize that their website is not helping move the business forwards, because it doesn't look professional. So, they again search for another designer. However, this time they hire an expensive designer, believing that the more you pay the better result you will get. This is no guarantee for success; there are some great graphic designers out who do not understand website design is not the same as good graphic design.
If they are smart and lucky they
will then find a marketing and design company who can advise about how to
create a website that both looks good and works hard to create a stream of
great pre-qualified prospects to fill the sales funnel.
Doing it themselves or getting
their sister's boyfriend, cat whose previous owner worked in IT to do it or
hiring a cheap website designer in the beginning will actually cost more in the
future.
FACT 5 - A Bad Website will ensure your Marketing Efforts Will Fail
Commonly, after designing a
website, businesses use it as a destination to promote their business via
different means such as literature, direct mail, e-marketing, radio advertising
etc. You will spend a ton of hard earned cash sending all those great prospects
to your site - they will expect to see something professional and will be
disappointed. You will end up wasting hundreds if not thousands of pounds AND
those marketing campaigns targeted to drive traffic to your bad website will
totally backfire and you will continue to ruin your business image.
So Avoid All The Hassle!
As a small or medium sized
business - indeed any sized business; you cannot afford to go through all this.
It can all be very simply avoided by making a your first smart decision i.e.
hire an experienced designer who is a proven website designer who understands
the power of great graphic design, the various technology options for website
development AND who really understands the fundamentals of SEO (search engine optimization)
and SEM (Search Engine Marketing. Be a successful business owner by doing what
you do best and to get genuine specialists to support your activity. Promote
your business effectively if you have website designed from professional website design company and position your business
properly in the market.
About me:
Digital
marketing professional working in Bangalore based full service digital marketing agency, who delight their clients with a complete and bespoke website design
service, strategic marketing, brand development, website design, SEO and SEM.
