How To Use Your Website To Make A Lasting Impression On Your Customers

How To Use Your Website To Make A Lasting Impression On Your Customers

So you run a small business or perhaps you are looking to start one. Want to know one of the best ways to make a lasting impression on your customers? It is not just your logo or your website, its how you use your website that matters.

There are some changes, many times simple ones that can make the world of difference to your customers. We will share some ways you can tweak your current website so that it resonates with your customers.

Ways to use your website to make a lasting impression:

Storytelling – We are not talking about your about page, or even your bio. Truth be told your customers many times never even read those pages. Your story should be transparent as well as compelling. Sharing your company’s story should be weaved throughout your website in a way that it is remembered even if your site is not.

Credibility – A website many times is the first ‘impression’ a customer will have of your business. Making your website visually attractive and professional will go a long way. When your website message is clear and compelling with great content visitors will begin to trust you. Provide content that is relevant to your industry and leverages your expertise will make a lasting impression as you become their go-to resource.

Call to Action – Your customers come to your site for a purpose. With that purpose in mind, it should align with your ask. Your ask should be clear and placed appropriately where they are looking. Your call to action should be in several places on the homepage of your site. Make sure you place your call to action at the top of the page, the middle of the page as well as towards the bottom. Doing so will give your customers different opportunities as well as reminders to take action.

Homepage – Unless you are utilizing landing pages for promotions or lead generation, the most visited page of your site is your homepage. You have only a few seconds to make a lasting impression on your homepage. It needs to be clean, eye-catching. Your homepage should provide relevant information that your customers are looking for. This is your place to really shine and set yourself apart from your competition. You should use your homepage to briefly tell them the solution you are providing that solves their problem.

Make it Easy – No one wants to visit a website that is hard to navigate. Make it confusing or cumbersome and they will never stick around for your compelling message or anything else. Use the navigation menu appropriately and keep it simple. Your customer is looking for information about the products or services that you sell. They are not interested in being bombarded with popups or irrelevant information that does little beyond confuse and irritate the visitor.

Put in the Work – Make your website one that stands out from others. This will entail more time, budget, and effort. Planning the design in an insightful user-friendly way will make a lasting impression. It should be an enjoyable experience for your customers rather than a task. Use the latest in design features, don’t be afraid to adjust, do some A/B testing to see what works. Your website represents you and your brand and you put so much hard work into creating your brand, your website should also represent the same level of work.

Accessibility – Everyone says that ‘everyone is not your client’ right? That does not mean that everyone should not be able to use your website. When you make your website accessible and user-friendly to everyone, you show that your business cares. Even if your customer does not have an accessibility issue, they will take note that you put forth the effort to make the website usable by anyone of any capability.

Interested in learning more about how to use your website to make a lasting impression on your customers? We at HeartWired are happy to discuss ways that you can improve your website and its messaging. Schedule a complimentary discovery session today to discuss. If you are completely happy with your website and its message that is great as well.

Cracking The Web Design Process Code

Cracking The Web Design Process Code

What’s the web design process a web designer goes through when preparing to take on a new client?

If you are curious keep reading for a behind the scenes “sneak peek” of sorts on the process that we follow while meeting with a potential client. One thing I personally love about running a boutique web design agency is the ability to share others’ stories. Stories are at the center of every client and their business or organization. As a web design agency, we follow a creative process that allows us to visually relate that story online.

Research

Knowing your client goes beyond just what they may or may not tell you during their discovery session, not that they are hiding anything but they may not feel it is important. Doing a somewhat deep dive on the client, their customers, social media, and more allow us to better understand who they serve. When someone looks to hire a web designer, they usually think they know what they want before they ever call to set up their consultation. When they get to talking to us the project they thought they wanted many times changes in scope as they share their story.

Client Story

Your story as a client is one that only you can tell. No matter how small of a gesture or reflection back into how you got started, we focus on the nuances behind the story. We spend time researching you and your story long before we sit down to hear you tell it. Stories are shown through the clients you currently serve to the social media posts you share. We know you will be a bit guarded when you meet a stranger for the first time. The more we know about who sits across the table from us, the easier we can put you as well as ourselves at ease.

Ask Questions

Too many designers make assumptions that they know what is best for their clients. We at Heartwired are firm believers that the client knows best, even when they don’t know they know. Some of the questions we ask whether in the form on our website, on the phone, via chat or email may seem simple or silly. However, we have found asking questions gets you comfortable to share the real you. Many times it is in the things you don’t say that we find the most about you and your story.

Listen

When talking with a potential or even current client it is often what they don’t say that matters most. They likely have a frustration point they are looking to solve. Whether it be lack of sales, or traffic or perhaps conversion into sales. They will say things like “the site does not work” or is “not being found”, or they want it to look like their competition. One of the easiest things to change is the website.. or even the designer. Truth is without appropriate planning, marketing, and a strategy it won’t matter how pretty your site is.

A web designers job is to translate their clients’ needs and frustrations into actionable changes that make sense.

Its the small things

Whether it is a change in a page, or the client’s overall approach to their website, many times it is the small things. Small things like the placement of a button, a font adjustment, or color, the things that seem to not really matter actually matter most. When we pay attention to the details, it allows us to hear what they are really saying. Details many times are hidden in the things the clients don’t say. Sometimes that can be while they share their story about their business and why they started in the first place. That glimmer in their eye or the slight welling up of emotions as they share their “why”. It is in those moments that as a designer we can find the heart of their story and how we can help design their story in a way only they can tell. It is in these moments that as the owner of a boutique web design agency like HeartWired, that I truly find the love in what we do. If you would like to learn more about how we are cracking the web design process code at HeartWired we would love to learn about your story. Contact us today to get started in sharing your story.
Give Your Business a Gift that Keeps on Giving

Give Your Business a Gift that Keeps on Giving

With all the hustle and bustle of Christmas and the holiday season, there is one on your list that is always forgotten… Your Business.

We search high and low for the perfect gift for our loved ones and friends. Yet we tend to neglect the one that makes it all possible.

All the hard work, the late nights and long hours go unappreciated. After all of that, not even a Christmas card or Fruitcake is sent. However come the New Year when all the holiday lights dim, it will still be here supporting you and your family.

What better way than to show appreciation than to give your business a gift that keeps on giving.

You might ask what that might be right?

The best gift you can buy your business is a new or renewed website for the new year.

Every day, twenty-four seven it will keep giving back.

Websites provide a portal where your customers or clients can find you any time of day. Whether you have an e-commerce site where they can buy the same or perhaps even different items that you have in your brick and mortar. Or perhaps you offer goods and/or services strictly online. Your business is open for business all day every day when it is online.

People used to use the Yellow Pages to find a business, now they just Google it. What if when they Google, they don’t find you?

Let’s face it – we live in a world where people Google before they shop, visit online review sites like Yelp before they buy and “check-in” via Facebook as they go about their days. – Forbes Magazine

Websites create a level of trust for the customer that your business will have a hard time obtaining without one. People like to “shop around” before they buy, and many of them prefer to window-shop from the comfort of their own home or mobile phone.

So wrap your business a brand new website design or redesign this Christmas and holiday season. A gift they will never return or exchange and one that will keep on giving throughout the New Year.

From all of us at HeartWired Digital Solutions, we wish you and yours a very merry Christmas and blessed Happy New Year in 2018.