A great website experience is something your customers truly value. It can be the reason a customer chooses your service over another.
Take your landing pages very seriously and test them out. A great landing page experience can help you gain loyal customers.
According to a MarketingExperiments, 64% of marketers say landing pages are the most important online factor of testing your promise of value to be delivered. Here are things you need to keep in mind when improving your landing pages.
Mobile Landing Pages
It’s extremely important to optimize your landing page for mobile devices. As soon as your page opens, a prospective customer should be able to see the entire page on the device no matter the size of the screen. If a landing page isn’t mobile, important information can be cut off, images too big and fonts too small. You don’t want your customer zooming in and out in frustration.What you want is a great landing page that has large fonts, tabs and is fast to load. Not only are mobile landing pages beneficial for customers, but for you as well. If you go mobile, your search ranking will be higher, you’ll get more page views and this can translate into conversion rates. Creating a mobile site led to a 153% increase in conversions for Deluxe according to SlideShare. If it works for them, it can work for you.
It’s Not About You
Remember it’s not about you – it’s about the customers. What you have to offer to make their lives better should be the focus of your pages. They don’t want to know about your comapny’s success or your CEO’s life story. It’s all about the products or service itself. Make your pages faster to load by simplifying them. Although you want to include creative and cool elements, less is more when it comes to a great landing page. Don’t be disappointed because simplicity is one the latest web trends.
Who, What, Where, Why
Give customers all the information they need.They should know all the basics of your service within the short time they spend on your website. Let them know who you are and what your service is all about. Show people where they can find your service or products. Provide links and directions to your location. If you want to be tech savvy, link Google maps to your website so they find you in a convenient manner. Most importantly, include why your product should be chosen. There are many companies like you, so why should your product/service be used over others? Is it the price, quality, or the values of your company?
People should leave your website feeling fully knowledgeable about what your services are and satisfied with a great landing page experience.
Contact NuZoo Media for more information
about creating a great landing page.
The lack of certain website features can be the reason your website traffic and conversion rates aren’t where you want them to be.
If people are leaving your site without returning or taking action, it might not be about the product or service but the website experience.
The way you represent your business is vital because your website is the first place people go to find out about your services. Here are a few website features you can’t go without.
Mobile
Because mobile devices are a huge component of online activity, going mobile is one of the most important website features you need to have. Customers want a fast and easy way of viewing a website, especially with a small screen space. 61% of consumers like a brand more when they have a pleasant mobile experience according to Mobify. Going mobile shows consumers that your business is innovative updated and active.
Social Media Platforms
The presence of social media on your site is critical. Social media is great for networking, communicating and showing people what you’re all about. People on social media can help your business grow by writing about your business, sharing your posts and inviting friends to follow you. Use social media to promote your products and offer promotions. Social media also gives you a platform to show your customers how you’re engaged with the community. Have share buttons on the front page of your website where it’s visible and stands out.
Sign Up Form
This is a call to action. Encourage customers to sign up for your e-newsletter. Through newsletters, you can inform people about your services, news and promotions. Offer incentives for signing up such as a discount on a product. This is a great way to interact with your customers by sending out emails on a consistent basis. Have your sign-up button on the front of your page where it stands out.
Blog
If you don’t already have one, a blog is one of the website features that gives your company a plus. Blogging is a great way for customers to get to know more about your company and the people that work there. Writing articles about your industry, its’ products and services helps position you as an expert and builds trust with customers. Customers can leave comments and questions for an interactive and personal experience. Blogs generate 126% more leads than those without a blog according to Yahoo! Small Business. A valuable part of blogging is that it can generate more traffic through search engine optimization (SEO). If your website has a blog, your website can be easier to find on search engines because they love fresh content to index.
Sticky navigation is a web design trend that’s all about convenience and accessibility.
Do you ever get annoyed with scrolling to the top of the website to get back to the menu?
With sticky navigation you won’t have to. A sticky navigation menu follows you wherever you go on the page.
What Is It?
You might not have noticed websites with sticky navigation but you most likely have seen one. A sticky navigation is a menu that “sticks” around no matter where you go on the page. It follows you as you scroll down the page.
Website viewers like sticky navigation because it’s easy to navigate the website and find pages according to WebUnlimited. Usually people have to keep scrolling to the top of the page in order to get back to the menu. This can be annoying especially with lengthy websites. Traditionally, menus are on the left side column of a website but with sticky navigation, the menu is the front and center piece.
Why Use it?
Designing an effective navigation on your website is critical. With sticky navigation, users spend less time clicking and finding tabs. You don’t have to scroll back to the top of the site to get to the menu bar. It’s always visible no matter how far you scroll. This is a useful tool if your website holds many web pages. Sticky navigation keeps pages organized and easy to spot. In an experiment conducted by SmashingMagazine, 100% of the participants indicated that the website with the sticky navigation was easier or faster to use.
Disadvantages
Sticky navigation is not 100% responsive. There are compatibility issues with some mobile devices because of the differences in size.
A minor disadvantage is some people don’t like a menu floating around, sticking with them wherever they are on the site.
Another issue is sticky navigation takes up a lot of space on your website, leaving less area for content. However, preferences depend on whether you want as much content space as you can get or if you like clutter-free, clean slate websites. On the plus side one of the biggest web trends now is a clean simple website.
Contact NuZoo Media for more information on sticky navigation!
If you’re a small business owner you already know that a website is important for marketing & sales. But there are many types of small business websites. What’s right for your business?
There are so many different types it can be confusing to find the right one. Educating yourself on the various types of small business websites is the first and most important step in properly marketing your business.
We’re going to look at 3 different types of small business websites. This should make it easier and less confusing to decide what site suits you.
Brochure Website
This is exactly what it sounds like: the digital version of your printed brochure with a similar design. This type of website is usually the least expensive because it’s smaller and static.
These sites usually cover the basics including company history and experience, a brief list of products and services, contact information, FAQs, even customer testimonials. A brochure website is a great starter website that establishes your business on the Internet and provides customers with an overview of the business.
If you’re a smaller brick-and-mortar company that doesn’t have services you can easily sell online, this is usually the best option. Think hair salons, auto garages and veterinarians.
A brochure website is the first step in marketing your business online. Then you can start to link all your electronic efforts together, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp reviews, Pinterest and whatever other sites you’re using.
E-Commerce Website
An e-commerce website is used to sell products and services online. This type of site can be a complement to your brick-and-mortar store or for businesses that sell primarily online. E-commerce websites range from small local companies selling as few as one item online to large online-only companies like Amazon.
Just like a store, they’re organized by departments or categories for easy browsing and purchase. Shoppers add items to a shopping cart and check out when they’re finished. There are usually a variety of payment methods for the customer’s convenience that can include PayPal, credit cards and direct withdrawal from a bank account.
This type of site requires more design and programming so it will cost more than a brochure website and take more time to build. But there are plenty of alternatives to building one from scratch. Options include:
PayPal: This easy-to-use and budget-friendly site has become the go-to online payment center for many businesses and individuals. Anyone can sell their products and services on any website, including a brochure website. Shoppers select items to buy and when they’re ready to checkout they’re linked to PayPal to finish the financial transaction.
Yahoo! Small Business: A turnkey solution that offers 3 e-commerce packages: Starter plan for $19.95/month; Standard plan at $49.95/month; and Professional plan $299 per monthly.
Magento: This open source (read: free) shopping cart can scale from ‘easy-to-use’ to pretty complex configurations. Also, lots of themes, extensions and support forums for DIYers who don’t want to hire a web design company.
Shopify: A step up but more involved. It hosts your site on its servers, manages the administrative backend and handles security. The basic service costs $29 a month, professional $79 and unlimited $179 a month.
Lead Generating
You can use your website as a referral engine to actively generate more business. This type of website is more advanced than the brochure website. Start by blogging on a regular basis with topical, relevant content to your business, products or services. This gives customers and prospects a reason to visit regularly, and can increase their trust in your business. It also shows your expertise. Each time you blog share it on LinkedIn, Facebook, Google+ and any other social media platforms you’re using. Deliver high-quality content people want and need and you’ll see more online traffic, build trust and generate more referrals. This type of website requires more in resources; you’ll need someone to blog and update the site regularly. But the benefits are well worth it for many businesses, with an increased profile and site traffic.
A great website experience is something your customers truly value. It can be the reason a customer chooses your service over another.
The lack of certain website features can be the reason your website traffic and conversion rates aren’t where you want them to be.
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Sticky navigation is a web design trend that’s all about convenience and accessibility.