10 Tips For Building An Engaging Website
When meeting with prospective clients I’m often asked to identify the most important tool for marketing a business.
My answer: “It depends.”
The truth is, there’s no such thing as a “silver bullet”—a single tool or tactic that will provide guaranteed marketing success. That’s why we refer to our craft as “integrated marketing.” We live in an increasingly fractured and segmented culture, saturated with messaging and advertising that relentlessly hits us from every angle. The only way to be truly successful is to take a holistic approach in identifying the best tools to meet your specific objectives with your specific target(s) in a specific timeline (and budget). In short, it requires research, planning and strategy.
Let’s turn that question on its head. If you were to ask me what communication tool, if neglected or used improperly, will inflict the most damaging consequences on a business, the answer would be obvious. It’s the Internet, stupid.
Americans spend half of their spare time online. Facebook alone boasts more that 500 million active users—nearly twice the population of the United States. The Internet is where people choose to exist. It’s increasingly our primary source for news and information, and it’s where we connect with friends, family and associates.
So how do you establish a solid presence on the web? Again, it’s not a hard-and-fast formula. Everyone has different needs and objectives. But there are common foundational elements that go into building an effective and engaging website for your business. The following ten tips will set you on the right path.
1. Don’t Make Me Think
As with many things in life, the web’s greatest strength also poses its greatest challenge. To communicate online is to cast a very wide net, spanning users of differing ages, races and socio-economic backgrounds. They have varying degrees of computer literacy and connect to the Internet via a wide array of technology devices—both new and old. Your website must be immediately and effortlessly usable to everyone. If a user has to stop to think about how to use your website, you’ve lost. It should be effortless.
2. Be Original
A common issue we experience with clients is the knee-jerk desire to emulate whatever everyone else in their industry is doing, be it good or bad. Your website should serve as an extension of your brand. It should be uniquely you, rather than an imitation of what your associates and/or competitors are doing.
In addition, you should resist the urge to draw too much “inspiration” from popular design trends. This will “date” your website by firmly attaching it to a passing fad that will look antiquated faster than you can say “parachute pants.”
3. Tell a Story
Storytelling is a great way to communicate information to your audience in an engaging and memorable manner. Instead of dumping pages upon pages of technical information on your audience—which goes largely ignored—storytelling personalizes the way that information is presented and provides your readers with a means of relating to the content on a more personal level.
Storytelling also extends beyond the content of your website. The visual layout of your website—the color, typography, imagery, location of elements, etc.—should tell a story in and of itself. A well-designed site, like a book, should naturally guide a visitor’s eyes through the page, establishing importance and emphasis within the layout.
4. Don’t Forget to Listen
One if the most important tools that the web provides is the opportunity to listen. Traditional marketing and advertising tools fall within the 1-to-many model of communication, where a message is broadcast to the masses in one direction. It is a conduit whereby businesses can receive immediate, real-time feedback from users. Web forms, surveys, live chat, blog comments and social media are tools that facilitate conversation allow you to hear your audience and respond to their needs and feedback so you can listen, learn and adapt.
5. Less is More
A cluttered and overbearing website can be self-defeating if it competes with, or distracts from, the overall message. Don’t be afraid to give your design and your content room to breathe. We like to tell our clients that good design is a window, not a wall.
6. Look Under the Hood
When communicating online, the engine hidden under the hood can be as important as what you see. A well-built site ensures that all users, regardless of their browser type, operating system or connection source have the same experience when visiting your website. It can influence your placement on search engines. It also can affect how well and how easily you can maintain and edit your site. Don’t underestimate the importance of how your site is constructed.
7. Content is King
Develop your content BEFORE you have your site designed. Your message is the single most important aspect of your site. Treat is as such. Design your website to augment and support your content, not the other way around.
When developing content for the web, brevity counts. Eliminate repetitive content and cut whatever is non-essential. When in doubt, throw it out. If you have a large chunk of content that is important, look for ways to break it up so that it will be easier for your audience to digest.
Don’t forget to be memorable. If you’re going to say something, make it worth being heard and remembered.
8. Test, Test, and Test Again
This step, while comparatively simple, is frequently overlooked. Re-read your copy. Make sure your images have alt tags. Test your website in all major browsers—Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome and Safari… okay, and Opera (I don’t want all eleven Opera users to send me hate mail for omitting them). Make sure your site has all the proper meta data for search engines. When in doubt, ask.
9. Stay Fresh!
Update your website regularly. This is key to improving your search engine optimization (SEO). It also keeps your site from becoming static. By including relevant news, and perhaps even a blog, you give your audience a reason to keep coming back for more while also providing fresh information about your business.
10. Set Hooks
If you want to bring people to your site, find opportunities to set hooks. All marketing materials should include a link to your website. That’s a given. If you aren’t engaged in social media, you better get moving. That’s where the people are, and that’s where your competition is connecting with them. If you’re new to social media, don’t think you have to do it all at once. Start slowly. Pick one tool, like Facebook or Twitter, to get things started. Once you’re more comfortable and have had time to build out your social media presence, you can add another tool to your arsenal.
Consistency is key. Engage only in what you know you can sustain. If you don’t have time to feed and nurture your virtual persona, don’t bother creating it. An empty, languishing social media profile will be damaging to your business. It will give your audience the impression that business is waning if you don’t foster and nurture your public face on a regular basis.
Your online presence can only be as good as you allow it to be. It’s remarkably important that you make every effort to consistently do it right and do it well. While it takes constant care and effort to build trust and character through any and all online mediums, it only takes one bad impression to ruin a potentially rewarding client relationship. Make it count.
Next Time: If you build it, they will come, right? Wrong. Simple tips to help your audience find you online.
Sean Doughtie is president and CEO of Taproot Creative. Read his bio here.
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