MARKETING

According to KB Marketing Agency, “Ignoring online marketing is like opening a business but not telling anyone.” However, with so many websites and social media posts saturating the Internet, how do you make your website and business stand out? 

One of the best ways to make a splash is to ensure your website is user-friendly. That includes improving readability on your site, making it accessible for all people and their devices, ensuring that all links work, and keeping your website consistent with your brand’s colors and identity. 

You don’t have to be a UX designer to create a website that’s easy to read and fun to interact with. Lindon Leader, the designer of the FedEx logo, once said, “I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things.” 

If your goal is to make your website simple and clear, read on for some recommendations from entrepreneurs on improving the usability of your website.

1. Use a Website Builder

If you don’t know where to start when building your website, you may want to rely on a website building platform like SquareSpace or WordPress. These are useful for first-time business owners or entrepreneurs who are just getting started and aren’t sure what function their website will serve. 

“SquareSpace and WordPress are great resources to use when you’re first starting out,” says Amr Adawi, Co-Founder of MetaWealth. “You’re the expert on your business, so let the website-building experts work their magic. No matter what your business does, there’s a website builder out there with a template and an interface that will work for you.” 

These website building platforms are already created with readability and user-friendly functions in mind, so you won’t have to start from scratch.

2.Use Language and Spacing That’s Easy To Read

Reading an article or website online is a different experience from reading a book or physical newspaper. Internet users want to find accurate information and they want it fast. That’s why it’s key to get straight to the point and break up long blocks of text with bullet points, quotes, and images. You may also want to avoid using industry-specific lingo. You can work with your marketing team or a copywriter to develop a voice that’s relatable and easy for any consumer in your target audience to understand. 

“A company’s website is such an essential part of its identity because it tends to be your client’s first impression of you and your brand. If you’re using terms that consumers don’t know or you have paragraphs without proper spacing, you might turn your consumers away before you can finish telling them about what you’re offering,” Ryan Rottman, Co-Founder and CEO of OSDB points out.

You will want to make use of bullet points, short sentences, and new paragraphs every three to four lines when creating a new webpage. This allows your consumers to access the most essential information about your company while also providing a pleasant reading experience.

3. Stay Consistent With Your Brand Identity

Brand identity is any aspect of a brand that distinguishes it in the consumer’s mind. When you chose a logo and colors for your brand, you picked them for a reason. If your brand is artistic, modern, and forward-thinking, you might use bright, bold colors. If you want to give your consumers a sense of security and trustworthiness, you may a single bold color like green or blue accented by white or black. 

“Branding is everything, and every branding choice should be intentional,” Max Ade, CEO of Pickleheads says. “A brand isn’t just a logo and a tagline. It’s also the way that your employees speak, the way they dress, the way that your website is organized, and the colors you use when designing it.”

Your company’s website is a first touch point for your consumers, so it’s important to consider the impression that you want to give off. If you’re not sure where to start, take a look at your competitor’s website. Which aspects of their website communicate their brand effectively? Take a look at everything from the spacing and font size to the colors. It’s okay to tap into your inner creative side or talk to your creative team while you brainstorm.

4. Improve Website Navigation and Loading Speeds

There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to interact with a website that won’t load. To avoid losing potential consumers before they can even complete a touch point, ensure that your website provider promises quick loading speeds. You will also want to aid your consumer in their website journey by utilizing headings, subheadings, and links to other pages.

“It can feel like you have less control over the buyer’s journey when they’re exploring your website, but you can take advantage of that by giving the impression that they’re discovering your product or service on their own. Let your customers have fun clicking around, but include headers and dropdowns to guide them and don’t forget to include a search function,” Drew Sherman, VP of Marketing at RPM says. 

Don’t forget to properly title and label everything on your website. You will also want to ensure that you don’t have any hidden pages or broken links so consumers don’t miss vital content.

5. Include Calls to Action (CTAs)

CALLS

Your website is a great place for your target audience to learn about your brand, but you want to remember that the goal of your website is to encourage visitors to take an action. As your business and website grow, those actions might look different for every page of your website, but you might want to choose just one or two CTAs to start. Do you want your customers to put an item in their cart? Do you want to encourage them to donate, sign up for a class, or navigate to your social media page?

“When designing your website, you want to keep the end goal of your marketing in mind. Ultimately, you want to drive sales or make a meaningful impression on the consumer,” shares Trina Johnson, CEO of Blue Forest Farms.

Calls to action should lead your site visitors to that end result. These could include buttons that consumers can click to navigate to a cart or whatever the next stage of their buying journey might be. If you have set monthly or yearly goals for your company — for example, improving your social media presence or increasing sales by a certain percentage — use them to inspire your CTAs. What can you say to lead your consumer to that desired action?

6. Collect Survey Feedback

One of the best ways to ensure that your website is serving its proper function for your target audience is to ask them. You may want to incorporate a pop-up box directly in your website that asks visitors to rate it. Ask them about readability, impact, and navigability. 

“Customer service is so important in making a good impression and building customer loyalty, and you don’t want to lose that online. Communicating with your clients directly and asking for feedback can be a great way to further invite them into a conversation with your company,” says Shelley Hancock, Chief Beauty Officer of Shelley Hancock Consulting.

If you choose not to ask your consumers for feedback directly on the website, you can always post the survey on social media. Asking your own team members for feedback and treating them like consumers can be a useful alternative, too.

7. Use SEO

SEO refers to those terms and questions that Internet users type into Google most frequently. If you conduct some research on which questions and terms are searched most frequently related to your industry or the need that your company fills, you will be able to tailor your website to your target audience. 

“If you’re not using SEO on your website, it’s time to change that,” Christy Pyrz, Chief Marketing Officer ofParadigm Peptides says. “With so many competitors online, using SEO is the easiest way to get your company to appear in someone’s search results.”

You don’t even need to hire an SEO expert to figure out which terms and questions will be optimal for your website. There are plenty of marketing tools that will tell you which terms are searched most frequently.

8. Provide Customer Support

Collecting feedback via surveys is one way to provide customer support online, but you can also provide customer support by giving your website visitors a direct connection to you. If you don’t feel comfortable giving out your own phone number, you can make use of chatbots or text bots hat are built to answer frequently answered questions. You can also provide forms in order to better organize your inquiries. 

“Make sure that your clients feel connected to you, even through a screen,” Dominique Zimmermann, CEO and Head Designer at Bombshell Sportswear advises, “and one of the best ways to do that is by communicating with them directly and decreasing response times.”

It makes sense that you’re more likely to make a sale or a connection when you can decrease the amount of time it takes for that sale to be made. You want to answer any customer questions as soon as possible. Good customer service goes a long way!

9. Use Images and Videos

Your website visitors aren’t going to read long paragraphs of text even if you improve readability by including adequate spacing and bullet points. While it’s important to make sure that your website visitors have access to all of your company’s essential information, image and video media is important, too. 

“Your website is a great place to recycle some of your best social media content. It’s important for your customers to get a sense of who you are as people, not just as a brand, and incorporating video, audio, and images is a great way to show people your faces,” shares Den Montero, Marketing Director ofMoeflavor.

Behind the scenes content feels authentic, while interview-style videos provide an added element of focus to help followers get to know your team. No matter how you choose to incorporate photos and videos into your marketing strategy, know that a little personality can go a long way.

10. Accessibility

Keeping the importance of multiple types of media in mind, you’re also going to want to make sure that your website is accessible to all types of customers and clients. This might include making your fonts larger, using accessibility-friendly fonts, or researching website tools that help the visually impaired. 

“Creating an inclusive workplace and website means creating content that everyone can access,” sums up Dorothy Pun, Founder of Knitup. 

Including text, images, video, and audio on your website is important because it helps ensure there’s something for everyone.

Website Usability Improves the Buyer Experience

Your website is a part of your brand, and the way that consumers experience your website will influence their opinion of your brand identity. That’s why it’s vital to provide information and content on your website that’s meaningful, consistent, and easy to understand. Sometimes the simplest marketing strategies are the best way to set your company apart.