By JENNIFER CERNA
There is one thing that everybody knows in order to have great marketing results: people do business with people they know, like, and trust. But how can they get to know, like, and trust you? There are many different ways, but one of the biggest is through a website. Anyone can buy a domain, set up a WordPress template, and put some words on it. But how do you know you are doing it correctly and effectively? You do it by using fundamental website design principles.
But why does my site need to look good or a specific way? Because website design is intentional with creating and developing the know, like, and trust factor throughout your site. Here are three ways that website design can do that for you.
Know: Creates A Good Customer Experience
When someone lands on your website, you want it to be easy to read and to find what they are looking for. Otherwise, they click off and go to another website. You want to keep that potential customer on your website for as long as possible. Part of website design is what we call “the flow of a site,” which means how the customer can get to where they need to go in 3 clicks or less. Most non-designers make the mistake of making the user go through page after page before they find what they are looking for. This can be frustrating and annoying, which causes the user to go to another website that is much easier to navigate. But with a good flow and design, customers have an easy time going through your site and coming out satisfied with their search. It allows them to get to know you through your site, your branding, and your content. It’s the beginning of their experience with you.
Like: Forms A Good Impression
How many times have you done business with, or bought from someone you didn’t get a good impression from? Hopefully, none, because then you aren’t satisfied with the process. Similarly, how you wouldn’t hire someone who comes into a job interview looking like they just rolled out of bed. Good website design gives a good first impression to potential customers and clients. It shows your professionalism, your personality, and your value to anyone who lands on your site. When you make a good impression, people remember you. And when they remember you, they come to you when they need help solving a problem, which is the ideal place to be. It’s what we call being “top of mind” and should be the goal for every marketing effort you make. A good impression through website design is strategic. Good website design helps your content and solutions resonate with your target audience because it was made with them in mind.
Trust: Builds Authority and A Good Reputation
Lastly, you can know someone, you can like them, but if you don’t trust them, it’s all for nothing. You wouldn’t trust your hard-earned money with someone with a reputation for stealing. And you wouldn’t go to a restaurant with one-star reviews from every customer they’ve had. A good website design accounts for this and creates your site around your expertise and reputation. This can be done in many ways, such as putting industry awards on display, or previous customer testimonials. But they need to be put and done in the right way to entice and build trust. Another big way is to build authority by means of a blog. The design can make or break your blog. If it’s too hard to read or hard to find what they are looking for, they will never come back. But having everything you need to demonstrate and present your authority and good reputation is built into a good website design.
There are many other ways to push your potential customers through the know, like, and trust thresholds on and outside of your website. It is meant to work together, where your website is a cog of a much larger machine. But a good website is one of the big cogs, which needs to be deliberately designed and placed to function with the rest of the moving parts. Website design is an investment that you can make to create a good customer experience, a good impression, and a good way to build authority that will help you be the business your target customers know, like and trust which will ultimately lead to more conversions and more sales.
Jennifer Cerna is the founder and Creative Director at Jreamit Marketing, a marketing agency that specializes in branding and website design. We have worked with doctors and other medical professionals to get better marketing results with storytelling and branded experiences. Our clients have more time to focus on growing their business as we take care of their marketing functions and processes. To learn more about website design click here. Or contact Jennifer at jenn@jreamitmarketing.com with any questions.
