Quality website design for business – Musato Technologies
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Consider spending more to get a quality website design

Cheaper websites may not always be the best option for your business. As you grow, a do-it-yourself or roll-up-your-sleeves and get-it-done approach may no longer meet all of your needs. If you want to succeed in business and on the web, investing in quality website design is crucial.

As websites have evolved, they’ve become more complex and difficult to build—requiring expert knowledge.

Because of this, companies who want to attract new customers over the long term may want to invest in a professional website that effectively represents their company.

Quality Website Design

Today, websites and web applications exist in a complex business ecosystem. They are tied into other business tools “and” serve as client portals/inventory management systems, accounting systems—even content marketing automation platforms!

A company’s website can be as simple or complex as the business wants it to be, but it must serve a purpose—and that is selling products.

If I had to choose just one metric to focus on when evaluating the ROI of a website, it would be conversion.

To be successful, your website must help prospects explore their options and make a purchase.

DIY platforms are better than ever

Web development has evolved over the years. Modern websites appeal to users’ eyes with their visual beauty, provide thoughtful and intelligent user experiences, use complex e-commerce sites (like Amazon or Etsy), and are developed using agile approaches that allow frequent updates—as opposed to traditional waterfall processes where one huge website is built all at once and then launched months later after it’s complete.

In addition to these benefits, the time and cost needed to create a website have been significantly reduced. Platforms now also offer built-in tools—such as optimization for search engines and performance measurement—that help you achieve success faster than ever before!

Website templates help people with no experience in web design build professional-looking websites.

The cost of a website may seem expensive, but there are cheaper alternatives available.

You’re not building a website, you’re building a sales tool

There is a difference between developing a website and creating a conversion-focused sales and marketing tool that will pay off and help you achieve your business goals.

A high-quality website is an investment in itself, and you need to know what kind of return on that investment (whether it’s cost or time) will be worth your while.

If you are considering the DIY website option or hiring an expert, here are some things to consider.

Great websites offer valuable, customer-focused content

Finding the right content to attract customers and introduce them to your products, services, and brand is one of the biggest challenges faced by businesses that set up websites.

To make sure your website succeeds, you need to think about who will use it and what those people want.

Questions to ask when creating content for a website

About your customers

  • Who are your target customers?
  • Can you clearly and confidently state what makes your product or service different from the competition? What your customers can expect from your products and services?
  • How are you different from your competitors?

About content creation

  • Great content stands out from the rest by delighting and engaging its audience.
  • How much does it cost to create excellent content (images, writing, and video)?
  • Do you know if the content will resonate with your customer needs?
  • How will the content be distributed?

To create conversion-focused content, you need to focus on your customers’ needs and the benefits they derive from their purchases.

  • Identify your priority segments
  • Develop customer personas
  • Ensure messaging is aligned with your core brand offering
  • Provide customer proof

To create successful content, you must first understand the reasons customers choose your products and services. Only then can you develop content that distinguishes your company from its competitors.

When you create content for your customers, it builds trust and demonstrates that what you offer meets their needs.

Identifying what sets you apart from your competition takes time and effort, which is a cost that must be incurred no matter how you approach this task. However, by approaching the right way (investment) it can now increase your conversion potential and boost ROI.

4 stages of the online customer journey – quality website design

Building a conversion-focused website requires identifying customer and value-focused content, and then mapping that to the right experience.

Don’t give me what I want—give me what I need.

When mapping how people use a website, it’s important to understand the four key stages they move through.

  1. Awareness
  2. Evaluation
  3. Conversion
  4. Retention

There are different types of requirements for each stage. Depending on how someone enters your site, you’ll need to consider what content is most applicable at what stage and anticipate how offering the right information at that moment will move them through the process.

A sales representative or employee can help customers navigate linearly through your store by identifying their needs, explaining products and benefits, and offering advice on which items are best suited for a particular need/budget level.

Create scenarios to anticipate customer’s needs

We don’t have the same opportunity to help customers directly online, so we explore scenarios to anticipate needs and requirements at each stage of their journey.

The goal of a user interface is to create an experience that creates value for the individual.

  • Retention
  • Repurchase
  • Loyalty

The term you use to describe your customer journey depends on how well you’re meeting customers’ needs throughout their interactions with your company.

DIY or custom website that guarantees quality website design?

Most of the leading DIY web platforms offer template design themes that are mobile responsive — meaning they look good on tablets and smartphones. You can then plug in your images and text, adjust a few settings (for instance, font size or placement), and press the button to launch.

However, if you need help planning your navigation or have a very specific type of website to create, then you will probably not be able to use a DIY platform.

However, if you’ve mapped out your customer profiles and content needs—and created a user journey that reflects these factors—you will probably find that none of the pre-set themes meets all your requirements. You’ll need to modify them which means working with someone who understands frontend development very well

You may be capable of making minor modifications to a home yourself, but you’ll have to accept that as the years pass and your household expands, likely, you will likely and eventually need professional help to make any kind of extensive changes.

If that is what they want, they will spend time (and money) deconstructing your project to put it back together and build upon whatever you’ve created.

If you make significant changes to a standard structure or theme, it will be difficult for an amateur with no web design experience to update that site.

I’m not going to discuss any customizations you may want until later in this chapter.

It is important to consider the thousands of plugins and custom solutions you can use to add functionality or integrate your website with other systems. If all these are considered, it will make fitting them into a coherent whole easier for both the developer and the client.

How will you measure performance?

To build an online presence, you need to understand who your audience is, where they come from, and what kind of content interests them.

Many DIY web platforms, such as Shopify, can easily integrate Google Analytics or even have their measurement systems in place—so it’s not difficult to add your business’ analytics program to your site.

However, it is another inconvenience to the website-creation process that DIY web builders don’t address.

The $200 website probably won’t suit your needs

A website that costs $200 may not be able to meet your needs if the site is lacking certain features. Therefore, it cannot guarantee a quality website design that yields good results.

When you’re thinking about launching a new website, don’t just consider the cost—think about how it will impact your business.

You should spend just as much, if not more time on the copy for your ad as you do writing about your product or service.

You should think about maximizing your return on investment so that you are converting potential customers into leads or sales—not just building a website for the cheapest possible price.

You may have heard someone say: “I can design and build a website for you quickly and affordably.”

Before you make a final decision on how to proceed, I hope that the above will give you something to think about.

A professional website design company such as Musato Technologies can help you get the results you want to achieve because a quality website design can catapult your business to new heights. Get a quote today.

Siphumelele Sipika
Author: Siphumelele Sipika

Siphumelele Sipika is the Chief Operation Officer (COO) and the Administrator at Musato Technologies. She also holds the position of the Director. She is a visionary leader and a technologist who is driven and passionate about digital transformation and the role of ICT that plays in improving economies and communities throughout Africa and the globe at large.

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