It might seem that in the era of social media, company websites have lost their value. Nothing could be further from the truth. They still constitute a very solid foundation for a presence in the virtual world, and the functions they perform are absolutely crucial in conducting effective business communication.
When CERN employee Tim Berners-Lee launched the first website in 1990, it was nothing like what we see everywhere today – a boring and visually unattractive collection of hypertext documents containing information about the computer on which it was written. Today, looking at it, we can only smile and acknowledge the development that the Internet has undergone from its beginnings to the present.
Currently number of domains registered worldwide is about 350 million, and their thematic cross-section is so wide that it is probably hard to imagine that there are still companies or places that cannot be found in a search engine. I even think that for many people (not only representatives of the younger generations) the fact that something is not available in the online space is only proof that a given thing does not exist in the real world either.
It would be a shame if someone thought that about your business, right?
Key Website Features
Let's assume that someone who could be your customer is looking for a solution to their problem on the Internet, which could obviously be easily solved by your company.
If you don’t have a website at all, it’s simple – the chances of you meeting are simply slim to none. But maybe you have your own website that you created many years ago, it’s not responsive, it’s not very visually appealing, or it contains outdated information. What now? Nothing, because the user will probably leave the page shortly after entering it and go to the next search result.
In both cases, you hand the customer over to your competition. And by default.
➜ Your own website is, above all, a chance to be found by customers.
Even though there has been a lot of talk recently about younger generations preferring to search for information via social media, according to this year's researches 68% of online experiences start with a search engine, and Statistics indicate that Google is still the most popular website. After all, it is through this path that we search for available solutions, check possible offers, and finally make a purchase. And it may be through this path that your potential customer will have their first contact with your company.
To make this happen, take care of the proper positioning of your website. The higher it appears in the search results, the greater the chance that a user will find it. However, this is only the first step to success. It is important that a potential customer does not want to leave your website immediately after entering it.
➜ A website is a business card that is intended to encourage a further relationship with the brand.
Statistics indicate that the average time a user spends on a website (across all industries) is 54 seconds. Of course, these are just statistics and just an average, but the conclusion that follows from this is important – a user who lands on a website is likely to leave it very quickly if it does not meet their expectations.
That is why, when you have a website, you should first take care of:
- website loading time (a user will sooner abandon their visit than wait a minute for the content to load),
- responsiveness (there is nothing worse than a website that does not adapt its layout, element size and functionality to the screen size and type of device on which it is displayed),
- visual aspects (well, in this situation both appearance and first impression are of great importance).
All these elements contribute to building positive impressions, which in turn maintain the desire to continue contacting the company.
➜ This is where a potential client can learn about the company and its full range of services.
The website serves primarily an informational function. It is intended to provide the most comprehensive and at the same time most understandable answers to two basic questions:
- Who are you?
- What do you offer?
This is a unique opportunity to show yourself, your employees, the history of the company, but also to present the services offered so that the customer understands what you do and decides whether this is what they are looking for. To make the process of gaining knowledge easier for them and to further strengthen the positive impressions of being on the site, take care of intuitive navigation - the ease of moving around a new place and the speed of finding the desired information will immediately work to your advantage.
➜ A company website facilitates communication with customers and encourages them to take action.
One of the essential pieces of information about your company that should absolutely always be on your website is your contact details. Depending on your business profile, these can be: phone number, email, and address. You can also make it easier to contact you via chat, contact form, and adding a Google map with directions. Remember to always keep your contact details up to date and easy to find on your website.
In various places on the page you can use CTA (call to action), which is a call to action encouraging some form of contact. These can be buttons such as:
- Contact us
- Call
- Order a free quote
- Contact us
- Order online
- Buy now
- Subscribe to the newsletter
- Download e-book
This type of activity is usually designed to convert visitors into potential customers, which makes the website also a lead generation tool.
➜ A website is a marketing tool that you fully control.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that a company website is the most important tool in marketing activities – it is the one that connects other channels, it connects content scattered across the web into a whole. It is, in a way, your command center, a destination over which you have control.
In addition to building a brand image, presenting services, SEO activities, and generating leads, which we have already mentioned, a website also plays several other marketing roles.
It can be integrated with the company's social media profiles, which allows for more effective marketing campaigns and increased reach. Sharing blog content on social media or placing buttons to share content makes it easier to reach a wider audience.
A company may run affiliate programs on its website, where partners promote products or services in exchange for commissions.
A website can collect data about its visitors that can then be used for remarketing campaigns. This allows you to reach out to people who have visited the site but not made a purchase, reminding them of the offer and encouraging them to come back.
Integrating your website with marketing automation tools (e.g. Mailchimp, HubSpot) allows you to create automated email campaigns, segment your customer base, and manage advertising campaigns.
➜ It's your own analytics tool so you can make changes as needed.
Having your own website gives you access to a treasure trove of knowledge, which is Google Analytics. This tool allows you to analyze traffic statistics on your website and the type of users. Thanks to this, you can learn, among other things:
- how recipients found your site,
- how many users visited the site and during what period,
- what actions did they perform on it,
- how much time they spent on each tab,
- what products they were interested in.
Carefully analyzing the answers to the above questions will allow you to better understand both your potential customers and their needs, so that you can properly match your content and offer to them. This valuable information is also the basis for creating advertising campaigns directed to specific target groups and for the company to undertake specific marketing activities.
A professional website is the key to a successful business
Your own website is nothing more than one of the points of contact between a user and a brand. Its purpose is to accompany the customer on their journey and lead to a purchase, while providing the best possible consumer experience.
For all this to happen, simply having a website is not enough. Regularly updating the information on it, taking care of its appearance, and keeping up with statistics is a completely different matter.
Only such a holistic approach supports your business on many levels, ensuring global reach while not making you dependent on any foreign giant.
Interested in a website audit? Write to us!
- Written by: Paulina Kubala
- Posted on: 4 cze 2024
- Tags: Marketing, website, UX