We can all agree that a positive online presence is important, whether your company has been around for generations or since yesterday. People expect to find reputable companies online, and they expect you to have a website. They want to know if you can deliver what you promise, and they want you to know if you are the kind of company they can feel safe doing business with. When you don’t have a website, your potential clients are forced to learn about you from social review platforms, such as Yelp, where you have absolutely no control over what is posted.
I can use social media or build a website for free, can’t I?
Yes, of course, you can. Social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are excellent marketing vehicles, especially during the early days of building your business. You’re still testing market demand and discovering who your target audience really is. These platforms allow you to have nearly direct interaction with the consumer and quickly and easily get instant feedback. If you’ve been around a while, these platforms help you stay in front of your target consumer and build buzz about new things. If you know your consumer needs more information about you and your product than what a social media account can provide, there are some nifty “drag and drop” website builders. These offer template designs and basic functions for cheap and can be “good enough for now” if you’re just starting and don’t have a dependable revenue stream yet. We wholeheartedly agree that these tools can be great launching pads to help your business establish a reputation and gain traction. However, it’s no secret that they also require a significant and ongoing time investment.
You take care of business.
You work hard—very, very hard—and your growing business needs you. Now that you know your product or services are in demand, it’s time to evaluate where you spend your time. We see what you do, and we know it’s not easy to run a business while posting and responding to social media inquiries, speaking with potential clients, providing customer care, and most importantly, delivering services or producing goods. Do you really have the time to spend it all online? Managing your social media accounts alone can easily zap a good chunk of your day, but that’s a topic for another time. Do you really have the time, patience, and technical skills to ensure your website looks appealing and fresh, works properly, and positively represents your brand? Does your “good enough for now” website accurately represent the quality of your goods or services? Does it look professional and provide quality, relevant content that builds trust?
You know your business better than anyone, and you understand what your customers want. You have the products or services they need to solve their problems, and now you’re ready to go to the next level. We respect what you’ve accomplished, and we want to take you there.
What does hiring a website designer get me?
An experienced website designer ensures you get more than a pretty home page. You’ll get a unique, stylish website design with reliable hosting and intuitive functionality. It should be accessible to your clients from any device they are using to look at it. You never know when or where your next client is looking for your services, so make sure your website is easy to find, and equally important, easy on the eyes. Is your website responsive, meaning that it can identify and adapt its format to accommodate the viewing area of any electronic device? A website that looks good on your PC might be completely unreadable or too slow to load on a mobile phone; you want to make sure someone researching your product or service can find you whenever and however it’s convenient for them.
Your website should build and promote your brand, so take care to hire a company that has the expertise to guide you in making good design choices. This is the face of your company, and you want to make sure it looks good. Because let’s be honest, people are judgey. And while love at first sight may not be entirely applicable here, dislike and non-interest at first sight most certainly are. A professional design should entice your users to stay and look around—put their feet up for a while, so to speak. Good design lifts your website above the mass of overused, canned template sites.
Be sure to say what you mean.
Now let’s talk about content. Good writing builds confidence in your brand. Errors or poorly worded descriptions can call into question the competency of your business. Seriously, is there anything worse/funnier than the unfortunate spelling fail or typo on a marquis, brochure, menu, or website? How about some chicken nutguts? And sure to get a laugh from every teen, the dreaded “pubic school” typo. Hilarious, yes, but totally unprofessional on your website. When hiring a website designer, look for a full-service website design company that provides professional copywriting services crafted to ensure your voice is heard and conveys what you mean (which is not always what you wrote!) in our very congested, algorithm-driven, online world. Quality content educates your potential customers, elevates you as an expert, and refines your customer base to include only those that are serious about hiring you.
Professional, responsive website design is simply not an option as your business grows—it’s necessary; it’s expected. You’re an expert in your field, and at LocalBiz Webmasters, we’re an expert in ours. Trust our team of professional graphic designers, technology experts, and copywriters to help you create an online presence that puts your best up front for the world to see.