Websites need to be integrated with your offline business
We have built a dedicated website with some additional information on having a mobile-responsive website. Where you used to need a website built for desktop computers and another designed specifically for mobile, programming advances mean you can have a website design that adapts to all sizes. This keeps maintenance and content update costs to minimum while also covering all those in-between devices like iPad, iPad Mini, tablets and the like as well
At a barbecue recently, someone I just met asked me what I do for a living. When I answered “We build websites” they asked “what sort of websites?”. I answered “ones to integrate with their offline business”, they said they didn’t really understand. So I decided to write this post based on the rest of the conversation.
You don’t need to know the web, you just need to know your web guys. It’s our job to work out what solution will best fit your business objectives. Some businesses just need a brochure website for branding and credibility, some require far more.
Most importantly, you need someone who knows where the website fits into your sales and marketing plan as a whole and therefore knows the hurdles BEFORE you start. Understanding the website’s role is what makes Kook good at what we do.
We call ourselves a “full service web creative agency”. We don’t print business cards or brochures or make signage, but we do everything from registering a domain name through to programming complex online supply chain solutions and, most importantly, work with customers after we’ve developed their website to ensure it provides return on investment.
We are creative enough to know how the site aesthetic should be designed to create the right look and feel for your customers to want to contact you to find out more, or to buy your product or service.
Here’s an example of what we do. Just after Christmas we launched an online bathroom supply website.
The site has more than a than a thousand products online which automatically update from their internal stock management system. We programmed the solution so it exports from their system including any pricing changes, new images, updated stock levels and the website is up to date in less than a minute. Sales are also imported back into their internal systems for accounting and despatch processes.
Most importantly, we ensured the site ranked well in Search Engines, and began a paid marketing campaign via Google AdWords and other comparison sites such as GetPrice and MyShopping. In the first three months after launch it has turned over three times the build cost and we are still improving the conversion rates.
Great website? Absolutely. Did we just come into work one morning and “build it”? Of course not.
We had to learn about the business, understand where the website would fit in the overall business strategy and how to best position it to take advantage of the existing logistics and supply chain. Who were the target buyers? Why were they using the website to buy things? How would we advertise it to them? What was Plan B if Plan A didn’t work as great as we hoped?
And this leads us to perhaps THE most important things we do. Measure, analyse and refine.
One of the critical things people misunderstand is the importance of customising and refining your site AFTER it has been launched. There are a hundred ways you are feeding the sales funnel that is your website and you can’t expect one approach will appeal to all customers – especially the customers from one market segment to another if you sell a diverse range of products.
Something as small as changing the colour of your Add To Cart button can make a difference to sales conversion.
Talk to us today if you want to find out what else we know.
What's next, Kook?
A meeting with us costs NOTHING. Even if you have an inkling you aren't getting the results you'd expect, let's have a chat.