FIRST impressions count for a lot in life.
FIRST impressions count for a lot in life. When you’re going for a job interview, you make an effort to look sharp, put on your best suit and comb your hair.
We agonise over what perfume or aftershave to apply when heading out for a first date, and we are taught to smile openly and make eye contact when meeting a client we haven’t met before.
This all happens for simple, scientific reasons – our evolutionary biology has an ingrained ‘stay or go’ mentality, and this has led us to making snap decisions within seconds of meeting somebody.
The exact same principle can be, and should be, applied to websites. When a potential customer visits your website, they too are going to judge it initially by appearances.
As the world gets faster, business becomes more competitive, and now that every company has a site of their own, it has never been more important to have a good-looking, modern and impressive website.
We’ve all been there – we click on a Google link to a site, and we’re immediately faced with gaudy colours, inappropriate fonts, poor formatting or confusing banners and subheading that look as though they belong in the 1990s… and what do we do? We immediately click the ‘back’ button, and choose the next Google listing that suits our requirements.
Below are some of the most common errors
1. Keeping up with the Joneses
Probably the biggest error a company can make nowadays, is to have a website that seems to belong in the distant past. This is more common that you’d think, and usually comes about when not giving enough thought to what consumers expect, or what impression their website makes on potential customers.
Company owners don’t visit their own website, and it just gets forgotten about. It needs to be reviewed and updated regularly.
2. Don’t underestimate the importance of your website
A website is just a tool, just one aspect of a business, isn’t it? No, it isn’t. Nowadays, a website is your virtual reception. 24 hours a day.
It’s the place your potential clients will go to not only to get information about your services and products, but also the ‘feel’ of a company.
An outdated website can make a company look out of touch and out of step with the modern business world.
3. Keep customers in the know
Other common (and easily fixable) mistakes include having few or no updates on the website. For example; a blog or ‘Latest News’. When the site was launched, it was updated with information and the comings and goings of the company on a regular basis. Over time, it becomes more relaxed, and before long, nothing has been posted for a year or two. A customer might see this, and (reasonably) presumes the company has gone out of business.
4. Take Pride
On top of this, a good website, constructed with the customer in mind and which creates a positive image and brand, is a reflection of the care and pride the company has.
If you were invited to someone’s house for dinner, and when you turned up you found that their home was dusty and things hadn’t been cleaned up for years, you’d quickly come to one conclusion. That the person takes no pride in their home, and the meal was probably going to be a ‘dog’s dinner’.
Websites operate in much the same way. You want to exude pride and professionalism through the image you set of your company.
The easiest way to do that? Keep your website modern and bang up to date.
5. New World, New Expectations
The simple fact is that there is more competition than ever before. Companies providing services of all sorts are no longer relying on local customer bases, or the Yellow Pages.
Today, companies based in rural England are as much in competition with similar business in big towns and cities.
Recent figures show that 3 out of 4 adults access the Internet on the go and 8 out of 10 people go on the Internet every single day. (Source: ons.gov.uk)
The internet has connected the world. It is accessible from anywhere.
Constructing a decent, approachable and stylish website is a fundamental business requirement, and there’s no longer any excuse to be left behind.
So, if you have an old website, you might want to think about making it a priority. Make it mobile and easy for people to find you online, and stop damaging your business with things that can be easily fixed.
Visit www.ihm.co.uk for even more information about making your website successful or alternatively call in.house.media on 01604 790 007.