Think Beyond The Site
by Peter Barta
If you think about your web site as a marketing tool, then your on the right track. Basically a web site is an extension of your business. When people are looking and interacting with your site they are, in fact exploring and evaluating what you have to offer.
Your web site is a direct reflection of your brand and what it represents. A good site reinforces a brand in the positive way whereas, well the reverse is also true. So, if you tend to see your web site as a bit of an after thought, ask yourself how that reflects on your business as a whole.
Think about the following. How many people visit your site that you don't know about and how many of them could have been converted to customers. Also for the younger generation, they won't be having this discussion. Using the Internet will be as familiar to them as listening to the radio, watching television or reading newspapers. Is your web site ready for this generation of consumers?
Your web site is a place to communicate with customers, suppliers, partners, internal staff and franchisees. It can even be a place to transact, order, exchange or process. It can be used as a knowledge base or as a medium to deliver training.
As a marketing tool there are some design considerations when building a site. So if you are building a new site or doing a makeover of your existing one, think about the fact that user experience is directly correlated with buyer behaviour.
If the experience of the user is poor then that will affect their purchasing decision. Remember that research shows that the web is often used as an "evaluative medium". So, many people may well come to the site as their first port of call. A positive customer experience will increase the likelihood that people who go to your site decide to explore your business further.
So what makes up the customer experience? Well think about yourself as a consumer.
When you go shopping it would be fair to say that you want a shop that:
- Is easy to get around. Not too cramped with simple directions on where particular items are located. Your web site needs to have appropriate size fonts, spacing and a lack of clutter. It also needs some navigation so that people can easily find their way around.
- Indicates where to go if you need some assistance. You would not believe how difficult it is sometimes to find out the contact details on a web site.
- Appropriate use of colours, font type, point size and adequate contrast to make it easily readible. This is part of good design principles. Again it needs to be appropriate to the audience.
- Relevant to the audience. I don't think I would like to walk into my accountants office and be presented with something that looks like something out of a Marvel comic. I went to a Finance site the other day and saw that they were advertising adult entertainment. I wonder what their conservative investors thought of this. So think about your audience, who they are, what are their key emotional drivers and do they have any special needs. If you are dealing with an older audience for example, think about accessibility issues. Your audience may have sight problems so you have to design with that in mind.
- People out there have all sorts of different computers and operating systems. Is your site compatible with these?
Here at Thinking Pty Ltd we like to look at the customer experience because, at the end of the day, what else is there. A positive customer experience drives the business relationship and provides the consumer with a sense of confidence in terms of who they are dealing with. It encourages repeat purchases and brand loyalty.
So, it's more than just a web site.