5 Ways to Build a Website Your Customers Will Love
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CREDIT: Dreamstime.com
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When it comes to customer engagement on the Web, many organizations do just enough to stay one step ahead of their competition, says Anthony Franco, president and co-founder of EffectiveUI, an agency that builds websites and mobile applications. Staying focused on what your customers will experience when they are using your website is the most important thing you can do to ensure your website has the most impact on your businesses' success.
Franco offers BusinessNewsDaily readers five tips on how to keep their web marketing efforts focused on the customer.
Take off your marketing hat — This may be counterintuitive, but the tendency when focusing on marketing is that business websites often become self-indulgent. Instead, focus on user experiences your customers need, want and enjoy. Help them get things done.
Consider your business goals — Consider what do you want to accomplish with the application and how it will provide value for your customers. Do this before you think about how you are going to build your business web site or have it built.
Focus on gathering data and feedback from users — Sit down with as many customers as you can and watch them interact with your site. Have them give you feedback in real time so you can improve the interaction. If for some reason you can’t do this, use a simple survey tool (such as Survey Monkey) to ask users where or how you could improve your website.
Focus on what you do — If you’re a business-to-business company , you don’t need to build a game. If you are selling handmade kid’s clothing, you should not build a social network. Stick with the primary purpose of your business. Consumers know one thing for sure: If you build an application that does not have direct use related to your business, it is probably an application designed just to market to them, and they will probably let it fail.
Plan for Frequent Updates — Most successful websites have an avid audience because they created an excellent user experience first, and followed with useful updates and improvements. You’ll build fans and evangelists by showing responsiveness to customer feedback once the application is launched.
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