With an increasing number of the world’s population going online every year, having a website is essential for businesses today.
Building a basic website is an excellent place to start. Still, many companies don’t take future marketing into account, requiring redesign, development costs, or third-party consulting in the future to accommodate their website’s infrastructure. This can all be avoided by starting with marketing in mind and ensuring that your website will be sufficiently prepared for any future marketing goals your business may pursue.
We’ll discuss how you can design a new website with marketing in mind and what you need to do to ensure every aspect related to future marketing potential is considered in your initial website design. This will ensure your website will be effective long-term and reach your online goals as your company continues to grow and evolve.
Top 9 Ways to Design A New Website With Marketing In Mind
The most efficient way to go about building anything is to start with detailed plans in mind, keeping all of your future goals and potential future objectives top of mind. The process is no different with website design, especially if you want to future-proof your website for many years.
Fortunately, there are several ways you can begin developing your website using a marketing-first approach, ensuring that any campaign or effort you start in the future is compatible and that you have a sufficient technological foundation and advantage compared to your competitors.
1. Identify Your Target Audience And Research Their Needs
Before you build your website, you’ll need to identify your target audience and understand their needs, wants, and desires in detail. This is critical for your future marketing since it will directly impact your website’s design, branding, color schemes, and content.
When you know who you’re trying to reach, you can create a design and site structure that speaks directly to your ideal target market.
The best way to identify your target audience and understand their wants, needs, and desires is to:
- Determine the demographics of your target audience, such as age, gender, location, education level, and income
- Identify the needs and wants that are relevant to your product or service
- Research lifestyle choices, such as hobbies and interests
- Look into buying behaviors and preferences
- Analyze online activity, such as social media and web searches
- Monitor customer feedback to gain insights into your target audience
- Use surveys, questionnaires, and polls to collect more data about your target audience
2. Naming Your Website
Naming your website is one of the most important marketing tools you have at your disposal. Whenever someone visits your website, what will they be typing into their web browser to view information about your company and brand?
Ideally, your website should include your brand name in your primary domain, making it as effortless as possible for prospects or potential customers to visit your website and learn more about what you do.
In addition to your website’s primary domain name, the Top-Level Domain (TLD) you use will also impact how visitors perceive your website. The most common TLD is “.com,” but if you’re an organization (“.org”) or an educational institution (“.edu”), website visitors will be able to categorize your company based on your TLD straight away.
3. Create A Compelling Call To Action And Value Proposition
What is the primary goal of your website? Is it to attract leads, give information about your products or services, or sell your products and services directly?
No matter your goal, you’ll need a compelling Call to Action (CTA) and a clearly communicated value proposition in order to urge your website visitors and prospects to take action on your site. Calls to action should be direct, actionable, and easy to find. This will help customers easily access the information they need to make an informed decision about your product or service.
Here’s a step-by-step process for creating a compelling value proposition and CTA:
- Identify customer needs and wants.
- Establish the unique value your product or service provides.
- Craft a customer-centric message that speaks to your target audience.
- Use persuasive language that encourages customers to take action.
- Use value-based pricing that clearly communicates all of the benefits included within your product or service.
- Create urgency by setting a limited time frame for the offer.
- Leverage customer testimonials and reviews to build trust and credibility.
- Make sure to include a clear call to action (CTA).
4. Choose A Design That Reflects Your Brand’s Identity
When creating the ideal design for your website, you’ll want to choose one that reflects your brand’s identity and communicates your brand’s message clearly and concisely.
When someone visits your website, they should be able to understand and know what your brand is about immediately, right from the get-go. Thinking about your brand’s identity and how it matches with potential themes and website layouts you’re choosing to incorporate into your new website will allow you to stay aligned throughout the entire website design process.
5. Don’t Forget To Consider Your SEO Strategy
A commonly overlooked aspect of new website design or redesign is how the particular platform, foundation, or development framework you use affects your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO) potential.
The most common web frameworks that work well with SEO include platforms such as WordPress and even Shopify for eCommerce. If you choose another framework or platform that isn’t known for SEO-friendliness, you will have to make significant changes further down the line to get your content, products, and services ranking highly on search engines.
6. Build An Intuitive, User-Friendly Layout And Navigation System
The most important aspect of a navigable website is that it is intuitive, user-friendly, and has a layout that isn’t difficult to navigate for your website’s visitors.
If you expect your visitors to browse around, learn more about your company and take action on purchasing your products or becoming leads, then you’ll need to make it easy for them to find each of these elements on your site.
This can be done using an intuitive website builder that lets you customize every aspect of your website and ensure everything aligns with your business goals and that your site has good user experience.
If your website visitors are lost and need help finding the information you’re looking for, you’ll have lower conversion rates and user engagement metrics.
7. Ensure Mobile Compatibility With A Responsive Design
The shift to mobile devices has been nothing short of extraordinary in the past decade, with more and more individuals using their mobile devices and smartphones as their primary access point to the internet and the web.
If your website mobile friendly, or one that has a responsive design that automatically “scales” based on screen size and resolution, you may find yourself unintentionally alienating readers and visitors on certain devices. Plan out your mobile responsiveness from the very beginning, and you certainly won’t regret it further down the road.
8. Add Visuals That Contribute To Your Key Message
Depending on the message your brand is trying to convey and communicate to your visitors, you may want to include certain visuals and visual site elements and incorporate them directly into your design.
Think about these visual elements and where they’ll be located before you commit to your website’s layout. It will allow you to reposition them before it becomes more difficult further in the development process.
9. Build On A Website Infrastructure Or Platform That Supports Your Company’s Marketing Strategy
As we’ve described in the point about Search Engine Optimization (SEO), the framework and platform you build your website on will determine your marketing scalability, especially if you’re using cutting-edge marketing tools and technologies or plan to in the future.
When advertising your brand or marketing online, you’ll often be required to include tracking tools that monitor conversions or potentially add marketing plugins to your website that communicate with the platforms you are advertising on. Whether you’re planning to run advertisements on search engines, social media, or other platforms, make sure you know that your new website will be compatible and optimized for your future campaigns.
Build a New Website for Your Brand, And Never Overlook Marketing Again
In today’s digital world, knowning how to design a website with marketing in mind is essential for long-term business success and attracting new customers, leads, and prospects into your organization.
It’s critically important to future-proof your website today by thinking about your marketing goals and future campaigns in the design process rather than after the fact. Doing this work upfront will ensure that your website is optimized and ready for future marketing, saving you time and money in the process.
Contact Matchbox Design Group Today!
If your website could use a refresh or you’re looking to drive more traffic to your site, fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to learn more about your digital needs.
