Building A Better Website for Better Usability
When it comes to websites, if no one uses them, are they obsolete or is something seriously lacking? Target audiences must be clearly identified for maximum usability. It’s nearly impossible to sell from a website that doesn’t address the right audience. In order to build a better website for better usability several things must be planned in advance:
1. Product or service identification and branding potential
2. Target market and audience
3. Unique sales mechanisms
The best way to judge the effectiveness and the attractiveness of your website is to “role play”: You as a potential customer, seeking the product or service your website offers. Total objectivity in judging the quality of the website is required. Create a list of the negative things experienced when visiting the website. What were obstacles to reaching information needed to close the sale? These are some of the most important issues to address with any website stagnating from lack of defined usability. Usability is another word for “convenience”. If the website is awkward or lacks usability, it’s likely it’s also “user inconvenient”.
Usability: The Approach and Influence
Kim Krause Berg’s piece on Usability (http://cre8pc.com/archives/1439) offers a refreshing new slant on the topic of usability. Too many websites are based upon a “build it and they will come” premise. A stagnant website is just that: stagnant. In actuality, “usability” is a form of employing good common sense methods to business techniques that have proven successful in an online environment. Websites that are profit based focus on usability as well as the proficiency to close a sale quickly and with convenience. Creating sales-oriented websites that minimize competition is a matter of motivating prospects to buy whatever the product or service may be. Sales are motivated by the perception of personal need. This is true whether the purchase is intended for a business or as a gift. In effect, there should be a tendency toward pitching sales with a subtle accent on “need”. Consumers often buy things they don’t really need on a practical level; but convince themselves it is essential to have on an emotional level. So strong is the sense of personal need that it has a unique influence on sales. Influence is key to recognition of personal need. What prospects see doesn’t always convince them to buy. How the prospect is influenced by the salesperson closes the sale.
Guidelines for Website Launch
There are several guidelines to keep in mind for a website launch.
1. Promotional groundwork is required to insure the website receives maximum attention of the target audience. Announce the new website wherever possible in a way that creates a high level of anticipation.
2. Plot website design and functionality before advancing to the next phase.
3. Implement website structure, refining and editing as needed.
4. Identify key website features with strongest appeal and enlarge upon them if possible.
5. Keep it simple and concise to increase usability.
6. Avoid “website clutter”.
7. Put in place “incentive” offers that require prospective buyer response
8. Present product or services in a manner that alludes to future offers to increase return sales
9. Create a website that offers a “personal” connection to prospects.
10. Maintain a professional business presence in the online community by networking with advantageous suppliers, etc.
