Your website is a powerful tool when it comes to converting leads. It's an asset that you should be maximising and taking care of to ensure the best possible ROI on your investment. After all, it's an online representation of your business and brand. Unfortunately, a company's website's true value is often overlooked, and many businesses miss out on a great opportunity to boost their lead conversions while looking great.
So how do you take your website design from bland to brilliant? There are several areas you'll need to consider, and one of the greatest ones is your user experience, or UX.
Ever landed on a website during a spot of browsing and found yourself absolutely befuddled as to where to find their "Contact Us" or "Services" pages? Maybe you clicked around a bit, only to find yourself sucked down a veritable rabbit hole of miscellaneous pages, none of which got you any closer to your goal? Terribly complicated and convoluted navigation frustrates your users. They're looking for a quick and easy way to find what they want to know on your site.
The answer is to simplify and prioritise your navigation. Keep the options on offer simple, and hide any extra navigation into a hidden menu, so you can guide your users to where they need or want to go.
There are very few things that drive me crazier than slow websites. In fact, if a site has loaded within the first seconds I arrive, I'm out of there. And I'm not alone – most people won't dwell on a site that has a slow load time. Not only that, but Google is more likely to penalise you from an SEO perspective if your site has a poor load time. So focus on making your site lightning fast.
Your users will often arrive on your site with a particular goal in mind. It's your job to clarify and define user paths for them that help them reach their goals with ease. You can do this by placing action items and pathways throughout your site using easily-distinguishable CTAs, fonts, colours, and other design elements. Don't forget to A/B test your elements to see which work more effectively for your visitors.
Your CTAs need to be showcased on your site, something not easily done if they're swallowed up in a sea of overtly bright design colour choices. It's better to opt for a monochromatic colour scheme that really allows your CTAs'contrasting colours to pop. It's also important to consider your CTA's design – going for a single-column CTA and eliminating distracting sidebars can boost your conversions nicely.
Video content is set to keep on booming, and if you've not considered video as a viable content format for your brand, it's time to reconsider. People love videos! And when it comes to building trust between your brand and your site visitors, video is a great way to introduce yourself to your users in a trust-building way, simulating a face-to-face meeting. Whether it's a creating a welcome video, or perhaps one details who you are and what you do, it's a solid opportunity to reach out to your target audience.
Personalised marketing has risen considerably in the last few years, and it's not surprising. Who doesn't love to feel unique and special? You can boost your UX by factoring in criteria such as a visitor's location, buying habits, browsing activity and other data to tailor their experience on your site and up the chances of it ending in a conversion.
This isn't anything new, but your site needs to be mobile. Not only to avoid Google penalties, but also to ensure you reach the millions of people choosing daily to connect using a variety of mobile devices, from laptops to smartphones. You need to make sure your site and all its design elements work when viewed on a mobile device, taking into account the changes in screen dimension and UX.
I loved those "choose your own adventure" books as a kid. They went the extra mile in drawing me, and the principle behind them works on websites as well. As human beings, we love to have choices. It makes us feel powerful and in control. By electing to use split-screen layouts on your site, you divide your users up according to their goals, guiding them to direct their path towards the landing page most likely to result in a conversion.
Your website should never be a stagnating entity. Your users are constantly changing, and your website should too. Consider approaching your website from a Growth-Driven Design approach. This approach focuses on the continual improvement of your website as a result of consistent testing and data gathering. Following a GDD approach ensure small changes, made over time, see a greater ROI on your site by constantly bettering its performance.
There you have it. A strong, well-designed website that offers a great user experience is a goal every business and brand should aim for, especially if they want to see more well-qualified leads converting. Have a look at your website, and see how you measure up. Every tiny action helps, so start optimising your UX now!