In this day in age, your company simply cannot survive without a website. Even if you?re a local business who sells products from a physical store rather than online, you still need to have your name out there on the internet to be competing for customers. Even when people are looking for local businesses they will be browsing online to see what?s available, a nice website could possibly snag you a new customer. If you do trade online, it?s even more important since this will be the face of your business. It?s what customers will see first, it?s your chance to make an impression. If your current site isn?t up to scratch, here are just a few of the ways you can go about improving things to improve your business in general.
A Professional, Streamlined Look
The first and most obvious change you could make to your website is a new design. If your current layout looks cheap and amateurish this will lead customers to think the rest of your business is the same way. There are lots of talented web designers out there who can create something tailored to your business and make it look incredible. You need the right fonts, colors, headers, the right amount of whitespace on the page. Ads shouldn?t be too crowded or clutter up the page. It?s worth spending the money here and investing since it?s such a crucial part of your business, it?s likely to be the difference between success and failure.
A Live Chat Feature
Live chat is becoming more and more widely used. It?s something that customers love and can really help to boost business. It makes your company and site look more professional, and if you have customers that are on the fence about buying from you, being able to have their query answered hassle-free via live chat it could sway them. Not every customer will pick up the phone to resolve an issue before buying, and not everyone has social media accounts to speak to a real team member on there. Live chat makes it easy for them and can do great things for your business.
Clear Contact Details
When a customer is thinking of buying from you, one of the first things they will look at is how easy it is to get in contact if anything goes wrong. Make sure the page to your details is clearly linked and visible. It should contain a business email address, a landline telephone number, and your physical address. If you want a more impressive looking address, invest in a mail forwarding address. Here you will appear to have the address of a stunning office block on Google maps, but your mail is just sent there and forwarded on to you.
An Easy Verification System
If you run the kind of business that requires documentation from customers (perhaps for equipment hire or financial products such as a loan) you could include a real world identity verification option. This software can be easily integrated into your site and makes everything quicker and easier as opposed to having to upload and email information. It allows customers to scan things like IDs, bank statements, utility bills and more. If these are the kinds of things you need from customers in your business something like this could be ideal.
A Blog
Finally, a blog is an excellent addition to your website. It shows that you are knowledgeable in your field of business. This can help to make you look professional and trustworthy which customers will love, especially if they?re new to shopping with you. A blog can also easily integrate into your website, and over time can help to improve page rank. There are lots of freelance writers online you can hire to write posts for you, they don?t cost much and you get great content to add to your site every week or a couple of times a week. If you?re not on board with blogging for business yet, it?s something you definitely need to implement as a way to boost business.
There are plenty of ways you can improve your business website, many of which depend on the specific kind of website you run. However, it should be neat and tidy with a professional edge and blog at the very least.
Is your business website in need of an update? What features have you/ will you get installed that is specific to what your company sells?
