Creating confidence
People make their mind up about your business within the first 3 seconds of visiting your website. There has been research done to prove it. There’s no way that you can get someone to read all about your company and the great things you do in just 3 seconds. So, you need to convince people you are trustworthy and the right company for them just by how your website looks and feels when it first loads else they won’t stick around. If you are working with a good vegan website designer then this shouldn’t be a problem, because they will know all the tips and tricks to give someone confidence that they are looking at a website for a professional established business – it’s what you are paying for. If you are building a site yourself then you need to pay closer attention to this and be aware that you might not be the best judge yourself about whether your website makes you look like an amateur. Or if that can’t be helped, then at least look like a good amateur! One who’s got aspirations to be so much more!
Your branding will play a big part in this but so will how your brand is shown. A squashed, out of shape or too-small-to-read logo is a sure indicator that this website was built on a shoestring by someone who didn’t know what they were doing. Unfortunately, people will assume that if you can’t afford a decent website then you’re not a profitable company. And if you’re not a profitable company that must be because what you are selling is rubbish. Treat your website as you would your real shop front. If you run a vegan hotel, how long have you spent on making a great impression when someone first walks in? Pay that same level of detail to your online presence too. If you were to walk into a real shop and the widow was cracked, the door fell off its hinges when you opened it and the products are just piled up next to the counter in boxes, then you’re not going to be very motivated to part with your cash.
Because there is every chance that someone will first encounter your company online, that means they are right at the point where they can go and find your competitors just as easily. In the real world, a customer might have to go walk another 20 minutes to take a look at your competitor if they are not sure about your shop when they walk in; online, they just need to hit the back button and click on the next search result.
So take time looking at all the little details that make up the whole. What’s the first image they see when they come to your site? Is it positive, well-formatted, professional and interesting? Does your site give someone a positive reaction when it first loads? Have you tested how your site looks on desktop, a laptop, a tablet and a phone to make sure everything still displays as it should? Can someone easily see the people behind the company and where you are located? The amount of websites I come across from small businesses where I can’t even see which country they are in never mind which town or city… what exactly are they trying to hide? We don’t want to buy from faceless companies, we want to buy from people – so you need to be visible on there too.
If you sell a physical product then make sure that you have good photographs of them. Semi-professional lighting has never been cheaper and it makes all the difference. A photo taken on your phone can look amazing if you’ve invested a little bit of money in buying a lightbox to put your product in. If you are regularly stocking new products then put a part of your workspace aside as a photography studio. Learn how to use one of the many good editing programmes to clean up your images and crop out extra background.
And when you have finished your website get others to check it for you. Get them to tell you their initial first impression. Don’t just ask them what they think, actively ask them to tell you which bits look naff so that they don’t feel they have to be polite. Get them to proofread your text and help you find typos. If you don’t have a spellcheck on your browser then copy and paste the website into Word and use the spellcheck there. With the sheer amount of tools and technology we have now to help us there’s no excuse for having a website that looks stuck in the 90s!
