If you are running a small business and feel that it is time to expand and make to reach out to clientele beyond the small locality that you had been catering to, you will need to start by creating a website. You can either set it up yourself or approach a web design company in Bangalore. It is important to know that the website is not just a piece of decoration, but it is partially responsible for running your business and you must make it work.
But, how do you ensure that it works? The website has two primary functions – the first one is to attract and engage consumers and the second is to encourage them to become customers. The customers could pop in to your store or better still, they could just give you business on your website. To make it perform its functions effectively, you need to ensure that your website is equipped with some basic features. It must be capable of making the visitor spend some time exploring the website; if it fails to do that, it is time to rework your website to make it effective.
It Must Look Attractive
The first impression of a website is lasting. If it fails to impress a visitor the first time, you may never get him to become your customer. Work on the website to make it look welcoming and engaging. It need not have fancy images to make it attractive; in fact, that can actually be distracting. It is important that it appeals to your customers. Hence, it should have elements that the customer can relate to.
Avoid putting in too many elements, but put in enough to communicate your message. Clutter could make your message get lost, but for some lines of business, that could be a good idea. So, you must not generalise, but customise it as per your needs. This transformation need not cost you much. If you want, you can make use of the various free themes available online.
Provide Easy Access to Contact Info
The website must display your complete contact information prominently. You could have it on the home page or you can have a separate page giving detailed contact information, complete with the company’s physical address, e-mail address, phone numbers and links to various social media platforms where you have a presence. You can consult a web development company in Bangalore and decide the best way forward.
If you are not comfortable taking random calls, you can add a contact form, where they can fill in all the details for you to be able to contact them. Another option is to have a live chat session on your website. The customers can clear the doubts instantly by chatting to the employee or chatbot.
Show Off Your Happy Clientele
Nothing is more convincing than a happy customer and you must utilise this to the fullest. Encourage your customers to leave ratings and reviews on the website. This works well when new visitors see them. Impressed by the positive feedback from other customers, they also feel encouraged to add their name to your list of clients.
You can also showcase your clients on a separate page by prominently displaying the logos of your esteemed clients, awards and media coverage received. You can talk about some of your successful projects, which show-off your best work
Share Information through a Blog
A blog can be interesting to read if there is a variety of information to cater to your customers. It keeps the visitors engaged. For this, it is important that your post is creative, informative and entertaining – all at the same time. Share information about events and developments in your line of work along with interesting tips on how they can utilise your services to the fullest. These also work towards establishing you as an expert in your respective field.
Encourage Action from Your Consumers
You, obviously, cannot outright tell your customers to give you business, so you must work strategically towards getting them to take a small step forward. You can ask them to like your social media presence. They can subscribe to your newsletter or maybe get in touch with you if they are not yet ready to become a customer.
If they are ready for business, so are you and you must provide the best service to them. You can then encourage them to leave a review for the benefit of other consumers like them.
With the website in place with just the right elements, you should start expecting some growth in your business, but you will also need to employ some SEO activity which can be planned out by your web design company in Bangalore. A stale website can cause the consumers to lose interest and then all your efforts would be wasted, hence you must keep updating the content on your website. You must remember that maintaining the website is as important as designing it.