How Web Design Affects Lead Generation
Remember the good old days of generating leads? Scrounging up money for a billboard, sticking ads on bus stop benches, or posting in the classified section while crossing your fingers for a phone call?
If those marketing memories made you shiver, you’re not alone! As we continue moving forward into the 21st century, digital marketing strategies continue to evolve and provide businesses with more opportunities to target preferred customers online.
But while we think of specific digital marketing tactics such as paid advertising or content marketing as the dominant lead generating methods, it’s easy to overlook how essential website design is toward improving lead generation efforts.
You can safely assume that nearly every consumer out there is conducting their own online research investigation before choosing which companies to do business with. Studies show that how your website looks and performs significantly impacts lead generation.
Check out the following statistics:
- 75% of consumers evaluate a brand's credibility based on its website design
- 59% of website visitors prefer browsing beautiful websites as opposed to generic-looking ones
- It takes .05 seconds for online consumers to form an opinion about a website
- Nearly 40% of web designers attribute outdated designs as why most visitors leave a website
Consistent lead generation is the gift that keeps on giving, so long as you understand how Web Design dictates how many leads you can generate. It is imperative to reach your target audience.
Here are a few primary ways web design affects lead generation and how to incorporate these design elements into your current digital marketing strategy.
Appearance Is Everything
Pop quiz time! What kind of hotel would you rather stay in: a luxury-looking resort bursting with elegance and sophistication or a run-down motel covered in graffiti and missing a few letters on its vacancy sign?
Need a minute to decide? Appearances go a long way when it comes to a consumer’s mindset, and nothing makes for a better first impression quite like a sleek, modern-looking website.
The first rule of web design is to design a website that’s appetizing to the eyes, which means incorporating all of the following design elements:
- Stimulating and consistent color schemes
- Unique and interesting typography that’s easy on the eyes
- Concise organization and simple web page navigation
- Consistent branding (colors, logos, imagery, etc.) across all web pages
- High-quality, original video and photography
- Mobile-friendly, responsive web design
Dated graphics? Slow load times? Pixelated photography? Any blemishes in your website’s appearance will only raise red flags for all visitors to your website.
Expanding Online Presence & Brand Awareness
Right now, at this very moment, someone in the world is online, searching for the very products or services your business provides.
In fact, that someone is probably in your city, area, or community, looking for the first websites that pop up on the first page of their search results. This is where successful web design affects lead generation, as a website anchored by built-in SEO tactics works to increase your company’s online visibility and expand brand awareness.
Search engines have algorithms that crawl across your page and assess your content for relevance that matches the intent of their user. All of the content on your website needs to be specially structured and optimized to effectively target your keywords and audience, which will ultimately improve your ranking in key search results.
Implementing various web design features will expand your online presence and help your website climb up the rankings. SEO strategies like target keyword research, proper link-building, optimized meta and title tags, and content marketing can ultimately generate more leads for your business.
Establishing Credibility & Trust
At the end of the day, effective web design provides trust. When consumers see the effort you’ve put into your online presence and can enjoy a satisfying user experience, that instills a sense of trust in your brand. Trust is what motivates consumers to enlist your services or products.
It’s important to understand how many options every consumer has when choosing a business in any given industry. The reality is that most of your target audience will be unaware of how much experience your staff has, how many awards they’ve won, what credentials they boast, etc. They’ll only have your website and online reputation to go off of.
And for most consumers, a properly designed website that’s as striking as it is functional will be more than enough to persuade them to do business with you.
Nothing gives you more peace of mind than knowing how impressed people are with your website. At Triton Commerce, we create websites for businesses they can be proud of by utilizing professional web design tactics engineered to help generate more leads for your company.
Tired of looking at your stale, dated website? Upgrade your website today and contact Triton Commerce for all your web design needs!