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It’s tempting for business owners and professionals to think of a website solely as a sales tool.
Yet a website can do much more. At its best, your website is a digital storefront that invites visitors to interact with your organization.
Your visitors can be prospective or existing customers seeking to get in touch for service or for information about you or your products/services. To serve as many visitors as possible for your business or professional organization’s website, consider these four “must-have” features:
1. A welcome.
To compete in a world dominated by digital presence, offer a friendly “hello” in the online world. You could offer a simple one or two-sentence note from the owner posted alongside his or her picture. Or you could try a welcome message rotating monthly or quarterly among department heads or employees.
Whatever your welcome message is, make it show that accessible, interested people are behind the website and ready to serve the visitor.
2. Informative content.
Once you’ve greeted your customers, give them information they need and answers they want.
A blog or other website content can provide in the online world the things that many business owners and professionals do in person:
3. Call(s) to action.
Many businesses want their website visitors to buy into their service. Getting a message that a customer wants your products or services is about as rewarding a response as you can get to your website.
But your site visitors might not be there yet. That’s especially true if you’re selling services (legal services, for instance) or a complex product.
So give your website visitors preliminary calls to action, such as:
4. Mobile access.
Most consumers want and expect to have a multi-channel experience. That means they want to be able to access the same information on a smart phone as on a desktop computer. And many more consumers are dubbed “mobile first” – that is, they tend to visit websites first from a mobile device. Pew Internet Research reported in 2015 that 92% of American adults have a cellular telephone and “90% of those cell owners say that their phone is frequently with them.”
Website providers can provide the capability to make your site mobile ready. A mobile-friendly site is also called “responsive” because it will “respond” and resize to fit the screen of computer, tablet or phone on which the user is viewing it.
Businesses and professionals can add other useful website features. But this list of four important website features is a good starting point.
Yet a website can do much more. At its best, your website is a digital storefront that invites visitors to interact with your organization.
Your visitors can be prospective or existing customers seeking to get in touch for service or for information about you or your products/services. To serve as many visitors as possible for your business or professional organization’s website, consider these four “must-have” features:
1. A welcome.
To compete in a world dominated by digital presence, offer a friendly “hello” in the online world. You could offer a simple one or two-sentence note from the owner posted alongside his or her picture. Or you could try a welcome message rotating monthly or quarterly among department heads or employees.
Whatever your welcome message is, make it show that accessible, interested people are behind the website and ready to serve the visitor.
2. Informative content.
Once you’ve greeted your customers, give them information they need and answers they want.
A blog or other website content can provide in the online world the things that many business owners and professionals do in person:
- Address the needs of prospects and customers.
- Answer queries relevant to the industry or topic.
- Highlight the expertise of the organization’s people.
3. Call(s) to action.
Many businesses want their website visitors to buy into their service. Getting a message that a customer wants your products or services is about as rewarding a response as you can get to your website.
But your site visitors might not be there yet. That’s especially true if you’re selling services (legal services, for instance) or a complex product.
So give your website visitors preliminary calls to action, such as:
- View related content on the site.
- Read what other customers have to say about the product/service.
- Get a product description or details.
- Ask about product delivery, service customization or other feature.
- Chat now.
4. Mobile access.
Most consumers want and expect to have a multi-channel experience. That means they want to be able to access the same information on a smart phone as on a desktop computer. And many more consumers are dubbed “mobile first” – that is, they tend to visit websites first from a mobile device. Pew Internet Research reported in 2015 that 92% of American adults have a cellular telephone and “90% of those cell owners say that their phone is frequently with them.”
Website providers can provide the capability to make your site mobile ready. A mobile-friendly site is also called “responsive” because it will “respond” and resize to fit the screen of computer, tablet or phone on which the user is viewing it.
Businesses and professionals can add other useful website features. But this list of four important website features is a good starting point.
