Website Tips: Part Two ? Business in You

Jeremy Hurst is Executive Director at Slightly Different, a full service digital agency. In this follow-up to last week?s post on website tips, Jeremy offers advice on?what small businesses should consider when building their own websites.

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Often your website is the first port of call for your potential customers, either through a search engine or perhaps through another form of advertising.? Regardless of how people found your site, you?d probably be surprised at quite how influential a good or bad website is to the next actions of your new customers, and if they don?t phone you because you?ve built yourself a shocking website that only you like, the worst of it is you?ll never know how close you came to getting their custom.? How much is that going to cost you?

If you?re insistent that the DIY approach is for you, then here are a few top tips of how to give yourself a fighting chance:

1. Always put your phone number on the home page.? Many people will visit your site just to find out your contact details, simply because it?s often easier than trying to find your business card or look you up in the phone book.

2. Make sure that the website has your full contact details. ?Include your name, trading address (and registered address if different), telephone number, VAT number, and Companies House registered number if applicable.? Not only is this a legal requirement for most organisations, but your potential customers are more likely to do business with you if they know you?re a legitimate company.? If you work from home, consider speaking to your accountant or solicitor to see if you can use their address.

3. Try not to talk about your business as a list of features. ?Instead, talk about it as a list of how the site visitor will benefit when they contact you.? Too many sites fail this test and it makes such a difference.? Try this:

Garage A ? We?ll change your brake pads, change your oil, and perform an MOT test on your vehicle for ?60.

Garage B ? When you?re out in your car, we?ll ensure that you can stop when you need to, that your engine will run smoothly, and that your car meets legal MOT requirements for another 12 months so that you don?t have to worry.? And all I?ll charge for giving you peace of mind is ?60.

The two statements say the same thing, but there?s a world of difference between how the two statements make the potential customer feel.? With the right message, Company B could actually charge more for exactly the same MOT service as provided by Company A.? It?s the difference between selling features and selling benefits.

4. If you value your customer service ability, this should be one of your unique selling points because, after all, you are the best at what you do ? let customers know who they?re dealing with.? Don?t be shy. Put a picture of yourself and your team on your website, and say a little about who you are.? I can almost guarantee that this will be one of the busiest pages on your site, as even in the modern age (unless you?re purely competing on price) people like doing business with people.? Take a look at our accountant?s website at www.phillipsfrith.com for a good example.? Then compare this to the vast majority of other accountancy sites out there and how impersonal they feel.? Pictures of people build trust which encourages potential customers to get in touch.

5. A website needs less text and more images.? People aren?t going to read reams of text, particularly if they?ve just found you via a search engine.? What you want the website to do is to act as a teaser, providing enough information to give them the call to action that making a phone call to you is what they need to do next to discuss their requirement and find out more.? If you tell them everything on the website, you stand a good chance of them not bothering to phone you.

6. On the subject of images, the little known business icons that were 70s rock band Bread stated in their song, ?If a picture paints a thousand words?? ?What they omitted to say was that whatever you do, do not lift images off the Internet as there is a world of pain waiting for those who do this.? There are tools out there that can find images that have been stolen, and unless you are absolutely certain the images that you are using are free for you to use commercially (and if it?s for your business website this will be for commercial use) then it?s best not to use them. ?There are some good stock image libraries that only charge ?1 or ?2 for good quality images, such as Stock Exchange, and this is well worth the money.? Alternatively, if you or a friend are handy with a digital camera, then take your own images.

7. Never rely on the opinions of friends or family to tell you how good your newly constructed website masterpiece is.? I can?t count the number of times I?ve heard someone say, ?people think my site looks great,? when it turns out that the ?people? referred to are partners, friends down the pub, squash buddies, etc. who know nothing about websites and who are trying not to hurt your feelings because they know you?ve put in a month?s worth of evenings trying to get the site looking half decent.? Their lack of honesty to avoid hurting your feelings is going to cost you business, and your website is all about business.? Try going onto an online forum and asking for comments on there.? Be prepared for some home truths, and learn from the advice given.? Be prepared to swallow your pride as well, as it might just save you from losing the next big customer.

8. Get some professional advice before, during, and after the build.? It might cost you some money, but you could save yourself a fortune, particularly if you are considering taking credit card payments online.? Today, most high street banks are so afraid of online credit card fraud that they won?t grant you permission to receive payments if your website hasn?t been built to their exacting standards.? PCI Compliance would be worth Googling at this point if you?re even thinking of building your own ecommerce website, which I would strongly advise against without professional advice.

This is just skimming the surface of the things you should be considering when taking your first steps on the Internet.? Remember it?s your online shop window, and if it isn?t appealing to your visitors they?ll go elsewhere.? Also, don?t forget that on the Internet, while you can compete effectively with much larger companies, you are also up against significantly higher levels of competition.? The adage ?if you build it, they will come? does not apply online, and should be modified to read, ?if you build it and then tell people about it several times they might come if they?ve got time or they aren?t distracted by something shinier.? And even when they do come, you?ve got about half a second to catch their attention.

It?s a challenging step, but get it right, and your website might just make you the next Internet millionaire.? I wish you well.

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Source: http://businessinyou.bis.gov.uk/2012/11/08/website-tips-part-two/

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