What are the most important website features for small businesses?
We have been spending countless hours over the last six months evaluating our current product offering and working on rolling out new products and services with will help our clients achieve the maximum success online and thus increase their return on investment. We don’t have customers, we have clients. This means that in order for us to succeed we most continually strive to make our clients business as successful as possible.
We have identified a few areas which we feel every small business needs to be successful online. We like to think of this as the start of their online marketing and/or sales strategy. These are:
1) Custom Website Design – This portrays a look and feel that is in line with any current branding and identity already online. The website must always mimic your offline business. This does not mean that you purchase a template and slap your logo on it. Other colors and emotions must also be considered. How is your business viewed by your customers? Would you like to influence a change in your brand through your website? These are just a few of the questions to ask yourself when you are considering and evaluating how to proceed with your website design.
2) Integrated Content Management System – We feel that a simple, straight-forward and easy to use system is a ‘must have’ for a small business website. Even though a website can be effectively administrated through FTP, Dreamweaver, etc. having a CMS system allows business owners to manage their content without having to bother themselves with other costly software.
3) Email Management - Small businesses need to have a solid email system that will allow them to stay on top of sales leads, customer inquiries, to-do’s etc.
4) Scalable Website – a website must be scalable, meaning that as your small business grows your website can grow. If with it. If you know that you may be interested in building an e-commerce platform in the future, you should select a solution that will enable you to add these features on the fly when you need them. This is much more cost effective than selecting a vendor that does not have scalable solutions.
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We are identifying more features daily but would like your feedback. What do you feel are the most important features that a small business must have when selecting a website vendor or solution provider?
Tags: austin web design
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August 14, 2008 at 7:08 pm
You have left out two key points. First: COPY is the muscle behind the groovy graphics! Sites with outrageous graphics and weak copy are pointless. Second: ACTION is the desired end result. This must be part of the contact page or what’s the point? It’s about getting more business, hello? But, hey, I’ll bet you build great sites! Send ‘em to me for copy, and I have someone who is amazing on graphics. Be great! Ellen (in Houston)