5 minutes
DigitalCity is proud to work with some of the best in the tech industry, one of which is Braid Consulting. With over 20 years’ experience of building, delivering and managing digital strategies, the digital consulting service knows several tricks of the trade when it comes to digital success.
Co-founders, Brain Schur and David Ranby recently joined us to share their expert tips on one of the most important elements of a digital business – websites. Find out some of the most common website mistakes, what websites need to be successful, why design is so important and more…
From a technical perspective, the regular issue are:
From a marketing perspective the common error is a lack of appreciation of the basic rules applied to websites by Google;
When clients are not aware if this, they are in the total control of the agency, who in turn use efficient (i.e. cheap, quick) methods to “answer” the issues. Website owners need to have a grasp of the basics to ensure they demand a “belt and braces” approach to their website build.
Failing to maintain content/product developments on the website. Without change, customers and Google get bored of the site and pay it less attention. That results in declining engagement. In addition, search engines rank more actively changing sites above the static one. So organic traffic is lost.
Poor communication; failure to respond swiftly to enquiries, ensure dispatch is fast, send appropriate and usable email promotion, conflicting and unnecessary discounting. All these factors will annoy existing and potential customers and result in a move away from the business by customers.
Poor website transition. When a new site is built, ensuring all old web pages are repointed to the new website (301-redirects). We have seen many website projects where this has not been done well, and hence organic traffic, and bookmarked traffic no longer hit live pages.
Database management. Companies need to be familiar with how to build databases in this GDPR-ruled world. Get basic permissions and record them. Just as important, communicate with the list and develop knowledge of the recipient actions/interests (what links they follow/what happened) Failure to do these things means lost repeat visitors/customers and lost databases when it transpires the list was built illegally.
Potential customers don’t walk into, or stay in shops they don’t like, unless it’s through absolute necessity (post office, chemist). They certainly don’t go back to a place they thought looked/felt wrong. Websites are just the same! The design has to recognise the visitor’s needs, not just shout what the website owner considers the key point (i.e. BUY!). The design needs to entice, provide reassurance, and make access to the actions easy.
Test. Test colours on buttons till the one that drags the most clicks is arrived at, till the position of the CTA (call to action button) on the page reaches optimum click through, until the layout of those huge images, or smaller ones, result in people staying on the page/scrolling further for longer.
Develop worthwhile content additions to market and remind customers of your products so when the time is right, the target buys from you. It’s not all about a sale today, but also about developing the future customer.
Communication. Develop ways to have worthwhile conversations with customers to generate repeat purchase and/or advocates that build your new customer base. Email and social are the usual avenues but do it right; it’s a conversation not just shouting “I’m here”.
If you have a digital project in development or already underway, get in touch to find out how we can support through our Digital Assist Programmes.