Is it Time for a Website Redesign?
At every step of your marketing process, from designing your website to sending out customer newsletters, you need to make your business look like a multi-million dollar company.
Why is this important? Because an image of success and professionalism makes people feel secure.
They feel secure in choosing your company, and they feel secure in handing over their credit card number to purchase your products or services.
Whether your business is well established with several employees, or a one-person operation, your website can look like a fortune 500 company.
In the not so distant past, businesses viewed a website design project as a one-time expense, which generated no ongoing value for the company except for saving on printing costs. They viewed their website as an online brochure.
However, times have changed.
In today’s modern world, your website is the central marketing tool and the most widely viewed advertisement for your business.
The Internet is the new phone book. If your prospective customer does not like what they see on your website, they are unlikely to walk through your door, pick up the phone or order from you on-line.
Your website is an integral part of the “customer experience”. A positive “customer experience” creates loyal customers and customer referrals. The “customer experience” is not just your brand, logo or slogan; it is every interaction your customer has with your company.
“Increasingly bad ‘customer experience’ seems to be a leading indicator of decreasing revenue. We saw this effect at Circuit City, when a new CEO fired every expert sales associate in the organization and hired new, cheaper, inexperienced ones who didn't know what they were doing. Customers left the stores with incorrect information or with their questions unanswered. They went to Best Buy instead.”
- Dustin Curtis, UX Designer
In today’s market place, the companies that will survive will make improvements to the “customer experience” and over time, gain market share because their customers are coming back and recommending their business to their friends. Most customer referrals will look at a company’s website before acting on a friend’s recommendation.
Statistics show that 85% of today’s consumers will consult a company’s website before deciding to contact them. If your website does not engage your customer, communicate your message, and inspire your customer to contact you, then your “customer experience” will suffer and so will your bottom line.
Before your customer reads one word of your website they decide, based on the look and feel of your website, if they are going to read it. Your customer decides within seconds “to read or not to read”.
- The website makes the first impression.
- They will not stay around to learn about what your business can do for them if you do not make a good first impression.
- A well-designed, well thought out site with a clear message is a 24/7 sales person.