614.224.6226For most companies, periodic reviews are a must, when it comes to keeping things on track and moving projects forward. While larger companies might rely on formal meetings and audits, smaller businesses. And self-employed professionals typically keep things lower key. Preferring to review the books, and future plans, with a cup of coffee or during a long weekend. It might be time to change your website.
Regardless of how you and your company look things over. However, there are likely to be ongoing changes. It might be that your marketing plan isn’t yielding the results you’d hoped, or that you’re ready to roll out some new products. How do you know what kind of changes you should make to your website?
Time to Change Your Website
Contrary to what you might expect, we are not going to advise you to redesign your home page every time you decide to try something new. Much as we would love to have the work, there are times when big changes just aren’t warranted. What we will advise you, though, is to remember that in many ways your website is the most important part of your business. And certainly your most prominent marketing piece.
That means that any time your business plan gets a big overhaul, some parts of your company’s website design probably should, too. Here are a few things to keep in mind:
Pricing and product info should always be current.
If you decide to make a major change to what you sell, or the way you price it, change your website to reflect those changes immediately. It’s a never a good idea to have customers find inaccurate information on your site.
Form should follow function.
A lot of business owners and marketing managers get too attached to current designs. We can understand: if something has been working for a while, why be in a hurry to change it? That’s not a bad way to think, but it’s more important that your site show visitors what your company is all about, especially if it’s changing.
Different is good… follow your own instincts.
Just because a competitor changed up their site, or even their whole business, doesn’t mean it’s going to make much sense for you. Make sure that your business plan (and your website) stays in line with your business plan, not your competitor’s.
You can’t know until you test.
A good web design team can help you test different layouts and ideas to see what your customers like best. That’s important, because the best options aren’t always clear until you’ve had a chance to test drive them.
Change your website to enhance recruitment.
If your new business plan calls for expansion, don’t forget to post job openings on your company’s site. Often, your best employees can come from your customers. Since they already know and like your company, its products, and the way you do business. So don’t miss the chance to bring some of them into your team.
If you’re in the process of writing your next business plan or need to change your website. Or wishing your website had kept up with the changes you made the last time around, give us a call and find out how Marcy Design can help.
Call Marcy Design, a Columbus Ohio website design company to help with your web, marketing and advertising campaigns.