By When visitors arrive at your business's website, they may only spend a few minutes (or even seconds) clicking around before they decide to direct their browsers elsewhere.
In other words, first impressions are paramount if you want potential customers to stick around. But what should you do to keep those visitors engaged and excited to find out what you have to offer?
First, you'll want to learn more about your customers. Here are some quick tips:
Determining Your Target Market
- Figure out what needs your product meets. Are you a B2B office supplies distributor, or a local bakery? The nature of your product tells a whole lot about your target market on its own.
- Think about demographics. Does your product appeal specifically to the very young or the very old? Somewhere in-between? Learn what sort of customer is most likely to buy your products and focus on them in your web design.
- Look at your competitors. One of the best ways to understand your target audience is to see who your competition has targeted. Checking out their websites and learning from their successes and mistakes is always an important step in the web design process.
The Importance of Aesthetics
When a customer walks into your brick and mortar storefront, they should feel welcomed -- not only by a friendly staff but by the environment itself.
Depending on your clientele, that environment can be very different. For instance, if you're a clothing store that sells business attire, it might feel very different inside than it would if you sold rock 'n' roll t-shirts and blue jeans.
The same is true for your website. After all, it's truly your digital storefront. Whatever your visitors see when they "walk in" to your website will color their perception of your business from there on out.
Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder
Looking at your current website, you might be floored by its elegant interface and appealing aesthetic. But does it have the same effect on others?
When you sit down with your web designer to discuss the way your website should look and feel, you absolutely must think about your target audience -- not just you. What you want in a website could be radically different from what your customers would most appreciate.
It's crucial you keep all this in mind when planning your website. If not, your designers might go overboard and try to impress your visitors with overly fancy, flashy design elements that target no one in particular but hope to amaze in general -- and completely fail to deliver.
That's why it's important that you find a web designer who understands your business, your brand, your market, and what it takes to bring in more customers.
At GroupM7, we know what it means to appeal to your target market in 2017. The websites we design for our clients are customized from the ground up to meet their online marketing needs without ever using a one-size-fits-all template. Whatever we build for your company will be uniquely crafted to appeal directly to your potential customers in order to generate more leads.
For more on the GroupM7 web design process, check out this recent blog post or contact us today!
Aaron Dunn
Aaron is a writer by trade with several years of professional experience under his belt. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Political Science. Before joining the Group, he worked as a freelancer and tech reviewer in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Aaron currently lives in Pittsburg, TX. 
