As a business owner in today’s modernized market, not only do you have to maintain the management of your everyday operations, you’re also in charge of marketing and marketing your business across all platforms and mediums in order to gain new clients – especially when it comes to your website. Sure, networking referrals still go a long way, but having a reliable website can really spread awareness of your brand like wildfire. When planning a website, remember that it should promote your skill, trade, products, and services, as well as enhance your credibility, generate new leads, and support a loyal audience base.
It’s important for your website to be unique so that it fully and accurately reflects your business and overall objectives. That’s why, if you’re going to create a new website, you need to take the time to first develop a sound strategy in order to see your desired results. So, let’s take a look at a few tips to keep in mind as you plan your website to ensure that you create with purpose and are able to track results as you move closer to your overall goals.
- Set Website Goals – You already know what your business objectives are, so use that to help develop your website goals. When you’re planning a website, consider what exactly you want your website to accomplish. Do you want your website to generate leads? Establish credibility? Validate your skills or services? Establish your business as a thought leader? Take time to examine the areas in which your business is already successful and where it could use improvement to better evaluate what you want this marketing tool to be able to do for you.
- Focus on Content – Once you have clearly defined goals, it’s time to start thinking about what type of content you want to promote through your website that will ultimately help you meet your business objectives. For instance, if the primary goal of your website is lead generation, then you need to create content that showcases and sells your specific skillset and includes a clear call to action.
- Know Your Audience – What expectations do you have of your audience as you share content? Who is your ideal user, and what do you want them to experience when they visit your website? Do you want them to learn, or how do you want them to take action? Take time to make sure that you fully know your audience, their wants, and needs. Remember, you have to provide something that will pique their interest in a short amount of time and keep them coming back for more.
- Promote Your Value – You already know your overall business objectives, now you have to be able to clearly articulate that and your value to your customer. Your website should clearly and concisely explain what you want them to learn about you, your products, services, award winnings, etc. This is how you gain a competitive edge and stand out. Tell them how you can help and how you’ve already helped other customers.
- Measure Progress – A website isn’t something you can just publish and leave. You need to have a strategy to track and measure progress. This is how you ultimately meet your goals. You want to not only be able to collect data but collect data relating to your website goals. For example, did you meet your goal for monthly contact forms completed? Did you meet your goal for number of monthly visitors? It’s important to set benchmarks when you begin, so that you can adjust along the way until you’re clearly on a path that you can repeat and ultimately achieve your end goal.
When you’re planning a website, it’s important to remember that your business needs and objectives will evolve over time. So, take the time now to develop a sound website strategy that defines what you want to accomplish with it and how you plan to measure its effectiveness.
