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If you’ve ever grown your own plants, you know that they tend to grow toward the sun. This makes sense; they rely on the sunlight for sustenance, so they’re going to do everything in their power to make sure that they get as much of it as possible. To use an analogy, the same thing goes for online marketing. Companies want to be able to go in the direction of where their prospective customers are. They’re doing it for the same reason as the plants: sustenance.
Over the years of running an online marketing company, I’ve found that there are some often overlooked marketing techniques that have helped businesses, even niche businesses, to grow. Perhaps foremost among these, web design is a bigger deal than many people realize.
There’s More To Web Design Than Looking Good
So many small business owners often think that the only goal of a website is that it looks great. They want something flashy, eye-catching and attractive. That’s all well and good; it’s even important. However, good web design has many benefits beyond that, too. Quality web design should be easy to navigate in practically every way possible.
Website = Online Storefront
A good analogy is to think of your website as a store. For many small businesses that don’t have physical storefronts, it is, for all intents and purposes, an actual store. When you walk into a store, you want to be able to move around. You want to be able to check all of the wares out — easy access to what you came for, as well as exposure to some items that you might not have realized exist. That’s a well-laid-out store in practically any industry.
Now, imagine that you walk into a store where all of the items are all over the place. Some are on the floor, some are hanging off the walls, and yet others are inexplicably hanging out of a hole in the ceiling. The paint is chipped (where there was paint) and there are items you were interested in, but you were physically blocked from getting there due to the store’s layout.
That’s what mediocre web design is like. It’s like a store that you can’t move around, nor are you able to purchase the items that you’re interested in. Looks are important, of course, but functionality is crucial.
Web Design Can Help Practically Any Kind Of Company
We’ve had all different kinds of clients over the years at our company. One particular industry that we’ve been very successful with is recovery, rehab and detox centers. This has been an industry where many of the business owners might not have been so focused on online marketing in the past for a variety of reasons. After all, every second that they spent thinking about “how should we present ourselves online?” is one second that they weren’t focused on how to best help their clients. Of course, online marketing and web design would be an afterthought.
But, through working with so many of them, we were able to utilize web design in ways that your business can, too. We focus on what is best about their facilities: the treatments they offer, the amenities at their location, the experience and accomplishments of their staff and so forth. Then we work with them to design a site that anyone could easily navigate their way around. After that, folks who are looking for a recovery facility (whether it’s for themselves, a loved one, a friend, etc.) can see everything that is there, all in one place. Of course, once we had designed the site in that fashion, they climbed up the online search rankings, as few rehab and detox facilities had farmed those services out.
You Can Utilize Those Same Attributes For Your Company
No matter what industry you’re in, you can do the same things for your company that we’ve mentioned above. You don’t have to be a rehab or detox facility to build a site that shows off your amenities, your staff or your services. Whether on your own or through the help of a professional, you can have a company website that’s specifically designed to be responsive — to work on any device. These simple actions can help your company to grow in 2020 and beyond.
