Top 5 Features every website must have

If you are looking for a website design company there is one thing you must be aware of, a web design company is just that, they are designers. What’s wrong with that you might ask? If you are a business what do you want your website to do? Obviously you want it to look nice, that is important, but what really is the goal of your website? For many, it is to attract more business, generate leads and clients.
Let’s say you own a gym and health club marketing is very important to you. You have a website but it doesn’t generate any or many leads at all. You have to ask yourself, how much money am I losing by having a website that is set up incorrectly?

You want a website design company that specialises in marketing, and preferably internet marketing. Internet marketing is an art within itself and 95% of website design companies have absolutely no idea how to make a website convert into leads and sales. You want the combination of your website looking fantastic, but designed to make it as easy as possible for the visitor to your website to get in touch with you or leave their details.

In this article I have laid out the Top 5 features every website must have in order to generate leads and sales.

1. An email opt-in form on your home page

Some people might ask, what is an email opt-in form? Basically put, it’s a contact form where people enter their email and other information in order to receive something of value from the website. This might be something like a Free Visit pass, a 20% off voucher, a free ebook or a free consultation. By offering something of value you can then receive the prospects details so you can build your database, follow up and market to them in the future.

2. Video

Video is one of the best and most engaging ways to attract people to your services. Any good web design company should always be recommending video. Some of the benefits of video are:

• 1. Separates your business from all the other boring normal websites

 

• 2. Can draw emotion from your visitor, whether they connect with you and your message, the music you play in the background etc
• 3. Presents you as an authority figure
• 4. Is a great way to communicate a message
• 5. Your video can help generate leads by being shared on other sites such as Youtube, Facebook and Twitter bringing people back to your website

This day and age with technology where it is, video is so easy to create. You don’t need to be an expert film maker to do a good video. If resources are limited, using your mobile phone will give you a video of good enough quality to use on your website.

You can use video on your home page, in blog posts, on the About us page and even to explain services or products. Websites with video have been proven to convert much better than websites without video.

With a budget as little as $60 you can do a campaign driving thousands of people to your website to help you generate leads. If you compare the cost of doing a Facebook offer with a letterbox drop or newspaper ad you will find it a lot more cost effective, targeted and responsive.

3. Images

As the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words. Populating your website with good high quality images is vitally important to the success of your page. Images give your site visual appeal which draws people in to want to find out more information. If your website is full of text, guess what your visitor will do? They will click close and head to another site. An image with a short sharp piece of information will keep the interest and attention of your visitors. If you have more information than a short piece of text, adding a ‘Read More’ button will help keep the site clean and not overly crowded with text.

Some great image examples include:

• 1. Testimonials – You can’t beat other people talking about your product or service. If people can put a face to the text, or in regards to the health and fitness industry see the results someone has achieved then that builds social proof that makes people take action to get in contact with you.
• 2. Products and Services – People want to see what they are going to buy. Make sure you include quality images to show your visitors just what they can expect to receive.
• 3. People having fun or using your product or service in a positive light – You want people to attach a positive thought when they see your images.
• 4. Yourself – If you really want people to trust you and feel positive about buying from you then it’s always good to include an image of yourself or your team. People can start to build a feeling of rapport even before they meet or speak to you.

** As a side note, make sure the images you use on your website are good quality. As much as a good picture can do wonders for your site, a bad image can have the opposite effect. You want to give people a fantastic first impression of your business, so make sure your images are of good quality.

4. Contact information

One of the most important mistakes a website design company will make is not making it as easy as possible for your website visitor to get in touch with you. When someone comes to your website, the last thing you want them doing is searching high and low for an email, phone number or address. Want more clients, members or leads? Make it easy as possible. You only have a few seconds before they will click away and go find your competitor who makes things easy. Here are some tips for making your contact information easy as possible for a website visitor to find:

• 1. Phone number in the header of the website.
• 2. Opt-in form for them to receive something (as covered before).
• 3. Contact Us tab on the website with a contact name, email, phone number, address, google map and contact form for if they’d like to leave a message.
• 4. Contact link at the bottom of the page.
• 5. Social media links – Make it easy for visitors to like you on Facebook by including a like box, your twitter feed, Youtube channel and more.

If you have all these items then your website visitors won’t have a problem getting in touch with you. If your details are not visible then your web design company is not doing a good job.

5. Good site layout

The final aspect a website needs is a nice, clean easy format. A good website design should always have a nice balanced flow and structure. You want a good amount of text, images and video in a neat format. A website that is messy and unstructured makes it uncomfortable to look at. When this happens guess what the visitors to your site will do? That’s right, they will click away to find a nice easy to follow website.
Don’t clog your home page with too much information and text but also, don’t have too little information that people have to scroll or click on tabs to find all the information. Having small bite size snippets of information makes it easy for people to see what you have, gain their attention and interest and keep them on your website.

Here is an example of a well laid out website with all the features as mentioned in this article:

So if you’re looking for a website design company who not only understands design but health club marketing as well, make sure you check out
http://marketingforgyms.com. Marketing for gyms and PTs specialise in Personal Trainers websites as well as health club websites. They also cover custom Facebook pages to create a professional social media presence. Marketing for gyms and PTs have also designed and created a mobile app for gyms and PTs to round off a complete web/social and mobile solution.