As January rolls in, many people reflect on the tradition of New Year's resolutions. However, for years, I have opted out of this practice, and I believe you might also benefit from reconsidering it too.
As a productivity expert, I instead suggest focusing on setting specific goals for both your small business and personal growth. While it’s essential to establish overarching goals for the year, such as income and sales targets, this is different than setting generic resolutions such as "make more money" or "update my website". Once you set your BHAG (aka Big Hairy Audacious Goals) for the year, breaking these down into quarterly objectives equally as important.
Establishing Website Goals
Let’s dive into how this principle applies to your small business. As I said, you probably are thinking in terms resolutions. "Make a better looking website" or even, "Finally finish and publish this website that has been taking forever to design!" While those are fine ideas to have, making a better looking website might be desirable, but what if it's better looking, but doesn't work well? What if when a visitor hits the homepage, they admire how it looks, but they leave the page without making a purchase or scheduling a meeting? (That's called "bouncing" off the page, and that's not good.)
When initiating the design or redesign of a website, I often start by asking clients about their website goals. Although this question may seem straightforward, many struggle to articulate a clear answer. They tend to focus on their desires as business owners without considering a fundamental aspect: understanding the target market and their needs.
Small business owners tend to think about what they want their website to look like, rather than what they want their website to do for them. What's the purpose of your website?
Typically, when asked about their website goals, clients provide one of these two responses:
- "I just want a website so people can find me online and establish my business's legitimacy."
- Those things are a byproduct of a quality website. If you build a secure, functional website, using good SEO practices, and incorporate Google Analytics, Search Console, and Google Business, those things will happen naturally. You're focusing on the outcome, but not the steps to get there. As the best planning advice says, "work backwards".
- "I want my website to look better so I won’t feel embarrassed sharing it."
- A good looking website might be more appealing to share, but who cares what it looks like if it's not doing what you need it to do. Sometimes the most functional things, are the most beautiful.
While these responses are valid starting points, these aren't easily measurable with analytics nor do the get to heart of the matter. Effective website goals should delve deeper to ensure the site serves as a robust marketing tool around the clock.
A Website Must Go Beyond Aesthetics
While visual appeal is critical for engaging potential customers, functionality is equally important; a website that looks good but doesn’t perform well is ineffective.
What Does Proper Functionality look like?
This encompasses several factors. For instance, the website should load seamlessly on various devices, all links and buttons must be operational, and if applicable, users should be able to add items to their cart and complete the checkout process. However, you also need to align your website with your business objectives.
The initial step in designing a website is to establish clear goals. This involves understanding your target market and ensuring the site appeals to them. Additionally, you need to clarify what actions and messages you want to convey once visitors arrive.
Consider a visitor encountering your small business for the first time through your website. What impression will they form? Is your messaging straightforward? Can they quickly grasp your offerings and your mission? Does your site take them on an engaging customer journey from initial interest to final purchase?
Does your website effectively communicate who you are, whom you serve, and how you address their pain points or provide opportunities?
Each business will have it's own set of unique website goals. For instance, a service provider may aim for leads to book a discovery call. This could look like a visitor landing on a homepage that has a button reading "Book Now". When the visitor clicks the link, a scheduling tool such as Calendly opens up and allows the lead to book a spot on your calendar. And because it's all automated, the scheduling tool knows when you're available and when you're not. The appointment ends up in your calendar with a Zoom link. You and the visitor both get reminder emails. And the beauty of this is that you didn't actually have to do a thing after the initial setup. How much money and time did that save you?
Of course, you needed to know that this was your intent the whole time before you were able to setup that whole automation. Again, it's about working backwards here. It’s essential to determine how you want users to interact with your site to design it accordingly.
Setting your own Website Goals
Begin with identifying your ideal customer. Your objective should be to create a website that resonates with this demographic. Conduct thorough market research to address questions such as: What problems do I solve for them? What colors and designs attract them? What emotions do you want your website to evoke?
Next, consider functionality goals. Do you want users to purchase a product or schedule an appointment? Are you aiming to collect email addresses through lead magnets or special offers? Understanding the customer journey is crucial in guiding them effectively using targeted calls to action.
It is also important to make sure your website is functioning properly across multiple devices. What does that entail? Is your website mobile-responsive? How does it work on a large desktop, vs a small laptop, vs a phone, or a tablet?
It's important to keep in mind your customers and where they are viewing your site. You can look up your exact analytics if you're tracking with Google Analytics (and you SHOULD be), but on average, 50% or more of your website views will come from a phone. It's critical to optimize your website so that users get an optimal experience, no matter their device.
This doesn't have to be overwhelming and you don't have to go out and beg, borrow, and steal all the devices you can get your hands on to see for yourself. All you need to do is select "Developer Tools" from the hamburger menu of a Chrome browser. It's not always completely accurate, but it's a pretty good indicator. (Want a detailed tutorial on this? Let me know in the comments and I'll record a video for you.)
Evaluating Your Success
Setting goals is only part of the equation. It’s vital to regularly assess your website's performance against the established objectives to avoid overlooking this crucial step.
I strongly recommend reviewing your site as if you were a first-time visitor, but as someone who is too close to the business, it's easy to miss even some obvious things. You may think your messaging is clear, as it makes complete sense to you, but what about someone unfamiliar with your business? You need a true set of "fresh eyes".
While it would be ideal to hire a web designer to perform a website audit for you, sometimes that leaves you with an overwhelming set of recommendations that you can't handle yourself. Instead, I suggest offering a handful of your actual ideal clients an incentive (such as a coffee gift card, discount code, or free products) in exchange for giving you honest feedback on their customer experience using your website.
After all, they are the ones that really matter in the end.