Be more successful with a better website

How well does your website represent your business and your brand? Do your customers find what they want when they visit it? Or has it passed its use-by date, telling a story about your business that no longer reflects what you do?

 

The seemingly unstoppable rise of Facebook is making headlines for many reasons, but the most important reason for your business is the way Facebook is changing the expectation your (potential) customers have of your website in terms of its design, ease of use and interactivity. For many people, Facebook is the reason they’re online, and the bar that it sets for other websites when they start to explore, is pretty high.

This means that you need to think hard about your business’s web presence and how it represents you. Bear in mind that your website will be the first experience most potential customers will have of your brand. Gone are the days when you could get away with a two page website with some basic information about your business and a couple of photos. Today, everyone is more discerning: they know what they want and if you don’t measure up, your competitors’ websites are only a click away.

That’s not to say that every business needs a complex and sophisticated website. For many, less can be more, provided people can find what they need quickly and easily. But you still need to think carefully about what you want your website to achieve, and design it accordingly.

In fact, most reasons for a business to get a website boils down to one of two things:
The first is to drive more business, either by generating leads and sales or by promoting your brand.
The second is to make your business more efficient by using your website to automate tasks that you need people to do today.

When measuring the likely ROI from a new website, most businesses focus on the first reason, seeing their website primarily as a marketing tool. If that’s all you want then there are apparently 60 website developers in town for you to choose from.

On the other hand, we believe that the second reason, business automation, is the area where you can gain the biggest return from a new website, although finding a partner to work with requires more research to get it right.

Some ways you could use your website to automate your business processes include:
You could save sales costs with an eCommerce website, to make sales directly to your customers.
Reduce duplication of effort by feeding web leads into a CRM, removing the need to retype this information multiple times.

Streamline the ordering process for account customers through an online ordering/quoting system, and offer each customer a different pricebook.

At Totali, we specialise in business automation, while still delivering a website that works really well as a marketing tool. We get “under the hood” in your business to design and then deliver a solution that adds real value. In fact, if we can’t find a way to add value, we won’t bid for your business.

To find out more about Totali and to see examples of the type of work that we do, visit our website at www.totali.co.nz/chamber-of-commerce, or call David Parrott, Business Development Manager for Totali, on 07 928 8867, to find out how we can build you a website that delivers more customers and makes your business more efficient. David has over 10 years experience working with businesses to help them develop effective web-based solutions.

Posted on the 20th of December, 2010, Written by Arron Edwards. Subscribe to our RSS Feed or our newsletter.

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