As a small business, the internet can feel like an overwhelming place – your competitors have spent thousands designing their websites and you’re trying to compete on a far more cost-effective budget, so what can you do to make yourself stand out amongst the crowd? Here are five things to consider.
1. Don’t try too hard
In a crowded marketplace, it can be tempting to try and differentiate yourself from your competitors by highlighting your quirkiness and novel approach, but the truth is, this is now so overdone by other small businesses that it’s best to differentiate yourself by other means. Trying too hard to be young, hip, cool or new, can actually be very off-putting and so instead, focus on making your small business website design about your unique selling points.
2. Create a memorable website experience
How many websites do you visit each day? How good does it feel when you visit one that is intuitive and fun to use? Website design is about so much more than just putting words on a page, it is about delivering an experience to your visitors. Can you include videos? Do you have graphic elements? How does your website respond when used on a mobile? Having an intuitive website can give you a competitive edge amongst far more established competitors whose websites are outdated and boring.
3. Treat people like people and not like a number
You may use terms such as ‘target audience’, ‘customer profile’, and ‘lead’ during your internal meetings, but you need to make sure that your website visitors don’t get the impression that they are nothing more than a number or a lead. Make your website more human and speak the language that your customers really want to hear. Don’t have complex landing pages and lengthy sign-up forms, instead have a human element, such as a responsive live chat or an invitation to call a friendly face.
4. Show off your team and tell your story
Before people buy from you, they have to buy into you. Don’t be afraid to tell your story and to highlight key members of your team, even while you are still quite small. People buy into people first, not products, so be sure to have a well thought out ‘about us’ page and take some high-quality team headshots to include with a short but personable bio.
5. Don’t neglect the power of SEO and PPC
In a crowded marketplace, you need to be doing everything that you can to improve your web-ranking. People rarely scroll past the first four results on Google and virtually no-one heads to the second page, so you need to be in one of the top spots for your key search terms. SEO is essential for improving your organic traffic but PPC can help you to go even further. Although an investment, it’s always worth looking into how PPC can benefit your business even during the early stages.
So there you have it – five ways to make your small business website stand out. Do you have any other tips to add? Let us know in the comments.
- DISCLOSURE – This post has been written by an outside source.
