7 tips for creating a successful small business website solution

The internet is the place that can make you or break you. You need to be inventive when you have a small business and potentially no advertisement budget. Also, as a consumer, looking for a service, many people naturally Google Search what they need and then look at the site top listings.

If the site is slow loading or not very appealing then many will move on because that is the first impression they received. Put your best foot forward and create a site that will have customers flocking by taking some of these tips below.

Be Memorable

The first part of your page is the title, the header, and the logo, and you want them to be something that clients will gravitate to and remember. It should be clean and effective as well, letting them know who you are right off the gate.

I have seen many business logos where I have to guess what they do, sure if you have a million-pound marketing budget then you could call your company anything you like and that marketing spend will help to solidify what your company does. But as a small business, you really what to make it as easy as possible for website visitors to understand what you do.

If your company has an unusual company name that may not convey exactly what you do for business then simply add a clear and concise strapline to ensure your potential customers understand what you do.

Navigation Should Be Easy

All things should be easily found on the site. If people have to search for information through multiple clicks and links, like doing a research project, then they will probably head on over to a site that makes it easy for them.

Make the most important information visible on the first page and from there use a simple menu with no more than eight options. Make sure the links are easily understood and lead to where they should.

Newsletter Subscription

One of your goals should be to build a newsletter subscription base. Sending out newsletters is probably one of the most cost-effective internet marketing tools. For example, Amazon SES service costs only £0.10 per thousand emails sent.

Your goal is to give website visitors an incentive to subscribe to your newsletter. Why not offer a free e-book in return for a visitors newsletter subscription or tell your visitors that if they subscribe then you will send them a discount code?

Last but not least, don't make your newsletter subscription a constant annoying pop up which never goes away. Pop up newsletter subscription prompt is OK but should be controlled on how many times it displays over a period of a week for each visitor to your website. 

Video, Blogs, Vlogs & Social Media

Videos are one of the most popular formats for engaging with existing and new customers. You don't need a film studio and expensive video editing equipment, you simply need to put your hand in your pockets and use the full potential of your mobile smartphone.

You can film for free on your smartphone and download an app from the app store to edit video content.

At DCP we understand the power of sharing our knowledge using video-based content. We have uploaded over 500 video tutorials to our DCP YouTube channel and some videos have over 250,000 views! So that is a lot of exposure for 45mins work wouldn't you say?

There are many other social media platform to get your business exposure such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram to mention just a few.

Do your research and find out which are the most popular social media platforms for your target audience. For example, LinkedIn is great for business to business sales and Instagram is good for targeting a younger generation.

Finally: Make Sure People Know how to Contact You

People are generally in a rush and you can understand that with the hectic lives we live. Some businesses do not display a mobile number on their websites, but I personally think that this is a good idea. I guess it depends on the type of business you run.

Give your customers a choice in how they can contact you, here are some useful examples:

• Landline number
• Mobile number
• Direct email
• Online contact form
• Online chat tool
• Social media messaging
• What's App chat
• Facebook chat

Remember apart from the landline all the above can be managed from a single smartphone!

Article created by: Pankaj Shah | DCP Web Designers