Stop interrupting what people are interested in, and be what people are interested in. We have written several articles about adaptation and change. There has been tremendous change online since the advent of the internet, yes? And the amount of change in this arena and in consumer response, while still in its infancy, continues to accelerate. So it is essential to adapt the online presence of your business to these changes with components of the best websites.
Have you ever wondered what makes a website truly great? So great that traffic is high, people are engaging with demand are off the charts, and many new customer relationships being built.
How often do you find a new website that makes you stop and stare? It screams to you that it is a modern-day masterpiece. The aesthetic and user experience is off the charts.
It’s new, innovative, and, frankly makes you wish you could design a web site for your business with all the great features of the one you are looking at.
Here is a neat example:
In 1865, Gregor Mendel published the paper that established him as the father of genetics. However, it went largely unnoticed until it was rediscovered decades later and became widely recognized as one of the great discoveries in the history of science. Sometimes design is like that.
Think about what makes it stand out to you? Is it a beautiful, award-winning graphic design? A killer SEO strategy? Its interactive, cutting-edge user experience? Or is it simply tied to the amount of monetary investment? The bigger the budget, the better the website, right?
The heart of most marketing campaigns has been the website. The biggest problem with most websites, however, is that they are instantly forgettable. They say the same thing as your competitors.
You see two possible results from this problem. The first is that most customers will quickly lose interest and click away from the site.
The second is that, if they stay, they’ll find no reason to select you, because there’s no discriminating message. They click away with no reason to return.
Related post: Some Great Story and Storytelling Examples to Study
So what is the magic of creating a potentially eye-catching web site? Consider the following xx elements we use to build award-winning web site designs and redesigns:
Best websites … know their target community
When starting a web project, many think about who we are, what’s special about us, and how we should communicate our unique selling points.
But our readers aren’t interested in us, our business, and our products
They just want to know what’s in it for them.
Take the time to grab insights of all types from your customers. What keeps them up at night, both professionally and personally? What will they be worrying about at the time of your talk? Maybe they’re more concerned about what to have for lunch?
I once was given the opportunity to redesign the website of a beer company, but I knew very little about beer (I’m more of a wine guy). So, I hosted a beer tasting with friends so I could try different kinds of beer and learn from my colleagues on the subject.
Your community is more likely to be engaged and believe you if you’ve made efforts like this to understand them. Otherwise, you’re just a traveling salesman, who is never much appreciated, right?
Establish clear objectives
We’ll keep our objectives as simple as we can. The simple objective … turn marketing into content, not content into marketing. Provide all types of content that people are interested in, talk about and share with their friends.
Components of the best websites design … have clear description
Many websites fail to clearly and easily answer “Who I am,” “What I do,” and/or “What can you (the visitor) do here.”
If you’re a well-known brand or company (i.e. Apple for example) you can probably get away with not having to describe who you are and what you do; but the reality is, many enterprise businesses still need to answer these questions so that each visitor knows they are in the “right place.”
If visitors can’t identify what it is you do or where to go to find what they need within seconds, they won’t stick around long.
Essence of Design
Eye-catching visual design
The popularity of infographics and other visual social media platforms like Instagram and Pinterest show how important visual media is to marketing and capturing the attention of your community. The cliché “a picture is worth a thousand words” also holds true on LinkedIn.
Images make your LinkedIn company page visually appealing to visitors, so they’re more likely to consume and share your content—and direct their connections to your company page.
Best looking websites … show & tell with videos
You don’t need to be told that the use of online video is growing rapidly. Just take a look at these key points:
In 2013, over 52 billion videos were viewed online (MarketingCharts)
52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them more confident in online purchase decisions (Invodo)
An estimated 63 percent of social media comprises imagery. As such, visual platforms are playing an increasing role in social media for businesses
Video content like Vine and Instagram featuring micro-videos are another effective promotion tool for businesses absorbing stories to tell.
Spend the time to find the visual angle to your business’ story
There are many different video formats you can use to take your company page updates to the next level. Here are a few examples that we believe are most effective:
Short-form video
Short videos—less than 15 seconds—can be used to focus your message. You can use them to create a product look-book, demonstrate a product’s use or show an everyday life hack. Vine and Instagram both offer short-form videos that fit well with this style.
Event video
Event videos are trusted worthier than any scripted video because they contain the best parts of your company, your products, your customers and your culture. They aren’t an outright advertisement for your company or brand and usually include external or third-party content.
Think of event videos as testimonials, as opposed to ads.
Interview video
Whether you interview experts from outside your company or key employees inside your organization, Q&A videos let you highlight your relationship with industry experts.
Make it easy to find information
According to the Science of Website Redesign, 76% of consumers say the most important factor in a website’s design is “the website makes it easy for me to find what I want.”
The most important part of a perfectly designed website is connecting the user with the information they came to find. If your design is easy to navigate and captures the interest of the user, you have likely made good design decisions.
There are simple ways to organize your website that makes it easy for the visitor to navigate. Microsoft is one example of a website with multiple products, most of them as a sub-domain under the primary microsoft.com domain.
Avoid clutter
Edward Tufte once said, “Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.”
Often, marketers tend to over-complicate their websites with too many elements or far too much information. And that is what causes clutter. In fact, some of the most effective websites are also the simplest.
Here are a few ways this website achieves a clutter-free aesthetic:
- Clear headlines, sub-headlines, and body copy
- Lots of whitespaces
- Only four primary colors and great contrast
- Great use of icons and graphics