The latest research from Nielsen//NetRatings, shows that in the UK there are over 38 million active internet users, that is 64% of the population. According to The Office for National Statistics, in September 2007 broadband connections accounted for 88.4% of all Internet connections.
A study by Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) revealed that consumers spent £3.26 billion online during November alone, a 44.7 per cent increase from the same period last year. Online spending in retail is expected to reach £40billion in 2007.
But what about the business-to-business world? According to the Office for National Statistics 99% of businesses with at least 50 employees have internet access. In another report the value of Internet sales by UK businesses rose to £130.4bn in 2006, an increase of 29.1 per cent on the 2005 figure of £101bn, according to estimates from the latest annual e-commerce survey.
So are you getting your fair share of this online business? Even if your products/services are not appropriate for selling online, you should still be able to drive sales enquiries through your website. Either way, your website is a highly valuable channel to market. How much effort are you actually putting into this sales channel?
"I paid for a website to be developed and it was a complete waste of money - I’ve had no enquiries whatsoever".
Well, if you are finding yourself in this position, you are clearly not making the most of that initial investment. Here is the Shaping Business ten golden rules for developing a successful business website.
1. Do not treat your website as a one off project.
This is the first key rule and not surprisingly where most business websites fail. Once the website goes live the invoice is paid and nobody thinks of it again. Your website is a sales channel, so treat it accordingly. It must be part of your overall marketing plan for your business. Like every other element in your plan you must have clear objectives, a strategy to achieve those objectives, tactics to adopt and a comprehensive action plan, with controls in place to measure impact and respond accordingly. Think of your website as your virtual sales manager. Employing a sales manager is straightforward, but it is essential to invest in and work with that sales manager to maximise their effectiveness in the market and ensure targets are reached. The same applies to your website. If you want it to work for you, you have to keep working with it.
2. Think customer not company.
Start planning your website content by considering what information your potential customer wants to know when they arrive at your website. Put yourself in the customers shoes for a while - it can be very enlightening looking at your current website from a customers perspective. This approach also gets you thinking about what information is valuable to potential customers. Your goal is to move the visitor from awareness to interest, then to desire and finally to action.
3. Differentiate your business.
You know who your competitors are, so do some research. Look for strengths and weaknesses in their approach. Try to establish a clearly differentiated position for potential customers. Make it easy for your website visitors to understand what you offer, to who and why you are the right supplier for them. Demonstrate how you have added value to your customers' businesses. Overcome those common sales objections.
4. Be search engine friendly and visitor friendly.
This is not as easy as it sounds - in fact there is a trade-off. Search engines use relevancy of content to key search terms as one criteria for ranking sites, so densely populated keywords perform well for search engines but are a pain for site visitors. The lesson is to be focused with your content. Website compliance is also becoming an increasingly important issue and there are many websites online which are not compliant to the latest standards. Get your website tested for compliance to Bobby standards and W3C standards. If your web designer gives you a blank look when you ask, then contact us and we can test your site and highlight the key issues for you. Remember just because your website looks pretty it doesn't mean it will be working for you, getting indexed by search engines and driving enquiries.
5. Think carefully about your website style and graphics.
Your website needs to be uncluttered and easy to read. When you look at some website home pages you don't know where to start reading. Evidently some businesses think their visitors might never get past the home page so they put everything on it. Well, there can be no surprises when web visitors head for the back button in response. Keep a simple but effective style, and have clear sections so the visitor can easily take in the relevant information. Provide summaries and shortcuts on the home page with links to relevant information deeper in the site.
Also use images or rich graphics sparingly. This is becoming less of an issue with increased broadband speeds, but any graphics must add value to the visitor experience, otherwise they have no real purpose.Flash animations that take two minutes to load and end with a 'click here to enter site' may look great but your visitor is long gone by the time they finish loading.
6. Keep your site navigation simple.
Website visitors are increasingly less patient in looking for information. If they can't find what they are looking for quickly they will go elsewhere. Make sure your visitor can get to the information they require within three clicks. The less the better.
7. Provide a clear call to action.
Ensure every page provides your potential customer with a simple means of contacting you and give them a choice - phone, email or post. Don't forget to make sure someone is responsible for monitoring and responding to online enquiries.
8. Continually optimise your website to achieve high search engine rankings.
Search engines are the first port of call for every discerning web user seeking products/services or information. Web users are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their use of keyword search phrases in search engines to narrow the results down to more relevant websites. You can carry out your own research, using web resources, to identify what web visitors are entering in search engines. But it is also valuable to canvass the opinions of customers and contacts to find out what phrases they would use if they were looking for your products/services. Website optimisation is a real skill and it is an ongoing process. With diligence and careful execution your website can rise to the top on the rankings but you will need to maintain that effort to stay there.
9. Keep it fresh.
Plan to have regular updates to your website with interesting and valuable information continually added. Give your website visitors a reason to keep coming back again and again. If your website doesn't change, visitors could think you simply aren't interested in their business or you've gone out of business.
10. Benchmark your site.
Regularly review your website and benchmark it against your competitors and peers in industry. If you are continually offering the best online experience in you sector your potential customers will notice and you will see your market share rise.
At Shaping Business we have extensive experience of helping businesses develop and maintain successful websites. We effectively blend the three distinct skills which are essential in website development - marketing, creative design and website programming to W3C standards. Shaping Business provides a complete end-to-end service from site design to copywriting, development, site optimisation and ongoing maintenance with guaranteed service levels. The fundamental difference in our web development assignments is our focus on the appropriate marketing approach for your business and target clients. Have a look at our web development portfolio.
To develop a successful website that will drive new business enquiries, please email results@shapingbusiness.com or contact our office.
