You’ve put the finishing touches on the new website for your brand, and you’re ready to share your passion with the world!
You love the design: the sleek images, catchy copy, and animated scrolling.
We know it can be exciting to finally launch a killer website… but it’s important that everything from design to copy is marketing your product or service too.
Before you launch your website, ask yourself these questions.
1. Is my website targeted to my prospective customers?
When creating a website, we know it’s tempting to try and “cast a wide net” so you catch as many potential customers as possible. But trying to reach everyone has the opposite effect.
It’s important to truly know who you’re trying to reach with your product or service. What problems or challenges do they have? What are their dreams and goals? Where do they go for information? What do they read? Who do they consider experts? Where do they spend their time and money? What are some of their demographics like age, gender, location, career, and education level?
If it helps, come up with a name for your ideal customer to really personalize your target audience.
Once you know your prospective customer or client, make sure your website communicates the great lengths you’ve gone to understand them (if your audience is still fuzzy in your mind, we recommend using this customer avatar worksheet).
2. Will people know what problem my product solves quickly?
A big part of knowing your audience is knowing what “pain points” (problems or challenges) your product or service solves.
Your prospective customer’s pain point and how your product solves it should be crystal clear on your homepage.
Visitors to your website should get this information quickly too. Research shows people spend around 15 seconds on a website. People will look elsewhere if your homepage makes them work too hard and burn too many calories because they can’t figure out how your product or service makes their life better.
This is tricky though. You don’t want to overemphasize the pain point, but your copy should communicate to your audience, “Hey, we see you. We’ve been there too. We can help.”
3. Is my website user-friendly?
Slow loading time. Too many pop-ups. Places on a webpage that make sense visually to click but take you nowhere when you do. Websites that don’t adjust to fit different devices.
You’ve probably visited websites with these issues. Poor communication about your audience’s problem and how your product or service solves it isn’t the only way a website makes people work too hard. Frustration also sets in when a website isn’t user friendly.
Before your website goes live, pretend you’re visiting your site for the first time. What functionalities bug you? Which ones could you improve? Could you make it more aesthetically pleasing? Is it user friendly across different devices like a laptop, tablet, or smartphone?
Ask someone else to take a look at your site too. Ask what frustrates them too and implement their feedback to improve your site.
If you want more information about creating a user-friendly experience on your website, we wrote a whole blog about how to do it here.
4. Do I have 3-4 menu items?
We know it’s hard to limit what you want to say about your brand to 3 or 4 menu items. But too many menu items make prospective customers do too much work.
If you have more, don’t fret. Consolidating menu items is easier than you might think. For example, you might have multiple pages that could be combined into a single FAQ page (a page for “frequently asked questions”).
You also don’t have to scrap an item because you remove it from the menu. You can still link the webpage on another relevant page on the website.
Lastly, make sure one of your menu items is a call to action at the top right corner of your home page. The call-to-action button should also stand out from the other items in the list.
Having a limited number of menu items is one more way to create a user-friendly experience for your audience.
5. Is my call to action clear?
Your answer can be “yes” to all of the questions above, but your website isn’t ready to launch until it’s clear what you want your prospects to do next.
The “call to action” (CTA) is the next step people should take on their customer journey now that they understand how your product or service solves their problem. What should they do next? Buy your product? Schedule a call? Fill out a form? Subscribe to receive blogs, discounts, or updates on new and featured products?
Your CTA should be concise, clear, and easy to do. Include the CTA in the menu at the top right corner of your homepage, and create several buttons with your CTA throughout the homepage. (This website our team created is a good example of utilizing a CTA button.)
Remember, you’re the guide. Think of your website as an invitation to embark on a journey with your brand. As their guide, your CTA makes clear what you’re inviting them to do next.
Your website is ready to go live if you answered “yes!” to these questions. Still overwhelmed by the thought of creating a website? Our team at Sigl Creative loves to help our clients create the perfect website for their brand. Schedule a call, and we’ll make sure your website has the elements it needs to grab your ideal customer’s attention.
