A good web design is a very effective and important marketing tool for a small business that operates online. Answer the following design questions to help you achieve your web site goals.
For a small business, web design can either make or break your online business operation. It is a silent yet powerful marketing tool that should never be taken for granted.
Your web site design, its visual appeal, layout, functionality and content are all signals that trigger the user to accept your proposition, or just leave your site. Whether you are a web designer or a small business owner, you should know which trigger points are persuasive that help users to accept your offer and which discourage them.
Design is not simply making your web site pleasant in the eyes. Sometimes, what we perceive as a good design may not work well with the users. You may have incorporated the perfect color combination and the latest website enhancement technology yet fail to persuade the user to take action.
The major goals of any online business can be broken down into four: to increase traffic, to boost conversion, to improve return on investment, and to multiply repeat business.
At some point in your online business cycle, you will need to determine what your goal is and identify the methods of execution to increase traffic, conversion, purchase, and repeat business.
How to Build and Audit Persuasive Web Design
Here are some questions with actionable strategies to help you achieve your online business goals.
Reflecting Your Audience’s Character
Your website design should be a reflection of the character and interests or your target audience. However, there may be cases that it is you character and personality that is projected, in which cases it is important to be authentic.
Knowing your target audience, their interests, character, and personality will guide you in choosing the right color, theme, design, visual media, as well as content for you website that will suit them.
Question: Does the rich media, imagery, technology and character of your written content reflect the character of your audience?
In web design, you should not only satisfy practical needs of your audience but also their emotional needs as these play a vital role in persuading them to take action in your online business.
Reflecting Your Product’s Character
Design should not just reflect the nature of your audience but also be a reflection of your product’s character. There should be congruence and compatibility with your website design and the products or service you offer. An online floral shop is not a service website of a law firm nor an online mobile store. The truth of the matter, in marketing and in web design, is that stereotypes are existing.
Take Action: Incongruence breaks the cycle of persuasive design. Take time to look at your web design and ask whether it is in harmony with what you offer.
Limiting Your Scope
What many successful businesses have in common is that they have a focused product or service. Though overtime products offerings grow, the focus and design should still lead to a single goal.
Incorporating various web design styles to match your different product offerings will turn out to be distracting and will decrease your site’s rate of conversion.
The design of your site – which is a part of the marketing message that showcases the features and benefits of your product or service – should direct the site user to a single goal, pointing to only one call-to-action on each page.
Take Action: Go through each of your website’s page and count the number of calls-to action.
Simplifying the process
Simplify the process of interaction in your website. The goal here is simple, the user should be able to finish an action in the shortest number of possible steps and clicks.
There are various ways to shorten the buying process and improve persuasion to buy, make sure it is reflected in the layout and design of your site.
Take Action: Cycle through the calls-to-action in your website.
Question: How many steps did it take to reach the user goal? How many clicks did it take? How complicated was the process? Could you simplify it through you site’s layout and design?
Conclusion
Remember, the goal of your web design is to captivate site visitors, make them purchase or take action to generate a profitable return on your investment and repeat the process.
People are over design tricks and gimmicks. What works now are concise, simple, efficient and effective designs to make the goals clearer and their lives easier.
We live in a time where less is more. We, at No Limits Media, will help you implement that reality into your web design for a guaranteed increase in traffic, conversion, purchase, and repeat business. Visit https://www.nolimitsmedia.com/now and we will package a solution just for you.
Source: https://www.business.com/articles/persuasive-strategy-web-design/
