The amount of time Australians spent online continued to increase throughout 2020 and this trend is likely to continue into 2021. Deloitte reports an increase in Australian consumers reading the news online (25 per cent) and using social media (35 per cent) as result of the pandemic, with consumers also reporting an expectation to continue these practices after lockdown (15 per cent reading the news online, and 19 per cent using social media). [1]
With so many users actively engaging with brands digitally each day, companies have an opportunity to reach an expanding audience. Often, the first impression of a brand or business comes from a visit to their website, so it’s incredibly important that companies present the most up-to-date information in an instantly engaging and easy-to-navigate way. This is especially true for B2B organisations. Gartner reports that 93 per cent of B2B buyers require a business case for all technology solutions, and must see that investments will have a measurable impact on their business. [2] For many organisations, desk research will be a critical part of developing a business case for investing in new technology solutions.
Websites are the window into an organisation’s soul
Websites can be crucial to the success of a business and are the marketing heart of just about every B2B organisation. Customers, partners, investors, and more use websites to assess the credibility of an organisation. It’s also where customers decide whether a company can solve the problems they’re facing the way they want them solved, and if they’d like to invest or spend their money with that company.
Whether it’s a new or an existing website, it’s essential that businesses invest in this important company interface and continually review, improve, and optimise the user experience and overall site performance.
We’ve identified three critical steps you should take to ensure your website engages your target audience and makes a great first impression.
1. Identify clear objectives
The first step to making a great website, and thus a great first impression, is to identify the key objectives and target audience. Asking what the website needs to achieve, what the target customer and audience looks like, and what a customer’s journey might look like can help identify business goals and an ideal website audience. This then informs other aspects of the website and brand, including guidelines for the style and identity of the company.
2. Identify customer challenges, pain points, and problems
Customers need to be reassured that a company can meet their needs and help solve their challenges. Developing relevant and valuable content that identifies potential pain points and speaks to the target audience will improve conversion rates. Completing a needs and pains analysis to inform website architecture and content will help make a good first impression. When customers find websites and content valuable and compelling, they’ll be more likely to complete lead forms and engage with a company’s services.
While Australians spend a lot of time online that doesn’t mean they will spend hours perusing your site. It’s important to generate content to meet customer needs and present it in an engaging manner. Website content must:
- be clean, direct, and to-the-point
- be designed in a way that doesn’t distract from the main value proposition
- use engaging and eye-catching calls to action (CTAs).
3. Optimise website accessibility
Ensuring your website is accessible to users is essential in making a good and lasting impression. It’s critical that website designs are responsive and optimised to work quickly on all screens, devices, and browsers. Content and pages must also be easy to navigate and find, so customers can quickly find exactly what they need. This creates a good user experience and helps improve company image.
Making your website accessible and easy to navigate doesn’t just stop at engaging content and easy navigation. Ensuring the functionality and design is accessible to users with disabilities is also an important best practice. This includes making sure the user interface (UI), navigation, and visual design is user friendly for everybody. Paying attention to alt text on visuals, font type and type size, contrast, video subtitles and transcripts, and more can ensure your site is accessible to everyone.
Refreshing your website or starting a new build from scratch can be overwhelming. We’ve compiled four top tricks to keep in mind when renewing your company website:
- Hero your homepage: make your content compelling, clear, useful, and quick to navigate to avoid getting lost in a sea of company speak. Focus on high quality, high value information to encourage people to stay on the site.
- Focus on function: engaging graphics and great content mean nothing when formatting and functionality, including forms, are lost on mobile and other devices. This can also exclude different users when it comes to accessibility.
- Don’t overdo it with design: avoid excessive design elements that slow the site load time as this can lose or frustrate visitors. Avoid using images to display important names, content, or links, as Google’s crawler doesn’t recognise text contained in graphics and this can impact on your website ranking.
- Rank above the rest: even before people click on your website, they may have formed an impression of your business. Where your company page ranks in a Google search can contribute to a person’s perception of a business’s reputation. Investing in services such as ongoing analysis, periodic audits, and optimisation to support search ranking, rather than taking a set and forget strategy approach, can vastly improve your site ranking.
There’s no point in building great marketing campaigns if your website performs poorly. Clients often come to us for a complete visual and content overhaul to help websites perform better with their customers and with Google’s search algorithms.
Our specialist team assess websites and perform security and user experience technical audits, before recommending the best way to proceed. Our web projects follow a proven, rigorous process that moves through stages including needs analysis, design and wireframe development, content development, and quality assurance.
For more information on how our website development and management services can help you make a good first impression with your website, contact the team today or visit https://www.outsource.com.au/website-development-agency-services.
[2] https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/how-to-market-to-b2b-technology-buyers/
