In 2019, every business is an online business. Today’s customers are researchers, who spend significant amount of time exploring their options before committing to even minor purchases. If this process brings them to your website, you have a limited opportunity to convince them that you’re what they’re looking for. This is true even if you’re not involved in eCommerce: HostingFacts.com recently reported that 56 cents out of every dollar spent offline is influenced by digital interaction.
[Tweet “A frustrating experience on a website hurts the opinion of your brand overall.”]
How confident are you in your current website?
Before you answer that question, you should know that customer expectations are high. Purchasing decisions are based on the experience customers have online, particularly when it comes to mobile websites. Wow Local Marketing did the research, and here’s what they found:
The younger your customers are, the higher the expectations will be. Members of Gen Z – people who are 23 and younger – overwhelmingly expect websites to be able to anticipate their needs and answer their questions, even if they’ve never visited before. Millennials, Gen Xers and Baby Boomers aren’t really that different; every generation has had nearly two decades of experience navigating the online world, and they know what they like and what they don’t.
Website expectations remain high for B2B companies.
Manufacturers, service providers, and other B2B companies face many of the same issues B2C companies do. The reason for this is simple: the expectations customers form while researching their personal purchases carry over into their professional lives. Creating an engaging experience that meets customer needs is every bit as important for B2B companies as it is for everyone else.
Is your website helping you grow your business?
It’s important to understand that your website has a crucial role to play in helping you build your business. With the right data capture tools in place, you can learn a lot about the people who visit your site. You can learn what interests them, what moves them closer to doing business with them, and where they decide that you are or aren’t for them.
This information can help you make better business decisions. By focusing on just one area of understanding – for example, identifying the different groups of customers who visit your website, a process called audience segmentation – it’s possible to find profitable opportunities to grow your business. Those opportunities have always been there, but without the data to help you find them, you’re missing out. So it’s essential that your website have robust data capture and analysis tools.
Ready for next steps?
If you’re not sure how well your website is serving you, we can help. An audit will reveal what’s working, what’s not, and what your options are. In some cases, a website upgrade may be in order – retaining the majority of your site, while making necessary changes to better meet customer expectations and help you build your business.
In other cases, it may be time for a new website. We custom build sites on 4 platforms – WordPress, Shopify, Laravel, and Stella, our own proprietary platform that has data capture and analysis tools built in. For more information, drop us a line. We’re here to help!
