Enhancing Brand Visibility: Websites Help Your Business Stand Out Online
At this point in time, having a website seems like a given for most businesses, doesn’t it? Of course, there are likely some industries where other online channels are more important, like social influencers.I really can’t think of any business owner who would tell you that having a website isn’t important.
However, what I’ve observed through our work is that while many (if not most) businesses already have a website, they often aren’t set up to be a central part of their marketing strategy.
Thousands of dollars and countless hours invested in creating the best possible articulation of a brand’s service offerings, and then, post-launch, the website just sits there, slowly degrading and likely causing missed customer opportunities.
Many websites, despite how beautiful they are design-wise, merely exist. Our goal when building you a website is to create your brand’s home on the internet. Every potential marketing pathway leads back to it, providing them the experience they deserve, and providing your business the customer opportunities it needs to grow.
With the prevalence of website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Shopify — you know, those products advertised on every podcast you listen to — there’s clearly a general shift toward people understanding the value of showcasing your brand on a website.
The issue is, whether you’re using your own website builder or hiring a web designer, all too often the site is treated as though it is “done” once it’s launched.
But let me tell you, your website is never “done.” At least it shouldn’t be if you want it to continue to generate revenue for your business.
And this conundrum happens so much more than you might think.
Driving Traffic and Conversions: The Role of Websites in Generating Leads
For a lot of brick and mortar businesses, the website is treated as a blurred snapshot of what the brand actually is and does. It exists because a website is necessary but it isn’t treated as a necessity for engaging customers, increasing sales, or growing the brand.
Your website serves a pivotal role in establishing your business’s identity online, not just as a source of information but as a brand experience. Yes, you might know every detail of your brand by heart — you live and breathe them every day, right?
But never forget that you aren’t your customers.
For many consumers, your website serves as their first significant interaction with your business, so providing a good experience on your website is an effective way to start building trust.
You have the power to shape a person’s perception of your product or service, and why this should matter to them to the point that they should choose you when it comes time to make a purchase. Why wouldn’t you make the most of this opportunity?
Websites Should Consider Online and In-Store User Needs
When considering the value of your website, remember these stats:
- 53% of shoppers say they always do research before they buy to ensure they are making the best possible choice.
- 85% of shoppers surveyed say product information and pictures are important to them when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from
- 56% of in-store shoppers used their smartphones to shop or research items while they were in a store [!!!] in the past week
If you’re not regularly updating content, security features, and product or service offerings, those visiting the site will understandably make value judgments regarding the quality of your brand, and they’re probably not going to be positive.
So, what can you do to ensure that your brand stands out in the way that you want it to?
Websites Establish Brand Authority By Building Trust And Credibility
In our opinion, there are three things you should always keep in mind for building trust, credibility, and brand authority through your website.
1. A website is the one place on the internet that you fully control.
Look at it this way: On other internet platforms, you’re forced to adapt your information to their mold, but on your website, you control the information, how it’s presented, and how visitors interact with it.
This is owned media (vs. earned or paid media), and thanks to things like your website and blog, you have the power to shape how your brand is perceived in a way that was unimaginable just a few decades ago.
Given that control, you really can create the best possible brand experience for your current and future customers. (More on that later.)
2. Your website can, and should, be an active tactic in growing your business.
You can have a website that is aesthetically beautiful, contains engaging copy, and offers a wonderful user experience, and still fall short of your business goals because it wasn’t built with the right strategy in mind.
Your website can and should play an effective part in growing your audience through organic search, providing visitors information about your business and an experience with your brand, it should urge them to take action through relevant calls to action, and actively generate leads.
If your website isn’t doing any of those things, then what is it for, really? Even a portfolio site designed to showcase your work should contain some form of messaging designed to grow your audience or increase your sales if that’s your goal.
In a nutshell, determine what your goals are, align them with your customer’s needs, and design your website based on that. But the job doesn’t stop there. That’s just the beginning.
3. Your website should be organic and adaptable.
It’s worth optimizing your website over time, similar to how you would any other marketing tactic. We like to consider the websites that we build to be living, breathing things in the sense that they are constantly giving us information that we can use to improve their performance.
This is how we’re able to “create the best possible brand experience for our current and future customers.” The meaning of what is “best” will change over time.
You’ll need to adapt contact, page structures, calls to action, imagery — everything, essentially — to meet the needs of your customers. Luckily, with the right data and strategy, we can often do that before they even anticipate it.
Creating Memorable Interactions on Your Website
I think in the last decade or two there’s been a shift in what people expect from websites. The number and sophistication of tools available has made a decent user experience the bare minimum.
The ability to provide conversion points (where your customer is taking a specific action) and push them and the essential data to the appropriate place (like your CRM, funnel tools, etc.) has also made the website a lead-generating tool that can be optimized like any other.
At Formada, our approach to designing websites is to treat them as an organic, ongoing marketing tactic, which differs from many digital marketing agencies that prefer to create rigid sites that are difficult to update and optimize.
You Deserve Web Design That Puts Your Needs First — And Delivers On Them!
- We want your website to be flexible so you can adjust with the market
- We want you to own your content and your assets so that, should you even decide to manage your site on your own or move it to another agency, your customers continue to have a great user experience on your site
- We want your site, no matter how often you’re updating it, to be a secure space that protects your user data, which can be difficult to maintain when using proprietary plug-ins and features
- We want your website to be a central component of your overall marketing strategy that helps you create a unified brand experience, from your social media to your paid ads, an more
In summary, you should never underestimate your website’s role as a marketing tool. With the right foundation, content strategy, attention to user experience, security, and focus on long-term adaptability, your website has the potential to be your brand’s most valuable asset.
And with the right partner, achieving this is easier than you might think. While we specialize in digital strategies for medical and healthcare-oriented businesses, we’ve successfully built and manage effective websites for brands across a wide range of industries, including hospitality, interior design, live events, and more.
If you’re looking for a website experience for your business that will finally help you achieve your goals, then I invite you to contact us today to learn more about our services.