Twenty-first-century consumers often want to browse through products, view customer reviews, and compare products and prices with competing start-ups.

Top 5 Reasons Every Start-up Needs a Website

How can customers do this if your start-up doesn’t have a website? A survey conducted by Weebly reveals that 56% of consumers don’t trust a business that doesn’t have a website.

The dominating presence of the internet makes it mandatory for a business to have a website today. Here is a list of reasons your start-up will benefit from a website.

Let’s take a look!

If investing in a website for your start-up hasn’t been a priority, then the massive role the internet has played in our lives this past year should’ve shown you that it should be a priority.

A quality website like the one you can build with the best WordPress portfolio theme can do wonders for your business.

This article breaks down five main reasons you need to invest in a website.

1.Carve a Niche for Yourself in Your Target Industry

“We live in an age of specialization.”- Judge Graham

A well-defined niche in a market segment will strategically place your business in a position to scale faster. You will have a smaller and more concentrated audience ideal for monetization.

Before you pick a niche, clarify the broader market you aim to enter. For example, this could be the fitness industry. Break down a specific niche within this industry and decide what your start-up will focus on.

To see if this market is profitable, look for GoogleAds that reveal if money is being spent on attracting consumers to your niche. This will clarify if this market is worth entering. If you are creating your own niche or establishing your business in a niche with few players, use this to your advantage. As a start-up, make the most of your skills and establish yourself as the dominant player.

2. Offer Social Proof to Your Target Audience

Consumers want to feel confident when making a decision to purchase your services or products. A website with social proof offers third-party influence to sway potential customers.

Social proof can be displayed in the form of customer testimonials, product reviews, case studies, and quantifiable data. It’s a very important element of the landing pages. While requirements may vary depending on your target audience and the services you offer, when do customers not want social proof?

3. Showcase Your Offerings and Educate Your Customers

If your customer support team is swamped with tickets, it’s hard to be proactive and improve on methods to help your customers be successful in the long run. By answering queries in real-time, you can increase overall customer satisfaction and decrease support costs. This can be done with the help of solid knowledge management software.

This is an essential business tool that improves productivity, stores key resources, policies, goals, and access credentials that your employees can access. For customers, an external knowledge management system is ideal. This will showcase all information and services beneficial for the customer. By having a solid system, you can control and understand the way information flows within your organization.

4. Display Your Customer Reviews to Build Trust with Your Customers

Consumer habits today rely on reviews and testimonials from other consumers. Before you try that new restaurant, you and I both look up reviews from previous customers, right?

Word-of-mouth advertising is a great way to promote your brand, reward your customer’s loyalty, and acquire new customers. Positive reviews are a reflection of your credibility and reliability.

On the other hand, negative reviews can drive potential customers away. There are ways to effectively handle these situations and show your customers that your business will work to fix the issue.

Lastly, showcasing reviews will also reveal your diverse and multifaceted client base. This will help you build a portfolio that encourages a variety of customers to trust your business.

5. Maximize Your Return on Investment (ROI)

A high-quality website designed to specifically attract visitors and convert customers will help you maximize your ROI.

Using a content management system (CMS), update your website regularly. Outdated and stagnant websites can drive potential customers away. Keep up with trends and freshen up your content to give customers a reason to come back to your website.

Using search engine optimization (SEO), a website ranks higher on search results when a website engages its visitors for a longer time and over more pages visited. You can also increase search relevance by doing some keyword research and incorporating these phrases into your website. Lastly, be clear on what you want your customer to do. A clear and visible call to action such as “make a reservation” or “buy now” goes a long way in increasing conversions.

6 Tips to Design a Website for Your Start-Up

Now that we’ve established the importance of a website for your start-up, let’s give you a headstart on the design of your website.

After all, first impressions matter!

1. Enhance the User Experience (UX)

To design a website that attracts and engages customers and suits your business needs, your website must be visually pleasing, informative, and easy to navigate.

You don’t lose users due to outdated features or a complicated web design. This is where UX comes in. If used effectively, UX can drastically increase traffic to your website and increase your customer base.

If you’re unsure of what UX design is, it is the relationship between the service product and the potential customer. The UX design of your website plays a great role in influencing if a user is attracted to and interested in purchasing your product.

2. Ensure It Is Accessible Across Platforms and Devices

Today there are numerous gadgets people have access to like mobile phones, tablets, laptops, desktops, etc. It is ideal if your website is just as accessible across all devices to ensure the finest user experience.

Make sure button sizes are large enough to be accessible on mobile and use large fonts. Another way to ensure accessibility is to use Alt-text, which allows you to caption your images. Not only do you provide the option to read the image, but this improves your site’s SEO as well. Since your user may access your website from any device, make your text resizable and ensure it does not disrupt your website in the process.

Other beneficial options include making your website accessible to visually and hearing-impaired populations. Designing your website to be keyboard-friendly could be beneficial to those who are physically challenged.

3. Implement a Sustainable Visual Hierarchy

As the designer of your website, you are in control of the flow of the information and visual elements. While you may believe that everything you offer on your site is valuable to the customer, you must learn to prioritize elements to effectively communicate your message.

Infographics are a great way to incorporate images or gifs along with text to convey a message. Choose a pattern such as the ‘F’ or ‘Z’ pattern for a text-heavy design. The letters represent where the viewer’s eyes initially go. For ‘F,’, the eye movement starts from the top left, to the top right, then scans down, and moves horizontally across to the right, and so on.

Apart from tips on how to create an infographic, it is important you choose a color palette that represents your brand. Make sure you stick with this palette throughout for consistency. Your color palette could be warm, cool, or even earthy tones!

Colors can be a great way to establish a visual hierarchy. For example, a bright splash of red on the screen will surely grab attention!

4. Create a Simple and Unique Logo

While you want your website to make a great first impression, your logo is your brand’s first introduction. When designing your logo, remember what it represents. It lays the groundwork for your brand identity and is the first thing your audience will be looking for.

While you want to create something memorable and related to your business, make sure you add visual elements that make you stand out from your competitors. Your logo is here to stay, so design one you will want in the long run. Consumers crave consistency and look for familiar elements, like your logo, when purchasing services like yours in the future.

If you saw five pairs of joggers in a store and recognized one of the logos from a previous purchase, wouldn’t you lean towards those pair of joggers?

5. Provide Adaptable Content For Your Target Audience

Adaptable content is “the content that goes everywhere.”

The goal here is to create content and publish it everywhere. You want your content to be SEO-friendly, fresh, and personalized so you can translate the content from your website to your email newsletter or your social media platforms. The two keywords you need to remember are tailoring and personalization.

This one-on-one method of marketing convinces the user that your content is for them. To avoid overwhelming your users with vast amounts of information, narrow down the content you want to share and tailor it for various devices and platforms. If you deliver valuable content in an engaging manner, will your users take action? Of course.

Final Thoughts

By reading this blog you have already taken the first steps to set up your website for your start-up. Use this blog as a reminder when you start to question if a website is worth the time and effort.

Comment down below what are your goals for your start-up this year!