Since the mid-1990s, the internet has continuously revolutionized the standard in technology while making an unmatched impact on culture and commerce. It has led to the rise of instant communication such as email, instant messaging, video calls, blogs, social networking, and online shopping. These days, it is difficult to picture life without the Almighty Internet. For a field service business, it's important to have an easy-to-access website to stay ahead of the competition.
This vast expansion of the internet is precisely why it is critical for small businesses to have the best possible business website. Here are 5 tips on how to create a successful website.
1. Content
For many businesses, the website is the first way that your clientele will hear about you. Therefore, a customer’s first impression of your small business will rely on the content of the website. With the vastness of the internet, you need to first work on fantastic content in order to stand out among the crowd. Develop content that is unique to your small business and will make people re-examine what they thought they knew about the industry you are in.
If you plan to sell products off your company website, you should include information such as:
- Product lines
- Product Background
- Necessity of the product
- Customer reviews
If you do not plan to sell online, you can use your website as an extension of your business card. The most important content to include is:
- your education
- your experience
- your company vision
2. Vision
If you do not already have a vision statement for your small business that you can display on your website, here are several ideas to think about when creating the perfect vision:
- Choose a statement that can guide your small business for 3-5 years
- Assess your company’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. How can you make a weakness into a strength or a threat into an opportunity? Identifying these factors is crucial to determining your company’s commitments, goals, and values in order to create an accurate and effective vision.
- Be specific, clear, and focused.
- Examine the vision objectively. Ask a third party to read the statement and see what assumptions that people will make about your small business simply by reading the vision statement.
Know who your customer is. Who is likely to make the best use of your website? What does that person like? What is most important to him? Where is he coming from? What are his needs?
Believe it or not, you can cater to multiple different demographics by editing the content so that each individual sees a customized homepage.
The first time that I heard about the concept of homepage customization, I was listening to a seminar about interactive marketing for small business owners. The speaker was a marketing executive of Caribou Coffee and used Caribou Coffee’s website as an example of how to cater towards different demographics. If he knows that the customer is not located near a Caribou Coffee store, he emphasizes delivery on his homepage. If he knows that the customer values dark roast coffee, he advertises for a seasonal dark roast blend right on the homepage.
The way to achieve this is simple. Ask customers on your website to complete a questionnaire. Include questions that will give you information on
- Geographic location
- Tastes and preferences
- How they typically purchase products whether online, in-store, or another method
- Whether or not they are satisfied with their experience
This not only gives you the ability to see exactly who your customers are and what they care about but it also makes it possible to cater to them specifically based on their needs.
4. Easily Accessible
On the internet, people have access to many alternatives FAST. This makes the job of your website very important to keep people from going somewhere else. Often people are searching for something specific. If they don’t find exactly what they are looking for right away or if your website is too confusing, they won’t think twice about clicking on a different website. This could end up costing you money. Therefore, your job is to provide easy access to exactly what your customer is looking for.
5. Keep it simple
Once you have everything for your website in order, you will want to simplify it. Your website should not feel cluttered by a fancy layout or an obnoxious color scheme. Instead, key your layout simple, easy to access, and easy to remember later. You should standout among the crowd by your content, but your layout can be as simple as possible. This is because customers become overwhelmed easily. Many times I have been about to make a purchase on Amazon, but I save it for later because I get overwhelmed by the logins, the premium offers, and the advertisements for more merchandise. Remember what the goal of your website is and don't include unnecessary items.
Need some more small business tips? Learn how to spread that success onto every aspect of your service business! Download our free eBook today!
