Small Business
Website Design Strategies
by Aaron Nathan
Think of it like a
courtroom. The small business is on
trial it’s products and services are
suspect from the get go. That small
business needs to prove beyond a
shadow of doubt that it can provide
the best value over its competitors.
What’s worse is that you only have
about 8 seconds from the time the
visitor hits the homepage to the
time they click the back button to
hook them into your sales copy.
For a small business a
website can have a massive impact on
whether that small business thrives or
dies out. There are several very
important differences between a website
built for a large business and a website
built for a small business. It’s
important that a small business and the
website design company who builds the
website for that small business are
aware of those differences so that the
website has the greatest positive
impact.
First of all don’t try to
look and act like the big boys. If you
are a small business please do not
plaster your site with platitudes like
“family owned since 1642” or “customer
service is our specialty” blah blah. IBM
and Coke can get away with having pretty
sites that blather on and on using all
kinds of corporate jargon but a small
business cannot do that. Here’s why…
Big companies are already
established brands. They can rest on
their laurels now; at least they think
they can. A small business website needs
to grab the visitor by the throat with
some hard hitting headlines and copy and
get busy proving its case because before
visiting that website it’s likely the
visitor has never heard of that small
business.
Think of it like a
courtroom. The small business is on
trial it’s products and services are
suspect from the get go. That small
business needs to prove beyond a shadow
of doubt that it can provide the best
value over its competitors. What’s worse
is that you only have about 8 seconds
from the time the visitor hits the
homepage to the time they click the back
button to hook them into your sales
copy.
The
number one difference here is the copy.
A small business website needs to be a
life support unit for its unique selling
proposition or USP not a contestant in
this year’s flashy foo foo web design
award contest. Win customers not awards.
Forget the animation and music and go
easy on the images. What a small
business needs is a lean ,
mean conversion machine.
Studies show the visitors
don’t even consciously register images
until after they have absorbed the copy
on the page. Makes sense because what
they came for was information not the
old receptionist at the desk on the
phone pictures that we have seen over
and over again. They want to know who
the heck you are and what you can do for
them and make it snappy!
It’s brutal but that’s
the way it works. A small business that
knows this and applies this to their
website has a huge advantage over those
who don’t. So if you are a small
business owner and need a website keep
this article in mind or if you have an
existing website take a look at it and
reevaluate it’s effectiveness in light
of this information. Small changes can
have dramatic effects on sales
conversion.
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About The Author
Aaron Nathan is a staff writer for
Click Response a website marketing
and design firm where you can get
small business website design
that works. |
