DESIGNED FOR SUCCESS In association with Fireball Media

Orla O'Leary Sales & Marketing Director, Fireball Media

A website is your businesses marketing tool therefore the importance of design when building a website is crucial, writes Orla O’Leary.

A website is another tool used to market your company but on a worldwide stage. Brochures, business cards headed paper, complements slips, signage etc are all very important tools but for the most part they are seen only by a local or national market. A website is your businesses marketing tool to reach a larger audience therefore it is paramount that it reflects your company correctly.

BRAND AWARENESS

Assuming that you already have a brochure, business cards, company logo etc the website needs to reflect this. If you have spent the time and money to design any or all of these marketing tools then you will want the same branding style to run through the website. A website is meant to strengthen your brand awareness within the market place not reinvent the wheel. If you decide to change your company logo, company colours, products etc then you also need to change all of your other marketing tools.

ATTENTION GRABBING

A website needs to catch the attention of a visitor right away, if not they will go to your competitors website and you will loose a potential client. A website needs to embody your target market in order to turn potential clients into paying clients. Imagery is an excellent way to showcase a business or to attract a visitor. For example if you have a restaurant good photos of different dishes which will make a visitors mouth water, the interior of the restaurant which captures the atmosphere of the restaurant will encourage a visitor to book a table.

The only issue with images is that they need to be in the correct format for the internet, otherwise they will take too long to load. If this happens then you will loose a visitor to a competitor. A good website designer will be aware of these issues and can overcome them when designing your website.

EASY TO NAVIGATE

A well designed, clean website should be easy to navigate, once a visitor lands on your website they should be able to see where the different information is located, hence making it an easy to navigate site. Each page of your website needs to load quickly in order to hold a visitor. The information or content of the website should flow from one section to another.

Remember not everyone is a wiz on the internet so make sure you keep that in mind when you are having your website designed. You may want to have lots of flash, lots of clicking throughout your website or a very busy looking site but in doing so you will deter a portion of visitors. When there is too much going on within a website visitors tend not to be able to get the information they are looking for right away, therefore they will go to another company website.

UPDATED REGULARLY

When you are having your website designed think of the future of your company online not just the here and now. A sticky website will attract repeat visits; this means creating a website that is updated regularly. It could be updating information on new courses available or giving updates on general news within an industry, special offers, an Ezine Newsletter which will draw a visitor back to the website, online poles, competitions online, results of competitions; products launches etc are all invaluable tools to encourage repeats to your website.

One of the most important questions I would suggest that you ask yourself when you decide to have a company website is this, what was the business opportunity in the market you saw within your profession that made you decide to start your business? The answer to this question should be reflected in the form of your company website do not settle for anything less.

RETAIN CUSTOMERS

We have all at some point logged onto the web looking for a product or service and we have all logged out of websites that look unprofessional and /or are out dated. Today very few people are willing to take second best in the service or product that they are paying for. There are plenty of other companies to choose from online that will look professional and they are the ones that will get the call or business, not you!