While many people consider having a website for their business a necessity in today’s digital world, few consider what the purpose of it is. Purpose drives strategy; without a central purpose to your website, there is a chance you are wasting your best opportunity to connect with customers.
In our 15 years of building websites, we have found that companies that have been around for a while tend to resist reinvesting in their website because they think “Well, we already have one and that is all we need.” If their website loads for their customer (or potential customer), then they are happy. However, over time as things get added or edited, their website slowly becomes “Frankensteined” together. New bits of information or designs added often clutter the site with too much information and hard to navigate menus. It usually has an outdated look, may not be mobile friendly, and may even contain old or incorrect information.
On the other hand, new companies tend to overthink their website by trying to compete with trendy designs of large companies. They want too many features and design elements. This can make finding information on their website challenging or as complicated as U.S. tax law. All these features require time to maintain and unless they have a team available to support it, their website will show dated information very quickly.
At Coeus Creative Group, we look to define the purpose of your site, and create a beautiful and informative website that achieves that purpose for your target customers. We use Behavioral Intelligence as a framework to determine the best strategy.
Websites are for customers and potential customers so understanding how you want them to behave on your website is the first critical step. Is the primary purpose of your website trying to:
- Sell Services or Products?
- Capture/Generate Leads?
- Establish your credentials/experience?
In the end, the purpose of every website is to convert visitors into prospects in some manner. Whether those visitors buy something from your website right away, submit an inquiry form, or like what they have read and contact you for a meeting, it is to get them to act. Keeping that in mind will help determine how you want website visitors to interact with your site.
The next step is to appeal to the right kind of website visitors. To continue to refine your website, we look at your audience. Knowing the various types of people coming to your website and various needs they are trying to address helps to define the purpose of your website. Using a combination of data and experience, we can then use behavioral intelligence to create personas of users that we use throughout the development process.
So, take a look at your own website, is your website working for or against you? Do you even know? Contact us for a FREE consultation and website analysis.