The Anatomy of the Perfect Website

Whether you belong to a B2B, B2C business, or even if you have a freelancing business, it is essential to be present online with a website that captivates your potential customers. Despite this, almost half of Portuguese companies do not have their own website – according to INE, in 2020, only 61% of companies admitted to having their own website, and this figure drops to 57% when it comes to companies with 10 to 49 employees. The situation gets even worse when many of the “own sites” only provide some corporate information about the company and a contact page, without any online customer acquisition strategy. More than a “showcase” of the products and services you offer, the site should be seen as the focal point of the entire digital strategy, where blogposts, social network posts, newsletters, etc. will be redirected. Regardless of the size of your company or area of activity there is something you should always keep in mind when creating an online site: the customer experience. Here are some points to keep in mind when creating the perfect website.

The Anatomy of the Perfect Website: 6 Elements to Keep in Mind

1 – Create your site on the platform that best suits your needs

When choosing the platform that will support your website, you should consider two issues: price and ease of use. If you decide to create your website in Bootstrap, for example, you will need knowledge of HTML and CSS. If you choose a platform like HubSpot CMS Hub or WordPress, you will be able to edit the website without programming knowledge, since these platforms are very intuitive and work in a drag-and-drop logic.

When it comes to price, there are several options of platforms for website creation, some totally free, such as WordPress or Wix, and others that, although only available for a monthly fee, may be the best option for those who want truly dynamic and personalized sites for each user, such as HubSpot CMS Hub.

2 – Communicate your value proposition

Try to build a site that clearly conveys the value proposition of your business. This should be the focus of the main pages of the site – the pillar pages – where the user should quickly understand the value of the solution being presented and, above all, why he should continue to pay attention to what he is reading.

The value proposition should answer the following questions:

• Why this site and/or company exists?
• What I can do on this site?
• I am the ideal client for this site?
• This company answers what I am looking for?
• If I am the ideal customer, why should I buy from this company?

The more elements on the pages that communicate this value proposition, the better your site will perform.

3 – Create the Design and Copy with the user in mind

All website content should be made with the user in mind. If you are redesigning your website, you should analyze website analytics KPIs, such as which pages are visited the most, which pages your users spend the most time on, or which page path most users usually take. You should also check the history of heatmaps, to understand which elements attract the most attention from your audience or which sections arouse the most interest.

If you are creating your site from scratch, involve your existing customers as much as possible by conducting interviews and gathering their feedback and ideas for improvement throughout the various steps of creating the website. Try to put yourself in the role of your potential customers, anticipate the questions they will have and use the content and design of your site to provide them with an answer.

4 – Create an intuitive navigation

Navigation is one of the most important elements of any website. If your site is too confusing and users can’t see quickly and clearly where they’re going to get what they’re looking for, you’ll see your bounce rate increase and your conversion rate decrease, meaning they’ll simply give up and may convert later on at a competitor’s site. Ideally, your menu should have no more than 7 elements, and the entire site content should be accessible in no more than 3 clicks.

5 – Include lead capture mechanisms, such as forms and Call-to-Action

In addition to providing information about your business, your site should contain lead capture mechanisms, such as forms and call-to-action. To generate marketing leads, it is important that, in addition to ungated content (available to all users, without asking for any personal data in return), present, for example, in blogposts, there is Inbound Marketing content in gated format (that can only be viewed after the user fills out a form with some data) on various pages of the site. This will make it easier for your potential customers to access content that is relevant to the stage of the decision journey they are in, and thus establish a close relationship with your brand.

In addition to focusing on Marketing leads through gated content, you should also include forms on your site to capture Sales leads. These forms make it easy for users who are in the last stages of the customer journey to proactively start a conversation with your company.

Also Call-to-Action (CTA) should be present in various sections of the website and should tell, exactly what the user will get by clicking on it. Some examples of CTA that improve conversion rates:

• Request an Invitation;
• Free Offer;
• Buy Now;
• Request your Free Trial;
• Subscribe Now;
• Start Now.

6 – Customize your website to the user who visits it

Customer experience is increasingly important and should be the focus of all your brand communication channels. As such, the website should also provide an excellent experience for your customers. According to a study done by Walker in late 2020, 86% of customers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. That is, if your competition offers a better experience, you will lose them, even if your products and services have a lower price.

How do you ensure that your site offers the best experience ever? By offering dynamic and personalized content to the person who visits it. Platforms like HubSpot CMS allow you to show different content to different users, according to the data that is collected over time in the CRM and in the different brand channels – from email, social networks and website visits.

Make sure your website offers the best experience

As specialists in MarTech (Marketing technologies) and HubSpot partners, Liminal has all the skills, both in IT and Marketing, to accompany the creation and development of your dynamic website, from the strategy phase and inclusion of the value proposition in the site, to the programming, customization and launch phase.

Talk to us and make sure your website offers the best experience for your users.