Connect
1. Build Authority
You are the expert in your niche so share your knowledge and you will attract clients. Always have your best content on your website, not on social media. The purpose of social media is to bring people to your website, not the other way around. Considering your website houses your quality content, you want to make sure it has the best chance of converting those visitors into action takers so make sure you follow these design principles below…
2. Design for your target market
A website that gets results starts with a designer that understands the needs of the client, plus the needs of the end user. Here are a few key questions that your designer should ask you before even starting your website design:
- Who is your target audience?
- What is their age, gender, what is their job title, role, socioeconomic status and defining characteristic? What are they searching for?
- What does their brand stand for?
- What their offers are and what’s working in their business currently?
- What they like and dislike in a design?
- What feelings do you want the design to evoke?
- What results are you aiming for?
- Who are your competitors?
3. Layout & Hierarchy
Say you send in traffic from social media to an individual blog post or podcast post etc, sure the content is the most important thing on there page, but you also want to make sure that the page has your logo branding (top left and your best converting offer above the fold, meaning either near the top navigation, or on a side side bar more prominently near the top of the page).
The best converting side bar is a floating side bar offer. As you scroll down a page it will stay static at the side of the page.
Studies show that a left hand side bar today is better than right hand side and that’s because we read pages in the shape of the letter F.
Have an offer within your blog post. Try not to cram too much information above the fold. Prospects will be more than happy to scroll down the page if you capture their attention first and have an offer that they’re interested in then you can have more info below.
4. Color
Use colour that evokes the right emotion for your target audience that reflect your business.
Big brands choose specifif colours because it’s a refection of what their brand stands for. For instance:
- Cadbury, Halmark = Purple (Luxury, Sophistication.)
- Coke, Ferrari = Red (Energy, courage, strength)
- Fanta, Nickelodeon = Orange (Fun, playful)
- Facebook, American Express = Blue (Trustworthy)
- Greenpeace, BP = Green (Natural, Earthy, Friendly)
- Apple, Mercedes, Rolex = Silver, Black (Neutral, Calm, Classy)
- Use a limited colour palette so that it’s more memorable
Keep the focus on the ‘call to action’ by having that in a contrast colour to the rest of the site and have clear space arena the CTA so it stands out more.
5. Images
Use images that are relevant to your target market. Use large images where possible for maximum impact.
Try not to use cheesy stock images – So try to avoid being like everybody else and avoid cliche images like business people shaking hands.
Be unique – especially in your blog posts feature images that you share on social media.
If you’re building a personal brand invest in a professional photoshoot and get some photos of yourself that represent you and your personality.
6. Clear space
Keep your web pages clean and free of too many offers and clutter.
Really try to simplify each page and delete anything that’s not relevant to that page.
Use a lot of clear space around your offers. This actually draws more attention to your offer.
You want your visitors to be able to work out what your web page is all about within a few seconds. if they can’t work it there’s a high chance that they will leave your site and won’t return. So make it easy for them!!
Also if they leave your site without browsing that means their bouncing off your site, and Google will think that your site isn’t relevant and will push your site further down the organic search list, because your bounce rate has increased.
how to design a client-oriented website – infographic
7. Copywriting
Use a professional copywriter for the headlines and copy throughout, because they will make it all about the benefits for your prospects. Where as when business owners write their own copy they will often make it about themselves.
8. Social Proof & Credibility
Social proof and credibility elements are essential in every web page. it’s more believable when you have others speak about your business on your behalf. Social proof can be in the form of videos, images or written.
Case studies are the strongest form of social proof especially when they show results that your business has helped them achieve.
You can use large numbers, like amount of customers, amount of jobs completed this month, etc.
Have credibility elements on the page above the fold, this could be icons of your client’s business logo or places you have been featured in or as seen in etc. These icons should be shown in a feint opacity so that they don’t compete with your ‘call to action’.
9. Sales Funnel:
As you know the main purpose of a website should be to build TRUST so it’s vital to have a sales funnel. Use your quality content to lead prospects to a FREE give away or SURVEY in return for their contact details.
A lead magnet can be placed wither across the top of the page above the top navigation, it can be in blog posts, or on a side bar, or even in the footer, or it can be triggered by a scrolling action or by people exiting the page.
That should then lead to a thank you page, that then leads people into the next step of your funnel. It’s also good to have a face to camera on that page so people can get to see you and hopefully trust you more.
10. Make it FAST
Today is a time when everything is fast and instant. If your website takes too long to load chances are that your prospects won’t stick around waiting for the page to load.
A recent study shows that a mere 2-second delay will result in a 3.8% reduction of user satisfaction which will ultimately result in revenue loss.
Be sure to design with the tips in this blog post to increase loading speed and also invest in fast website hosting.
Grab the free e-book "How to Write Copy That People AND Search Engines LOVE" so you can keep people on your page and rank highly on Google
If you would like some more information on how to leverage the latest trends for your business, contact Steve at insight.web@insightdesign.com.au or call 08 9381 5900
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