Imagine Flora owns Fluorescent, a neon sign shop. She carefully designs her shop to create a great shopping experience and to showcase her flair for neon.
But when it comes to her website, she figure that since her company is a small brick and mortar business, her website’s design and content don’t really matter…. Hmmm…..
Actually, as we all now know a website alongside other marketing tools i.e. social media are an extension of your business. Just like your businesses’ physical location, you want your website to have prime real estate, to showcase your brand, and convert your browsers into buyers. What type of website might help Ellie do that?
The first set to creating a string website is finding a prime location, which on the internet is a good domain (Your web address). You can use websites like GoDaddy or Google Domains to search for and register available domain names. Don’t forget to renew your contract annually to avoid losing it.
Consider including a keyword in the address. Fluorescent is a clever name, but people might not find it if they do a search for neon signs. Adding “neon” or “signs” can help people find Flora’s business more easily. User the .com extension if it’s available because it’s the most widely recognised domain name extension.
Setup up a custom email address on your domain, like Flora@fluorescent.com. This will make your business look professional and can help increase brand awareness among people you email. You can get this set up by using third party providers avoid sticking to hello@domain.com, it’s does not look professional and takes away the personal approach.
Your website should satisfy your customers’ needs, while helping reach your business goals like raising awareness, driving sales, or collecting leads. To raise awareness, start with the basics: business name, map location, and contact details. Consider putting your contract details in the footer of every page and encourage customers to email or call if they have questions – human engagement always wins (obviously it depends on your business).
Have an “about us” section explaining what your business does and stands for. Link to your business’ social media accounts, and have staff bios and customer testimonials to help visitors to get to know you.
Next, include features that are unique to your business. For example, if you provide a custom service, you might want to create a page that allows customers to design their own products or see different options for inspirations.
To make contacting your business simple and help you stay in touch with your digital humans (customers), create a form on your website, where they can input their details. Don’t ask for too much information, or they might not fill it out. Keep the form the essential and ensure you GDPR compliant!
Search engines pull words from your webpages to understand what the website is about, so it’s important that the website’s content is descriptive.
To make sure your website covers all the relevant information, use the 5 W’s
Who – Fluorescent
What – Neon sign shop
When – Timings of when they access your service
Where – address of location
Why – Unique neon, creations by lighting expert, Ellie
If you think it would be helpful explain your product or service in more detail, create a frequently asked questions (FAQ) section to allow customers to learn more about your company.
Finally, make sure you use font sizes, colours and other aspects of design consistently across your website to make it look presentable and professional.
