Design and development of a website based on a marketing strategy
Among the many marketing strategies there is one that is crucial: the web design of your page. It must be attractive and meet the objectives you have set in your marketing plan.
Designing a website is not choosing the colors and putting the most beautiful photos of the company. First of all, because the colors must be in line with the corporate colors of the company. As for the latter, there is something else to show, in addition to eye-catching photos. For example, you have to explain what services are offered, how to contact the company, comply with legal requirements, loading speed, usability of the web, etc.. In short, the design must be consistent with an entire marketing strategy.
Economical design vs. professional design
Surely you have seen ads or know some case of companies that make very cheap web design offers. They may be very eye-catching aesthetically, apparently saving you money. With time these websites will give you problems. For example, it is possible that the server where the page is hosted may cause problems (low load speed, web crashes, etc.), they do not have maintenance, the web uses the same template as another competing company...
Why hire a company specialized in web design?
The most professional web design companies have their own server or, if they have a rented one, it is usually the most powerful, the safest and the most reliable on the market.
In addition, they have a professional team that will analyze your company from a 360 degree perspective, that is, that will take into account not only the design, but also the contents, the design of the page, which will be fully customized, also if necessary will be made icons and other graphic design required by your website. All this always following the strategy marked by the marketing plan.
Who is the team?
This team of professionals is usually made up of:
Artistic direction. It is the department in charge of contributing ideas; it can show you how your website is going to look better at a visual level. In addition, it is the part of the team that seeks to follow the same line of graphic design and web design when developing any interface. Of course, they will take care of adapting your website to your brand's normative manual.
Experts in usability. They are in charge of making your website successful. In other words, they are in charge of making sure that the user experience is satisfactory. This factor is of vital importance, as it influences the final purchase decision. This means that your website will not have complicated processes when the user makes a purchase of product or service on your website or submits a contact form. Note that a web whose navigation is complicated, will not attract new users, and those who visit it will leave quickly.
Programmers. They are responsible for creating the code for your website. Normally, they work in coordination with the graphic design department and the web design department. In other words, this department is going to make the web work.
Marketing specialists. These professionals are in charge of compiling all the information obtained through your website and analyse it. This will allow them to develop marketing strategies much more powerful and fully adapted to your needs. In addition, it will allow you to make promotions segmenting your potential customers, as well as capture new sales opportunities, measure traffic and visitor behavior.
In the case of starting from scratch, specialists advise waiting a minimum of three months to collect the necessary information before starting to develop those strategies that will allow you to grow your business.
In addition, marketing specialists are constantly aware of the different changes in the market and customer behaviour. In this way, they will be able to help you plan the next decision to start or they will modify the established plan so that your web captures a greater number of users and these are translated into conversions.
Don't forget it. The purpose of your website will always be focused on attracting and retaining customers and increasing sales.
Specialists in ecommerce. These professionals have an overview of the entire process involved in making online purchases on the website. They analyze the entire journey made by the user when making a purchase, analyze the data to trace the strategies to follow in order to increase sales, satisfy the customer and get loyalty.
SEO writers. All marketing strategies are aimed at finding us the largest number of users through search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing). One of the techniques used is to write as many articles as possible on the subject for which we want to find us. Always bearing in mind that relevant information must be provided and that the content must not be duplicated.
Native translators. They know perfectly the language in which they are going to write. They give us peace of mind in the sense that there is not going to be any kind of problem or failure. For example, we will avoid that the texts have a double meaning or that they do not really transmit the message we want to communicate. In addition, we will obtain texts in a much quicker way, personalized to the desired market niche. Likewise, the translations will be better adapted to each type of user. Thus, it is not the same for our website to be aimed at a young audience as it is at the business world. The language used will not be the same. The first will be more informal than the second.
How to make a website increase the sales of a company
It is clear that only with an attractive web design and graphic design is not sold. The user can visit your site, but if you don't give him something he won't come back and much less buy. Therefore, when planning a website, ie before the programmer writes a line of code must have clear strategy.
That's why, before getting into the matter, we recommend that you have an expert audit your business. It will establish the starting point so that your website can generate sales and that these increase over time.
Once we have the website already built, we have to start it up. In other words, you have to get traffic to the online store so that those visitors who arrive are encouraged to buy your products. As a consequence, your site will start to be profitable and, consequently, it will give benefits to your company. To achieve this ultimate goal we advise you to consider applying the following measures on your website:
Let them speak well of you
Get recommendations or testimonials from customers who have already purchased your products or services. Once this information has been collected, add it to your website. Potential customers are always looking for feedback from someone who has tried the item you sell. If these are positive, you have a high percentage that the number of conversions increases.
Updating the web with quality content
A website that is not updated, is not visited by Google to position it in its search ranking, nor do visitors come back because there is nothing new. That is why it is recommended to update the contents, always providing relevant information for users. Normally, a blog is chosen because it is easier to maintain.
It should be noted that other types of content can be developed that the user will be grateful for. For example, in the case of a company that sells printers, an informative video of how to change cartridges or a PDF with a manual can be incorporated next to the product.
Try to make the content entertaining, but, at the same time, teach something about the services or products you market so that the user wants to hire or buy them.
Sharing on social networks
Whatever you publish on the web, share it on your social networks. These help you make your website more reachable. This is going to allow you to reach more people. Especially if you create viral content; the reach will be much greater.
Create a reputation
This consists of participating in forums showing users that our company has that product that solves the problem being addressed. Surely one of the participants will come to our website and will contact the company or directly buy online.
Another way to create a reputation is to participate in blogs as a guest blogger, participate in interviews on YouTube channels and in podcasts. If we have the chance to appear in the traditional press, television and radio, so much the better.
Web Optimization
Although it is already "finished" it is necessary to continue working on the web. This means that you have to carry out periodic revisions. In this way, we guarantee that everything works correctly and we avoid bad criticism from angry customers because they have not been able to buy online. Some of these actions are usually carried out:
- Check that the menus, links and payment gateways work.
- Confirm that you are compressing the photos that are uploaded to the server, remember to rename them using keywords.
- Test the upload speed, i.e., that the web loads fast. If your website takes more than 6 seconds to load the customer will go to the competition because it will get tired of waiting.
- Check that the user makes the minimum number of clicks to buy (it is advisable not to exceed three clicks).
- Test the website on different devices: desktop, mobile, tablet... Sometimes, depending on the device, failures or incompatibility can occur. Although there are online tools with which you can check. Google Chrome gives that option. Just place yourself in the middle of the page, right-click and choose "inspect page" from the drop-down menu.
- Plugin update (in the case of using a CMS such as WordPress).
- Make sure that no viruses enter the page.
These are just some of the actions that are carried out for the development and maintenance of a website, are actions that go beyond a design motivated by personal taste. You must create a website that works and responds to a marketing strategy, regardless of whether the website is beautiful or original. In your business you are the one who knows your market niche, in BCM Marketing we know design and online marketing. Do we join forces?
