Web design and online marketing services for firms selling to affluent women consumers

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CONTENTS
It's an online world | Why a first class business website is crucial to your success
Not just a pretty face | How clean web design can increase your revenue
Small business web design | Four online credibility boosters
D.I.Y. business marketing online | Why, any dummy can do that!
Our online marketing services | Appeal to the affluent with elegant web design

It's an online world: why a first class business website is crucial to your success

Years ago, we used to tell entrepreneurs at our advertising courses that marketing on the internet was less critical to the success of firms in certain word-of-mouth industries: home inspectors, for instance. Today, that's no longer the case.

A full 63% of consumers turn to the internet first for information about local companies, according to a survey conducted in November 2008 and February 2009 by Webvisible and Nielsen, with 82% of those using search engines like Google—far above the remaining contenders: the Yellow Pages (57%), local newspapers (53%), the online Yellow Pages (49%), television (49%), direct mail (38%), and the White Pages (32%).

If your target market includes affluent consumers, an online presence is even more important since their ranks continue to swell. Internet research firm eMarketer predicts that the number of affluent web users will grow to 57.1 million in 2011, up from 43.7 million in 2006.

Yet only 44% of small businesses have a website and half of these spend less than 10% of their marketing budget online, according to the same survey. Those respondents who do have a website are generally not happy with it: 51% say the quality and ability of their website to acquire new customers is "fair" or "poor," and only 9% are satisfied with their online marketing efforts.

Online forums like Yahoo! Local and Angie's List have made it possible for every firm to have a web presence... but it's not necessarily the one they want. Consider: companies without websites or online marketing plans are essentially leaving it up to people outside their organization (reviewers, competitors, and others) to create the information potential customers will find.

Unfortunately, in the case of negative comments, once a review is online, it's there to stay; a search engine won't take down a web page simply because it contains negative or incorrect information about your firm. You can respond to it (or better yet, have one of your satisfied customers respond to it), but your best bet is to populate the search results with accurate, optimized information on your own website and elsewhere.

Not just a pretty face: how clean web design can increase your revenue

For millenia, visual design has been considered something nice to have, providing a rather optional pleasure to a highly visual human race.

Now it's essential to the success of your business... and we're not kidding. If you've been tempted to skimp on web design in favor of other aspects of your business, read on for a statistic that has curled the hair of more than one entrepreneur.

The following statistic is downright scary to most small businesses, but increasingly true: "[P]eople landing on a site for the first time make instant subconscious judgments about the organization behind it based on the design of the site," says Lance Loveday, co-author of Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers and Prospects Into Leads, in an April 2009 blog post. "I’ve referenced a study done by researchers at Carleton University before about how people begin to react to new interfaces in as little as 0.5 seconds. ... New visitors to a site form initial judgments based on the design quality of the site—use of color and images, layout alignment, affordance, use of negative space, and many other factors. Having participated in a number of user studies, I’ve always come away amazed at how people form judgments about a site based on such limited information."

In today's online world, where the next website is only one or two clicks away, it turns out that strategic website design plays a critical business role.

Delving more deeply into Loveday's post, we find that disorganized content and layouts, too many fonts, use of clashing colors, and dense blocks of text are some of the key culprits. "We’ve traced the root cause of bad judgments about sites to a variety of factors that are seemingly insignificant at first glance," says Loveday. "But when we learned what those factors made people think about the underlying organization, we realized they had a huge impact on how the site/entity was perceived. Beyond the branding impact, the judgments people formed impacted the likelihood that they’d ever transact with the organization behind the site."

There's much more to a top web site design than avoiding disorganization, too many fonts, clashing colors, and dense blocks of text (something Loveday expands on in his excellent book), but these four factors are an excellent start, and they can all be corrected with a professionally done, clean web design.

Remember, too, that the best website design is all about your target market, not about the company owner. It's great if the web page design appeals to both that owner and her target markets (and the most elegant web design often does), but if you have to choose one or the other, choose the people who will put money in your pocket.

Remember Loveday's words: the design quality of a website directly impacts the likelihood of visitors every doing business with your firm.

Small business web design: four online credibility boosters

The earlier mention of reviews on the web brings up another point: increased credibility is one of the most significant benefits of a well-crafted business website, particularly for small businesses and professional service firms.

"If you look like you might go out of business next week, you're not going to bag the big one," writes the author of The Girls' Guide to Building a Million-Dollar Business. "Make sure you have a professional website, not one that looks like it was created by your niece in high school."

One of the most critical factors in today's online environment, which is still largely unregulated, is appearing—and being—trustworthy. These four elements can help:

1 } Trust logos. If you're a member of the Better Business Bureau in good standing, for instance, consider displaying the BBB logo. Many secure websites display the VeriSign logo to reassure visitors. Our own website displays the BBB logo and the eMarketing Association Certified Site logo, both honestly earned, on most pages.

2 } Complete contact information. Displaying full contact information can go a long way toward earning trust. Include your street address, phone number, and email address... though it's best to use a business location rather than your home office address, as Google Maps now displays photos of many addresses.

3 } Testimonials. Genuine testimonials almost always help when accompanied by detailed identifying information. (Praise from "J. Smith of Michigan" will correctly be viewed with skepticism on the part of your audience.) If your best customers are willing, Forbes points out that longer testimonials in the form of case studies can be more effective than a single quote, particularly if they share challenges overcome as part of the project. In our view, supplementing these with single-quote testimonials (for those with shorter attention spans) sprinkled throughout your website can provide the best of both worlds.

4 } Visual design. Your web page design plays a bigger role in earning trust than you might think. A 2002 Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab study found that 75% of web users make judgments about the credibility of a firm based on the visual design of its website: elements like layout, typography, and colors. The authors of Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers and Prospects Into Leads agree: "Visitors make a very quick, unconscious judgment about the site, based on the overall 'look' of the page. [I]f the site passes this initial judgment, visitors look to verify they're in the right place and that the site offers what they need."

(For more information on this topic, visit our marketing article Boost Your Credibility on the Web.)

D.I.Y. business marketing online: why, any dummy can do that!

We're a nation of do-it-yourselfers... but in the case of the best website design, as with many things, looks can be deceiving. What appears so simple looks that way because the web designers behind it are experts in a variety of fields, from consumer psychology to visual design to technology. And they achieve this perfect symbiosis despite cost concerns, platform limitations, conflicting input from multiple players, and more.

"Unless you're already a professional web designer, don't do it yourself; this is the biggest mistake you can make," writes Jan Zimmerman, author of Web Marketing for Dummies. "Deciding who will design your site is a strategic marketing decision. How will your site measure up if it's obviously homemade, with links that don't work, but your competitors' sites look professional and run smoothly? If your competition's sites are equally poor, this is not as much of a factor, but you're wasting an obvious opportunity to get an edge."

(If you doubt this, take a look back at the scary web design statistic above.)

Our tip: once you've made a careful decision about which web design expert will design your business website, don't be afraid to give input... but on the flip side, do let them use their expertise on your behalf. A truly professional web designer will welcome your feedback—it's hard to please you if we don't know what you think—but there's a point when you can begin subtracting value from the equation. If you dictate what font to use here, what color to use there, where to place the navigation, and so on, you'll be cheating yourself out of much of the value even the best web designer can bring to your business.

Our online marketing services: appeal to the affluent with elegant web design

When it comes to custom web site design, Zimmerman points out that a web designer is only one of several professionals you'll need; you may also need a graphic designer, web programmer, copywriter, advertising and online marketing specialist, and others.

Sound overwhelming? Take heart! We offer expertise in all those areas, plus search engine optimization to help you obtain more website traffic... and we're one of the few web design companies with a specialty in affluent web design. (See our article on the essential elements of websites designed to appeal to affluent women consumers.)

We design web pages to appeal to your target market according to your firm's unique personality, strengths, and line of business. The best website design for you will be markedly different than what's best for the firm down the street. What we offer is truly custom: your website will not look like any other site on the internet. Take a quick look at our design portfolio to see what we mean; every web design and marketing piece is upscale, created specifically to appeal to affluent women consumers, but each one is inseparable from the personality of the firm.

We do all of this well and fast (we offer a speed guarantee backed with real money, not just words), with a level of personal service seldom found in the web design industry. You'll never have to wonder about the status of your website design or hesitate to ask questions. We'll guide you in other areas of online marketing, too. If you want to feel you're safely in the hands of caring, expert design professionals, we're your web design company.

We take your vision and create what other people see when they look at your company. And we make it appealing—oh so appealing—to affluent women consumers. Contact us today and let's talk about how you want to appear in the online world!

What would you like to know?

• If you’d like to see what others have said about us, visit our client experiences page
• If you’d like to find out more about us or our pricing, start with our about Aio Design page
• If affluent women are your target market, visit our marketing to women page
• If you’re a woman entrepreneur, visit our page for women business owners
• If you’re looking for information to help you, see our helpful articles page or order our free report
• If you're looking for practical ways to improve your existing website, order our website analysis