The first impressions are important, especially when you can’t be there in person to make them count. Your website is one of the many faces of your business, especially if you want the business to be found and engaged online. Within just a few seconds of someone meeting you, they’ve already judged you, and the same is true for how quickly they can judge your business based on your website.
Making the Right First Impression With Your Website
Table of Contents
To understand how your website can make a good first impression, you must first know what makes a bad impression. A bad impression of your website will end with the user leaving the site and likely never returning. The website elements that can make a bad first impression include:
- Long load times
- Ugly colors
- Popups
- Bad navigation
Even something that someone finds slightly annoying, such as waiting for a website to load, can leave your website with fewer impressions and sales. Luckily, there are things you can do to ensure your website makes a great first impression. Here’s how to make the right first impression with your company’s website.
Use Video
Videos are linked to higher website conversion rates and more engaged customers. Having an introductory video on your website is a great way to engage with potential customers while teaching them about who your company is and what you do. Video’s don’t have to belong to help your customers learn more about you. Creating a video doesn’t have to be difficult, and you can easily find a freelancer or independent contractor that can help you create an effective company video.
Keep Your Value Proposition Clear
Your value proposition explains to your customers why they need you. Everyone at your entire company should be able to explain what your business’s value proposition is. If they cannot answer any questions about why customers need you, then it might be time to revisit your messaging.
If you believe you have clear messaging, the next step is to communicate it to your customers. Remember, prospects are coming to your website hoping you can solve a problem. No matter what your company offers, your potential customers are looking to you for some type of answer and trying to determine if you can fulfill their needs.
Your business’ value proposition tells your prospects what your business does and why they should care. Consider putting it near the top instead of placing the answer to your potential customers’ questions at the bottom of the page. Suppose you run a tenant screening company that runs background checks and screens tenants for landlords. In this case, you’d want to let the landlord know what value your business offers, which can be something like time and cost savings.
Place your value proposition in a prominent position on your website, but keep it short so that your customers don’t have to think too deeply about what your value proposition means for them.
Work With Influencers
If you have a great product you know many people will enjoy and you aren’t sure how to start marketing it, consider influencer seeding or gifting that will allow you to leverage the audience of popular influencers and begin making sales. Remember, influencers will help you get more people to your website, so your website must be easy to navigate and use.
Working with influencers allows you to give your prospects expectations for what they can expect from your website, so you’ll need to make sure your website can deliver. If your website isn’t ready, then it’s not a good time to start working with influencers. However, if your website has been tested and it’s time to start bringing more people to it, then influencers can help you get more users without the need for additional market research.
Make Your Website Longer
While you may believe that a website with a homepage that doesn’t scroll will keep your prospects focused, a short home page might not offer enough information for customers to decide to move onto another page of the website or contact you. Instead of overly condensing your pages, let your users scroll through each page and provide enough visual content that users want to make it to the bottom of the page.
A longer page allows your business to highlight multiple areas of your website without putting too much block text in one area.
Direct the User
Website users need direction so they know what they should do after they land on your website. They’ll quickly lose interest if they don’t know what to do next or where to look. Use a strong call-to-action to lead your prospects where you want them to go.
Remember, the size and placement of your call to action can affect your users’ experience, so make sure you use a button or link that stands out while still matching the overall design of your website.
Build Trust
There are many trust signals that prospects look for on your website to give them the trust they need to do business with you. Your website might be an introduction to your business, but it shouldn’t be all about you.
Remember, your prospects came to your website looking for the solution to a problem. They don’t need to know why you’re better than the competition, but they do need to know why they should choose to trust you. Aside from expressing why your solution to their problem is the best out there, consider adding reviews, helpful blog topics, and infographics that can help your prospects build trust.
Final Thoughts
There are many reasons why users will leave your website, from your business not meeting their expectations to slow page load speeds. If your website isn’t ready for users, then there’s no reason to keep trying to attract more. Before your website goes live, consider testing it with a small group of people and having them fill out a survey so you can get an idea of what people think and feel when they reach your website. From there, you can make adjustments so your website can be successful.
About Post Author
