We are delighted to have a guest blog by Jude Wharton on how to create a captivating customer experience through your website. In today’s digital age, a website serves as more than just an online presence; it is the key to crafting a remarkable customer journey helping businesses to engage and retain their customers.
Jude is one of the co-founders of Ready Steady Websites®, an off the shelf website and membership template service. Jude and her business partner and husband, Chris launched Ready Steady Websites® in 2019 and they have been running a successful digital design company, 2nd Floor Designs Ltd since 2010. They are also the co-authors of The Website Handbook.
If you can create a beautiful customer experience through your website you are more likely to turn browsers into buyers. You’re going to see the power and value of having a website when those leads and sales start flooding in but yet so many people seem to struggle to create the right experience through their website to do this.
Here are four key things to focus on to help get your website customer experience right:
Be clear on the purpose of your website
This is the first on the list because along with knowing who you want to attract through your website you need to be really clear what you actually want your website to do.
Now, the answer to that needs to be specific, not just, I want it to help my business grow.
What is the main action you would love your website visitor to take on your website? For me, I want them to click the “join now” button so they join Ready Steady Websites® to build their website or membership site.
Some people need to have a conversation with a potential client before they work with them to see if they’re a good fit, so for them getting their website visitor to book a call would be the primary purpose.
If you have an online shop and sell products, then you want your website visitor to click on the “buy now” button and purchase your products.
You get the idea.
“You need to be really clear about what you actually want your website to do”
- Jude Wharton
But, on the whole, especially if your product or service requires a larger monetary or time commitment people aren’t going to take that primary action the first time they hit your website, so you need a secondary purpose. This is an action for your website visitor to take that will take them a step closer to taking that primary action down the line.
So, you could get them to join your email list, or join a community you run. I always advocate building an email list but you need to do what’s right for you and your business. Then you can continue to nurture them and down the line they will hopefully take that primary action on your website.
I write more about this in The Website Handbook and Donald Miller talks beautifully about it in his book, Building a Story Brand.
Make sure the design and images are on point
You want to capture your website visitor’s attention instantly and draw them in and this is done visually.
The first thing to consider is how good the images are on your website. Do they look professional? Do they reflect what your business does and how you want your clients or customers to feel once they have used your business? Do they evoke the right kind of emotion when you look at them?
If the answer to all of these is yes, then that means your website visitor will want to see more.
Once you’ve got the right images, is the design good? Is your website uncluttered, leaving space for your website visitor to comfortably cast their eye over it and find out what they’re looking for?
If there is too much clutter on the page your website visitor may get frustrated and leave because it feels like hard work sifting through everything to find what they want.
Once you’ve got the design and images right then you need to consider your content.
Ensure your content is written with your ideal client in mind
This is especially important on your homepage. Your website visitor wants to see from your content that you understand them, that you know what they need or want and that you have the solution to this.
Far too many websites launch into the autobiography of the website owner on the homepage. This isn’t useful to your website visitor and therefor doesn’t create a good user experience.
Also, the more you consider your ideal client when writing your content the more you can guide them into taking the primary or secondary action on your website.
Test, test and test again
This is really important and something far too many people think will just be fine and they don’t need to worry about it but they really should.
When you create a new website or you make any changes to a current website you need to test your website on a computer, tablet and a mobile. Checking on all devices is really important because most of web browsing is done on mobile phones these days.
Imagine someone comes to your website and they are excited because they really resonate with your gorgeous brand and they love what you have to offer but when they try to fill in a contact form it doesn’t work on their mobile. That doesn’t create a beautiful customer experience. That person was so interested they were going to get in contact and by not testing your website you’ve stopped that. They might find an alternative way to get in touch, but they might not.
That’s a common problem that people don’t pick up on because they look at their website and it looks OK but they don’t actually test all the working parts. You should do this because ensuring all the working parts work is as important to a lovely customer experience as getting the right message across and being amazing at what you do because it’s the bit that links the first impression with actually getting to work with them.
“Get all the parts working to create a beautiful customer experience on your website”
- Jude Wharton
So, if you can get clear on who you want to attract, the purpose of your website, making it look and read wonderfully and ensuring it works smoothly then you will be creating a beautiful customer experience through your website.
I hope you found this blog from Jude at Ready Steady Websites® useful. At Creative ID, we believe that a well-designed and user-friendly website is an important and impactful digital touchpoint for a business. It is the cornerstone of a successful branding and marketing strategy and helps drive engagement, conversions, and brand loyalty.
Until next time,
Vaishali
