Websites have become an essential part of business over the last few decades. Currently, with the COVID-19 pandemic causing most brick and mortar businesses and office spaces to close their doors to the public, your website is even more essential to reaching and engaging your customers. Confined to their homes, most people use their cell phones and other electronic devices as their main way to connect with the outside world. So, put the focus back on your website and make it easier for your customers to find you, learn about you, and engage with you.
Create New Content
When you focus on adding new creative and making a statement with your content, you have a chance to make your brand or company stand out. For example, creating pieces that promote thought leadership can put you ahead of your competition if you give your customers content that is valuable and thought-provoking. Always make sure to offer content that’s relevant and interesting to the target audience. You can do this by providing them with the information and insights they need to make an informed decision. Keeping your content fresh and engaging is the best way to keep your customers coming back to your site again and again.
Improve User Experience
Almost nothing is more important than an intuitive user experience on your website. If you want to build a reputable brand, you need to have a healthy and sound website. This includes minimizing the risk of broken or dead links so that customers can find what they need easily. Best practices suggest routinely checking your site’s links, especially those that link out to other sites, to ensure they are still working. If they aren’t, make sure to replace them with new links that are viable. By eliminating broken or dead links, you make sure your website is easy to navigate while providing a more professional appearance. You also need to optimize your pages so that they flow seamlessly from one to another and load quickly. A strong website is designed with user experience in mind so your customers can find exactly what they need without wasting a lot of extra time searching.
Re-Evaluate Your E-Com Solution
If your business was primarily hands-on with very little online presence, you may want to rethink how you can successfully do business. COVID-19 is causing many people to shop from home, but even before the pandemic people were shopping online more than ever before. Look at how your business can translate to an online presence and then create a pivot-point that implements an online, e-com solution. This could be done in many ways such as adding incentives, offering free shipping, or creating bundles to save money. A healthy e-com site will not just provide a place for customers to easily shop but will let them choose how they wish to interact with your brand or company.
Address a Situation Affecting Your Business
For your business to be considered reputable, it needs to be as transparent as possible. You must be honest about how situations affect your business. People support brands they believe in so if there’s a change, be honest with both yourself and your customers. The customers who support your business rely on you and are genuinely interested in how your business is doing. Keep your customers up to date on what you will be changing or doing to provide them services in a changing environment.
Direct More Traffic to Your Website with Social
While social media is a great tool to use, you need to direct customers back to your website whenever possible. Organic content that’s engaging and informative is the best way to keep your customer’s interest once you have it. Use social media to help you build an extended community and make customers feel involved. With a strong social media presence, you’ll be able to reach a much larger audience in general and successfully drive more traffic to your website. This will allow your website to reach a much larger audience while strengthening its ability to show higher in search engine rankings. Social media is also great for updating customers about the situations that are affecting your business while soliciting more traffic to your e-com store.
A crisis like COVID-19 produces uncertainty and stress for all of us. Many families and communities are being shaped by actions others do or do not take. However, when it comes to building better websites, stronger content, and a larger audience base for our businesses – you do need to take action. Refocusing your website will give your business an opportunity to make effective changes that can produce long-term benefits through improved customer engagement. Contact Workhorse to see how our team of specialists can help your business refocus your website to better serve your customers.
