Have you considered the first impression that your website presents? We explore 5 considerations to make, to evaluate whether or not to redesign your professional services website.
"We found that a poor website was among the top reasons buyers rule out providers that have been referred to them – in fact, low-quality websites were cited as a disqualifier by about 30% of buyers." Hinge
Does your website give prospective buyers the right impression of your brand?
The quality of your site; the way it looks, loads, navigates, as well as the relevancy of your content will immediately impact the way visitors consider your company’s reputation, services and trustworthiness. In fact it only takes about seven seconds before someone decides to stay, or click away.
So if you’re not sure that your site offers the right first impression, below are 5 factors that any top-performing professional services site will consider. Does your site match up, or might it be time for a redesign?
According to Hinge, 80% of professional services buyers will view a company’s website to evaluate them as a potential provider before making contact.
Should You Redesign Your Website? 5 Factors to Consider
1. “Is my site aligned with my marketing & sales goals?”
To maximise on your company’s sales and marketing activities, your website must align with and support those campaign goals. (i.e. increase quality traffic to the site, generate better-fit leads, nurture a specific persona and support sales to increase conversion).
Regularly tracking performance to identify areas to optimise is key; look at how your ideal visitors are engaging with your site - are engaging with your site or do they click away? Are they attracted to the areas you would expect? Does your content resonate with them? Where do they get stuck? How can you optimise the page to better nurture, convert or build trust with buyers? A data-driven perspective will always help you to streamline and improve the user experience, and support your marketing and sales process.
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2. “Does my current site put my persona first?”
If a good-fit visitor has landed on your site, it’s likely that they are looking for answers to a particular query or challenge that you can address.
As such, your site must first and foremost showcase advice and solutions to your persona’s challenges - rather than sales-focussed or company-centric messaging. If your website fails to put your persona first, it will not hold attention.
So consider; does your current site really convey value to your specific best-fit buyers? What are their business challenges that you help to solve, and is that relevant advice clearly visible from the first click? What do your ideal buyers expect to see on your professional services site; and are you providing that?
If you focus on providing value to your persona first, rather than purely promoting services, you’ll build trust, and provide an improved user experience.
3. “Is my site accessible and easy to navigate?”
A site that is difficult to navigate, slow to load and text heavy will deter visitors. Ensure a good user experience on your site by:
- Keeping site navigation clear and easy.
- Making content easy to find, and always created with your persona in mind. Make use of engaging content such as videos and interactive tools, as well as written page content.
- Ensuring you have content that addresses all stages of the buyer’s journey, for an effective conversion path; i.e. awareness stage content, leading to consideration and decision stage content such as demos or consultations.
- Keeping lead capture forms brief and simple. For visitors to complete a lead capture form in exchange for content, they must feel that there is a fair value exchange, so collect only essential information initially, such as name, email and perhaps company name. Additional insight will come throughout your nurture process.
- Providing engagement opportunities, such as live chat tools to address challenges in the moment and build trust.
4. “Am I making the most of video and imagery?”
"Professional service companies are thinking more carefully about the images they use. They are increasingly switching their attention from stock imagery to original photography. By using a photographer to shoot images for your website, a shot can be framed to convey the exact vision you want. One that better matches your brand, message, and personality." - Equinet
The imagery, design and style your brand uses across the web helps to inform the impression people have of your services. Presenting a high-quality, considered and accessible front to your brand - via your website - is key to conveying the message you want.
So, don’t be tempted to cut corners when producing videos or using photographs. Ensure your site design and any videos and imagery you use are modern, of good quality, and convey the right tone. As summarised by Equinet: "If you're a professional services company your website needs to be giving off all the right messages. Your website is a product of your business, and therefore a reflection of your work. A poorly designed website gives the impression you don’t care for your customers and are ok with mediocrity."
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5. “Is my site accessible across all devices?”
Salesforce reports that “83% of mobile users say a seamless experience across all devices is very important”. As people increasingly access and share information on the go, it’s important that your website and content is optimised for all mobile and tablet devices.
Need A Redesign? Consider Taking A Growth Driven Design Approach
As part of a fast-moving industry, you need a website that can adapt, is dynamic and can quickly deliver on new requirements. So ask yourself:
- Is my current website working for me?
- Is it producing the number of quality leads that I need to reach my end customer and revenue goals?
- Is my site current, or is the information out of date?
- Is it attracting good quality visitors?
- Can I track performance effectively?
If your current site isn’t delivering or has fallen out of relevancy, it’s wise to consider a redesign. However, traditional web design processes can be perceived as slow, costly and lacking in the flexibility needed to adapt to changing business remits.
But don’t be put off, this is where Growth Driven Design (GDD) comes in; it’s a data-driven, insight-led web design (and redesign) approach that rethinks the traditional development model to allow for faster launch, and continuous improvement. Plus, GDD projects provide the potential to spread costs over time, as a flexible, retainer-based solution.
By considering the points above and taking a data-backed approach, it’s possible to transform your site into a place that generates the right impression with your buyers; that encourages engagement; and that generates the traffic, leads and results you need.
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