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5 Characteristics of a Successful Web or Brick & Mortar Business
When one thinks about a successful business, whether it is a local restaurant, an insurance broker, an online music store or even Amazon.com, there are generally five items or characteristics that each of these possess. They are 1) Appearance, 2) Functionality, 3) Informational, 4) Price and 5) Location. If even one of the above is weak or non-existent, then the chances are good that the business will be suffering. Let’s look at each characteristic:
1. Appearance. Would you walk into a jewelry store, a hair salon or a department store that was messy or had an entrance that was not attractive? You might walk in, but you may be a lonely shopper. Would you continue past the main page of a web site if it were ugly and did not guide your eyes towards attractive merchandise? The same answer as above, probably not.
Just like your local jewelry store, the main entrance has to be clean, polished and everything in its proper place. Many people still judge a book by its cover. Even if you have a home based business, one should still consider your personal appearance. Do you show up to sales calls in appropriate clothes?
What about colors? Are your web colors complimentary? Do they reflect positively on your business? Many medical practice web sites have clean, white backgrounds with soft colors as accents. Have you ever seen a physician’s web site with black backgrounds and neon green colors? Probably not.
2. Functionality. Does your web site function properly? Do the cash registers ring up the same price as the price tags? Does your shopping cart guide your customer through the purchasing process without errors? Any calculations errors? What about shipping fees?
Business executives should constantly strive for perfection in the customer buying process. Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, EBay have all fined tuned their sales process so that it is smooth, simple and has as few steps / clicks as possible. If there is a glitch, that is a lost sale. Does your web site work EVERY time?
3. Informational. Everyone wants information and many expect this information for FREE. If you went to a successful insurance agent or financial planner, they would first determine your needs, educate you on the various types of insurance or investment tools and then make their sales pitch. How many people would walk off the street and make a financial investment purchase without educating themselves. Probably very few.
Your business web site should also educate your visitors. Teach them something, anything, just teach them something!
4. Price. One could have the most beautiful store with the best sales team and have all of their registers ring up the sales properly, but chances are good that if the prices are not competitive, those registers will NOT be ringing up many sales. For many people, PRICES ARE EVERYTHING!
Are Amazon, EBay, Wal-Mart and Progressive rates competitive? Is pricing important for your web site sales? It should be.
5. Location. In the real estate market, what is the most important selling point? Location, location, location. In the web world, many people believe it is ranking, ranking, ranking. If your site can not be found high in the 4 major search engines and people can not find you, how successful will your business be? Once again, probably not very.
Notice how the above items are labeled as “characteristics”, not “rules”? As with any number of rules, there are always exceptions and yes, there are many successful businesses that may not have these five characteristics.
When you are designing or redesigning your web business, consider the visual aspect, consider how it functions, consider how much information you can safely provide, consider the pricing and of course, consider how you rank in the search engines. You will be 5 steps ahead of the game.
Article by Rich Blakemore – Rich’s Web Design - For the Current SE Rankings
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