If anything is certain about the current state of the world, it’s that the internet plays a pretty integral role in our lives. From getting the news, checking the weather, scrolling on social media to the way that it can impact our businesses, it’s not a secret that we should be thinking about it. In the world of business, it’s pretty critical to be aware of how the web can impact our sales.
Particularly, the way that we design our websites is a surprisingly big deal. There’s a reason that it’s even something that we can go to study about in college, after all, and while it may not seem overly important, definitely be sure to keep it in mind as you run your organization.
Many folks assume that if you’re not specifically an e-commerce business, that you don’t really have to worry about this sort of thing. Realistically speaking, this is far from the case. There are even studies that have been done on this subject for decades – it’s good to be aware of this sort of thing! Stay tuned to learn more about how it works.
What is Web Design?
Naturally, our first order of business here today is to define web design. At face value it’s pretty obvious what it is – it’s the process of creating web content on a domain. That said, there’s a lot more at play here beneath the service.
The process will likely differ depending on the type of site you’re running, of course. A blog is going to be distinct from a shop, and that’s just one example of this process. Really, it’s what makes things so complicated – the possibilities are endless, but that means that the questions can be as well.
For our purposes today, we’ll be examining the questions of “what is web design” from the perspective of business. There are many models that can explain how it works. Most of them are known as “funnels” of some sort, and we’ll largely be focusing on sales funnels. If you didn’t already know, they’re pretty integral when it comes to utilizing web design.
Target Audience
One of the first things that you’ll want to do if you’re pursuing web design is to figure out who you are trying to get to click on or visit your site. This is known as “target audience,” and it’s generally considered good practice to design your site around attracting that group (at least to a certain extent).
Admittedly, when you first start out it can be somewhat difficult to figure out who this is. If you aren’t sure, consider what your products are and who they would appeal to. You can always adjust your strategy over time as you gather more analytics.
Potential Customers (Leads)
The next rung on the ladder or funnel is to look at who might be leads, or potentially to buy our products. This can be achieved in a few ways. Notably, by looking at it through a lens of “awareness, interest, desire, and action.” As a web designer or a business owner, these are the aspects that we should be considering from a customer perspective.
Our goal is to have people move through this process in a funnel. So, establishing brand awareness might happen elsewhere on the internet such as on social media. From there, though, you can accomplish most of the other steps on your own website. It just takes having an excellent web design team and vision to get there.
Customers (Pre-Existing and New)
The last stage of the funnel, and perhaps the most important one, is to consider the customers that we are gaining and the ones that we already have. How can we entice leads to make a purchase? Much of it will rest on how you have utilized the tools available to you.
Most folks use some sort of third-party application to handle the actual coding behind websites, after all, so it becomes a matter of knowing how to use the one that we’ve picked to help move customers through the sales funnel we’ve constructed. There are examples of that here, https://www.clickfunnels.com/blog/sales-funnels/, if you aren’t overly familiar with what we’re talking about.
When we delve a bit deeper here, it starts to become clear how we can increase interest and desire in our brand and products. Having eye-catching visuals on our websites is one popular strategy. Make sure to put emphasis on pages that you want customers to visit.
Something else to consider there is that you will want to consider what action you want visitors to take on your page. Most of the time it will of course include making a purchase, but inevitably there are visitors who aren’t going to buy anything no matter what. Rather than trying to push them into buying something, instead you can gather them as a “lead” for the future.
Often, this is accomplished by creating a newsletter that includes coupon codes or something similar. Then, visitors to the site should be encouraged to sign up for that in order to reap the rewards of those savings. Essentially, you’re killing two birds with one stone here – you’re enticing people to return to the site and building their desire to buy in the future.
Strategies like that are how we can incorporate sales into the concept of web design in general. Just be sure that you remember the basic pillars and foundation of the process. By using funnel models, we can keep our eyes on the prize much more easily – the bottom of the funnel, making a sale, is perhaps the most important aspect.
While it may take some time to incorporate these ideas and concepts into your own business, it’s never too late to get started. Always remember how important that first impression is on a customer. More often than ever before, folks check the internet before they decide to patronize a business, even if it’s a brick-and-mortar storefront.