In the digital age, it’s hard to resist the need for an online presence. Whether you own a small local company or a big corporation, being on the web is vital. Not only it drives brand awareness, but also creates credibility that helps you to gain a higher customer count. A corporate website is a powerful tool for crafting an excellent online presence. Also, it’s a perfect way to connect with the outer world and present yourself to potential clients. It is the starting point of your relationships with them. And you want them to be as pleasant and long-lasting as possible.
However, building a corporate website is not easy. It takes a dedicated approach, much time and money, and a large spectrum of tasks during the process. Also, it’s critical to choose a proper technology from the start so that you can easily construct, develop and support the platform after you build it. But even before all these, you need to consider some crucial steps that will help you to avoid inconsistencies in the future.
Step 1: Do a full overview of your business
Before you start creating your online platform, outline your business pillars. What does your business stand for? Why do you exist, and what is your mission? What is your target audience? Answering these questions will form the foundation for your future work. Ideally, you need to place all this information on your website. It should cover your business values, purpose, and goals. That will provide your potential customers and partners with a clear understanding of what it is all about and form their opinion correctly. Ultimately, if you know your business well, you have better chances to set up a reliable website that will be your representative number one.
Step 2: Write your business plan
No doubt, adhering to a plan is better than drifting in a sea of numerous choices. With a proper business plan, you won’t get off the intended path or waste a lot of time on the decision-making process. At this stage, you need to measure all your opportunities, risks, budget, and time and then land it with your objectives. That will help you to determine the direction and realize your possibilities concerning the website building. For instance, if you have enough finance, you can hire professionals to help you with the website. In case you don’t have enough budget, you can go for cheaper ways of crafting a decent digital platform without losing much time and money.
Step 3: Define your target audience
The content you will provide on your website mostly depends on your target audience’s needs. Thus, knowing your target customers is a must. Here, determine their preferences and interests. So, you can build up your website accordingly, ensuring it will appeal to them. When you suggest to your potential customers what they are looking for, you’re increasing their loyalty so that they become your clients.
Step 4: Brand yourself
Branding is an inseparable part of the business and a corporate website as well. It helps you to establish a distinct image and instill it into your customers’ perception. Every time they arrive at your website and see your brand attributes increases brand recognition.
First of all, choose the color scheme you can associate with your business. Since colors have emotional connotations, you can impact the viewers and create a desirable effect. For instance, soft colors are pleasant and warm, while bright, provocative colors contribute to the excitement and spark an interest. Along with the color, pick up typography. It functions the same way as the color – sharp fonts are intriguing, while delicate ones are elegant and tranquil.
Also, you need to create a logo that would be your visual business mark. Combine typography and colors until you get the perfect amalgamation that suits your brand. Besides, you will need a powerful brand slogan that you will place on the website. All in all, to make an excellent corporate website, you need to brand it.
Step 5: Think out your marketing and SEO strategies
Barely few websites can be successful without great search engine optimization and marketing strategy. These are critical. To put it simply, your target audience will have no way of knowing about your existence unless you show it to them. Thus, incorporate SEO before you launch the website. That way, you won’t have to redesign it or spend time on fixing this point. Think out the keywords you will insert throughout the content in advance. Also, it’s crucial to adhere to a responsive design approach to get higher SEO rankings and better load speed.
Apart from that, you can employ social media marketing. There are millions of social media users you can attract. Create an account on social media and promote your business here. Make sure your profile is a part of your branding strategy. It should correspond to your brand and use the same colors, typography, and style.
Once you hit on these points, you can launch your corporate website. However, the work doesn’t stop here. You need to keep a close eye on the website and collect feedback from the users. In other words, you need to perform a UX audit. It will help you to track the performance and fix some bugs, ensuring everything functions well and provides users with an impeccable experience.
Story by Dasha Malash. Dasha is a young, creative, and passionate marketing manager working in the IT industry. She is expert in web design and development and likes to share marketing trends, industry’s tips and tricks, and the latest market news in her articles.