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5 Crucial Elements that all Business Websites Must Have

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5 Crucial elements that all business websites must have

 

How many times have you heard the phrase, “Check out our website for more information?” I’m going to suggest that the answer is on an almost daily basis. That’s because our business websites have become such a crucial part of our success and we want people to utilise them. After all, they champion our brands, promote our products and give useful information to our visitors.

However, no matter how elaborate or how simple your website, there are certain elements that it absolutely must incorporate. This checklist is obviously open to interpretation and there will undoubtedly be other aspects that you want to include, but I would definitely start with these five as a bare minimum.

A Logical Design

Stunning graphics, a plethora of multimedia wizardry and all manner of bells and whistles are great, but if your website is difficult to navigate your visitors will soon get fed up. They might even go to one of your competitor’s websites to find what they want! That’s why a logical design is an absolute must.

Websites are often designed on paper first and the layout finalised before anything else. Logically-designed websites feature easy-to-navigate menus and intuitive signposts. For example, when was the last time you visited a website that didn’t have a familiar-looking navigation bar running across the top?

Clear Contact Information

This is particularly important if your website is in addition to a bricks and mortar business. A lot of the time people visit your website with the sole purpose of finding your contact information. Therefore, it needs to be clearly displayed – even on the homepage – and not be hidden away out of sight.

You may run the risk of losing potential sales if you neglect to display your business’s contact details and offering them openly helps to build trust and stronger relationships with your customers. It’s also important to provide a range of contact options like email, telephone and physical address (if appropriate).

A Blog

A business blog (like this one) is a great way to reach out to your clients and prospects. Not only does it give you a platform on which to provide useful information, but it also gives your business a voice. And the beauty of a voice is that it helps to build an online reputation and, more importantly, a loyal following.

Moreover, your blog can even help boost your search engine rankings and by providing useful, original and engaging content, your visitors will keep coming back again and again. At the end of the day, the more followers your blog attracts the stronger your brand will become.

Social Media Integration

You will have probably lost count of the amount of times you’ve visited a website and been presented with a range of social media buttons. That’s because businesses want to boost their social media following and if you’ve visited their website then chances are you’ll like their Facebook page, start following them on Twitter or add them to your Google Plus circles.

Social media activity sends strong signals to search engines and so business websites incorporate it wherever possible. After all, by ‘liking’ a company’s Facebook page you are basically signing yourself up to receive further updates from them. It’s kind of like building a mailing list.

Mobile Compatibility

Now more than ever, people are using their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices to access your business’s website. Therefore, it absolutely has to be mobile compatible. At the very least you need to have a bespoke mobile version of your site or a responsive design that adapts to mobile devices.

Your customers and prospects will be very disappointed if they try to use your website on their mobile devices only to find out that it’s a horrible experience. If your competitors have fully mobile compatible websites then you need to ensure that yours is at least as good, if not better.

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Flexible working now available to all UK employees

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Flexible working now available to all UK employeesIf you’re one of those people who finds themselves fighting a never-ending battle between balancing your personal and professional commitments then this post is definitely for you.

Last month, the UK government announced that from June 30 every employee in the UK would be able to request flexible working arrangements – a right that up until now only applied to certain carers and parents with children under 17.

On the face of it you might be wondering what’s in it for businesses? Well, the government estimates that the new plans will lower absenteeism, improve productivity and reduce staff turnover, which will realise economic benefits of about £475 million over the next 10 years.

But what exactly is flexible working and what do the new rules actually mean? Let me explain further:

What is flexible working?

Flexible working is when an agreed change is made to an employee’s working pattern. This can actually manifest itself in many different ways but the most common types of flexible working are flexitime, home working, job sharing, part-time working and changes to working hours.

The new rules are thought to be particularly attractive to young people who are just starting out in their careers and want to undertake additional learning or training and older members of staff who are approaching retirement.

Who is now eligible to apply?

Anyone who has worked for their employer for at least six months (26 weeks) continuously is eligible to apply for flexible working. Known as ‘making a statutory application’, employees can make one flexibility request per year and their employer must consider it in a ‘reasonable manner.’

Not all applications, however, will be automatically approved under the new rules; they simply allow all employees to make flexible working requests.

Why might an application be rejected?

Obviously, not every flexible working application will be successful and there will be times when employers have to decline requests. However, employers can only decline a request for one of the following business reasons:

  • the burden of additional costs
  • an inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff
  • an inability to recruit additional staff
  • a detrimental impact on quality
  • a detrimental impact on performance
  • detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
  • insufficient work for the periods the employee proposes to work
  • a planned structural change to your business

These are the same reasons under which previous flexible working requests could be declined and the new rules don’t change them in any way.

How will applications be dealt with?

In a ‘reasonable manner’ by the employer is what the law states. The application process will ultimately see the employee have a face-to-face meeting with their employer in which the flexible working request will be discussed.

Employers then have three months in which to notify their employee of the decision – unless a longer period is agreed beforehand with the employee. A clear business case must be included with any rejections and the relevant business reason from the list above stated.

All flexible working applications will be dealt with on a first-come first-serve basis by the employer. This means that conflicts may occur and if they do, businesses are advised by the government’s Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) to try to reach a compromise with the employees involved.

So if you’ve ever longed to reduce your hours or experience the benefits of flexitime, now is your chance!

 

 

Image courtesy of franky242 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

5 Tips for Boosting Your Social Media Following

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5 Tips for boosting your social media following

Establishing a social media presence for your brand is one thing; boosting it, however, is quite another. That’s why large organisations often have dedicated teams with substantial budgets specifically to handle the social media element of their business.

That’s because it’s simply not possible to create a social media page for your brand, post a few updates and expect people to find you; let alone start liking and following you! Furthermore, one of the main points of social media for business is to get your brand’s followers to actively promote your products and services through their own social media network.

But what chance is there of that happening if you can’t boost your social media following in the first place?

The answer is very unlikely, which is why I’ve compiled a list of 5 tips for building an engaged social media audience and loyal following.

Be careful with your content

Social media should not be used to constantly plug your services and attempt to sell your products. An approach like that is a sure-fire way to lose followers and, even worse, brand credibility.

Instead, post content that people find genuinely useful and interesting. This will inevitably engage your audience more strongly and encourage more retweets, shares and likes – the things we all, as social media marketers, definitely want.

Try to follow the 80/20 rule: 80% useful information and 20% promotional content. That way your sales pitches won’t feel quite so incessant.

Identify your influencers

Regardless of your industry, there will be key individuals who act as influencers and have the ability to sway your target market. Identifying who these people are and forging a relationship with them can be the key to your social media success.

After all, these people already carry a lot of clout when it comes to your prospective followers, so getting them on-side is a great strategic move. For example, share their posts that appeal to you, respond to community discussions that they start and try to identify what issues matter to them, so you can engage with them more directly.

Run Competitions

It might sound a bit archaic but running competitions and contests is an effective way to boost your social media following. The bottom line is that people like free stuff and the chance to win something is appealing.

Don’t worry if you’re not sure where to start when it comes to competitions. Websites such as Offerpop allow you to devise and implement your own bespoke promotions. Moreover, there is the ability to stipulate that only your followers can enter your promotions.

Just be sure to make the competition interesting and appealing to your target audience and offer a prize that will make them want to engage.

Experiment with paid ads

Facebook and Twitter both offer paid advertising platforms that are a great way to further your reach and ultimately attract some new followers. Both networks offer very detailed options when it comes to paid ads, so you can be sure that you are targeting exactly the right demographic for your brand.

Why not try paid advertising on both platforms and see what kind of success you realise? You might find that one reaps bigger rewards than the other and choose to concentrate your efforts accordingly.

Promote your social presence

This has to be the simplest way to boost your following, but often there are times many businesses pass up perfect opportunities to promote their social presence. For example, every time you communicate with customers and potential customers you have an opportunity to plug your Facebook page, Twitter account or Google Plus profile.

Add social media links to your website homepage, offline marketing material, email signatures, business cards – basically any touch points that you have with your customers.

It’s also a good idea to give them a reason for them to connect with you on a social media level, so highlight your competitions, useful content and influencer backings wherever possible.

These are just 5 of the many tips that I share with my clients to get the very most out of their social media campaigns.

 

 

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net