In my work I visit a lot of business web sites. Some are great, others are not so great. What follows are a few observations and thoughts on the subject of “good” web sites.
The Internet is profoundly market driven.
The client/visitor “rules.” So be totally and absolutely responsive, absolutely courteous, respectful, enthusiastic and sensitive. Concentrate your efforts, wherever possible and practical, on finding and establishing frequent visitors. Then build a strong trusted relationship you can turn into meaningful future profit or strategic ethical advantage for your business.
Common sense, perhaps, but it seems that common sense is in short supply these days.
The Internet is all about communication.
Establish effective communication with your clients and prospects through your web site and e-mail presence — and your business will grow. After all, isn’t that the reason you have a web site?
A sale is NOT the most important goal.
Whatever it is you sell or do on the Internet, you must recognize — ultimately, it’s not about getting the sale — it’s about winning clients and loyalty for life. Does this distinction make sense to you? It should.
An effective web site is an on-going process improvement effort.
You’ll probably never have everything exactly the way you want it, because by then, the market, competition, and state of technology will all have changed and you’ll need to rework your entire thinking all over again. So, see the Internet and your web site as a perpetual work-in-progress.
Ask yourself these reflective questions:
- What are the three most important reasons people are coming to your web site? What’s their payoff? Is it well enough explained, defined, known?
- Are you afraid of making mistakes? Don’t be! It’s called testing. You try something to see if it will work. An unsuccessful test is not failure. It’s only part of the learning curve.
- Are you honestly prepared to put your clients first? If you want to successfully do business on the Internet, you need to be prepared, as seriously as possible, to meet your clients’ needs head-on.
- Is your communication style clear and concise? Your communication style must be short sentences. Bold paragraphs. Subject lines (when using e-mail) and headlines should send a clear appealing message about why you care about the client.
- Is your site user friendly? Use plain English. Write at an 8th grade level. Don’t exaggerate. Be real, be yourself. Honesty real does work best. Take all the puff and hype out of your communications, graphics and writings. Talk face-to-face. First person. One-to-one. You-to-me. Me-to-you.
Is your Internet web site business-to-business?
Make certain your buying and transaction process is easy, fast, clear, appealing and effective — for the buyer or visitor’s use — not for you. Focus on building a better business-to-business process than whatever current choices are out there.
Work on building credibility for your product, company and web site presence.
If the user doesn’t trust your site, there are hundreds of other sites out there that can offer the same products or services. Remember that the user is in charge on the Internet – so add credibility to your web site as much as possible and wherever possible.
Little things build credibility.
- Put your firm’s physical address on all your web pages.
- Put your signature on your welcoming letter on your web site home page.
- If appropriate, put a recording of yourself on your web site.
Work carefully and continuously to build as many levels and layers of credibility in your web site presentation and content. Remember, on the Internet, more importantly than anything else, you must build your credibility. Because, in the end, it all comes down to which site the users trust!
In the final analysis, it all boils down to this:
Always remember that you build your web site for your clients, not for you. It’s for them.