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Web Design Firm: Web-site 'Design' versus 'Sales'?
As a Web Design Firm, we specialise in building websites that generate high sales volumes.
This is why business owners who are focussed on growing their businesses love us - because, as a Web Design Firm, we will place greater importance on the sales their web-sites are able to generate, over the visual appeal of their website.
Having said this, you don't always need to compromise on the appearance of your website in order to improve sales.
In fact, here are just a few of the simple yet effective techniques Alliance Software has used to improve the effectiveness of our clients' web-sites.
Think about what’s visible “above the fold”
A good Web Design Firm knows that you only have two or three seconds to "grab" a site visitor's attention with what's on their screen.
You see, when your website loads, people instantly judge you based on what's immediately visible on the page. In those two-or-three seconds, they make a decision on whether or not to keep reading - or click away.
The part of your front page that is instantly visible is what’s referred to as ‘above the fold’. We typically minimise (and in some cases remove) banners that hog this space.
It’s your most valuable real estate – you need to grab people’s attention here (e.g. with a powerful headline) because if you don’t, you’re history!
If you can't make a sale, at least get their email address.
People think email marketing is dead – they’re wrong! Email marketing still works very well (we’ve got clients who make hundreds of thousands of dollars from it), so if you fail to make a sale, at least attempt to collect an email address.
Make your website content ‘skimmable’
Some people will read every word on your website, others will only read skim read, so you must make yours easy to skim and therefore tailor your offerings to this portion of the market. Simple rules for “skimability” are:
- Use short paragraphs – 4 to 5 lines max. If you go too long, the brain subconsciously says “too hard, I can’t be bothered reading that”.
- Use bullet points – they’re great and easy to skim
- Use lots of headings and sub headings – they make it easy to read
- Highlight, italicise or bold important phrases
Use "Step 1 of 3, Step 2 of 3, Step 3 of 3" for multi step processes
If you need to take people through a multi step process (e.g. a complex sign-up procedure) then be sure to break the process up into steps and use headings that tell people they’re up to “Step 1 of X”. This is a simple way of letting people know what step they’re up to and how many there are to go. This helps minimise the number of people who abort the process.
Emphasize privacy of details.
If you don’t share people’s with other companies then be sure to tell your visitors. Every form you ask people to fill in should include a privacy policy that says, in clear English, “we will not sell your details to other companies”. This gives people a sense of security about using your services.
Minimise outbound links
If a website is aimed at making a sale, then don’t distract customers by giving them outbound links they can follow. A good expression used by online marketers is that your site should be a slippery slope which leads people to a simple decision about buying.
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