Your website may not feature much in the day-to-day running of your business. Perhaps it was commissioned and built at a time when you felt you should have a web presence and since then there hasn’t been time to revisit your website. Gone are the days when a website was simply a way to get your contact details onto the web, your business website can do so much more for your organisation. You could be missing out on an opportunity to connect with your customers and develop online ways of finding new ones.

The look of your existing website
Does the design of your website now appear dated? If you had your website created more than a few years ago it could be time to think about how the site could be re-designed to appear more relevant and contemporary, especially if the rest of your business uses more up to date marketing materials that don’t match your website. Consider the branding of your organisation and if it projects a strong personality for your organisation that is no longer represented on yor website. It could be a fairly disjointing experience for customers who meet you to visit your website and see something that looks completely different to your business cards or brochure.

Are the photographs and images on your website out of date?  If you have moved office, have a whole new team or have new graphics on your company vehicles this should be on your website to give customers a better idea of who they will be dealing with,where you are located and what your delivery or service vehicles look like.

Does your website use obsolete technology? The way that websites work has changed a lot in the last few years. If your website is made using old technology it may not function as well with search engines and new browsers impairing your chances of being found by customers searching online. If your website does not mix well with the latest browsers then you could find that visitors may abandon your website without reading it, potentially costing you business.

The content on your website
Is the information on your website now out of date? Does it feature employees who are no longer with you, products and services you no longer provide and describe your organisation as it was years ago? It can be hard to contemplate rewriting pages of website text but if the information on your website is out of date it gives visitors the wrong information about you and could put them off getting in touch. It could also encourage people to contact you about services or products you no longer supply wasting time for both of you in the process.

Does your website broadcast information but has no way of  receiving anything back from your visitors? Setting up a contact form on your website will allow customers to email questions directly to you but there are other ways to encourage visitors to get in touch. Writing a blog and hosting it with your website allows you to place articles that will interest customers on line at any time and it also allows them to leave comments and feedback for you. This kind of 2-way interaction could prove useful in developing your services and improving your business processes.

Is your website part of your marketing strategy?
If your website is purely a source of company information and contact details at the moment consider adding  a blog, offering an email newsletter, joining up to  social media websites or providing an e-commerce facility to give your visitors more options for getting in touch and finding out about what you do and who you are. An email newsletter offers articles and information to your customers in return for them parting with their email address. The  regular contact with a customer that an email newsletter gives provides the opportunity to place your name and contact details in front of your customers increasing the chances that they will buy from you when they are ready. Social networking allows you to promote your website, blog and any other activity you may be involved in to interested followers and can be a great way to create a ‘club’ atmosphere among customers by making special offers available exclusively to those followers.

E-commerce takes more time and thought to set up than a standard website but if you have the kind of product than suits being sold online it could provide another stream of revenue that adds to the usual sales channels your organisation uses.

Conclusion
Your website is available for people, potential customers, to view 24/7 so it can play a vital role in informing them about what you do, helping them get in touch and letting you make informal contact with themon a regular basis until they are ready to buy. Access to your website is no longer limited to those working from a desktop computer inside a house or office, wireless technology and smart tmobile phones have brought the internet, and potentially your website, to almost any corner of the planet.

Redesigning your website will allow your organisation to take advantage of the opportunities that the web now offers to businesses of all sizes.

Like this? Try these:
Making your marketing activities easier to manage
Don’t be shy, tell your customers what to do!
The unofficial ‘rules’ that make great web pages visitors will want to read

Create Design Studio can help you if you want to make changes to your website. We can help with redesigning it and finding photographs as well as copywriting and proofreading services or helping you to get started with social media marketing. Call David on 01962 737989 today for a free consultation.

This article originally appeared in our company magazine ‘The Bulletin’ where we write about design, websites and marketing for small to medium sized businesses.  For your free copy please contact us.

An e-commerce website needs careful consideration and planning beyond the normal preparation for designing a website, that is to say what it will look like and how many pages will be needed. The reason being that it will be more than just a “sales and marketing” window on the world, in the majority of cases it will be that business’s only interaction with their customers, so the buying, ordering and fulfilment process must be faultless

So what do you need to consider before setting up an e-commerce website?

What countries or regions will you operate in, i.e. just the UK, EU or globally?
Technically from the web developer perspective it is not a problem. But what tax issues might that raise with Customs and Excise? Do you know which customers you should charge VAT to and those you shouldn’t? Do you understand what tax records you will need to keep and what information you will need to supply to a customer on an invoice/receipt?

Delivery and carriage
This can be a problem, our advice is to keep it simple, but you have to consider your typical order value. Many retailers of low ticket priced items just write off goods lost in transit, or customer claims that goods never arrived, as it is the cheapest option. This may not be something that you can afford or wish to do with a higher price items, so your chosen delivery company will need to offer a parcel tracking facility, and your customer will have to sign for their goods.

Which currencies will your website accept?
The universal Web currency is the US Dollar, but is that appropriate in all your markets?

Language?
If overseas markets are important to your business, should you provide multi language versions of your website?

Consider the logistics of running the website, the areas where online retailers traditionally struggle are:

Order tracking
Website software can include order status information, but for most small retailers that has to be updated by a member of staff.

Returns and refunds
Clear terms and conditions can avoid a lot of problems from the outset.

Stock control
Not realising the space and money required to keep reasonable stock levels, on line shoppers expect next day or delivery in at least 3 to 5 working days not weeks.

Dealing with product enquiries and technical information requests
Failing to provide enough or confusing information on your website at best will generate a lot more work in dealing with questions and enquiries, at worst your customers will go elsewhere.

Credit card fraud
Depending on what you are selling you need to be aware of this problem. Consumer electronics and IT are seen as high risk by the credit card companies and they will charge you a higher fee or impose strict conditions. Do not use the terminal in your shop or office to process website transactions before checking with your card processing company as you may find that you will not be covered for loss or fraud.

Making day to day website updates and adding new products
Most of the sites we build have content management to allow shop owners to update and add products, but most still struggle as they did not appreciate how long it takes to collate the information about a new product, work out its retail price, source and choose the right photographs and then compose the words of the description.

Marketing
Time will be needed on a regular basis to market the site, be that Google Adwords, search engine optimisation or traditional advertising in key journals and the press, it all takes time.

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If you need help with an e-commerce project then contact David Woodroofe on 01962 737989 or david@createdesignstudio.co.uk.

Useful Links:

The unofficial ‘rules’ that make great webpages visitors want to read
Create Design Studio Web Design and Build Services