So you’ve started to research web design for your business, and you landed on this page. Welcome! My guess is that, if you’re reading this article, you’re a big believer in traditional sales methods and you’ve built your business with hard-earned handshakes. That’s great, and it absolutely is what got you to the point you’re at today. No one can take that history away from you – and you earned it. Unfortunately there’s also a bit of bad news if you think that traditional sales alone will continue to help you reach your goals.

Pour a cup of coffee, take a deep breath and settle in for a good read… in this article you’ll learn everything you need to know about obtaining an outstanding website that attracts, delights and engages more business leads and ultimately, drives a greater volume of sales. If you’re short on time, I’ll give you the straight-up answer now:

Without great web design and content, your competitors can steal your future.

That might be a tough one to swallow, but it’s true – in almost every sense. You need a website, and you need to sell your products and services the way the vast majority of people are used to buying today. Your web design needs to do that for you, and it needs to do it the right way. Why? Because the majority of consumers start with googling something they need an answer to. Their first few results will often become their primary source of information. Without reading any further, the answer to the question, “Why does web design matter for my business?” is that you need to be that primary source of information the person come across first. If you’re not, your competitors have a huge opportunity to reach your ideal customers before you do.

Give them the answers and they’ll start to ask you for the solution!

Another top reason great web design matters for your business is that all of your social media, advertising, sales support materials and marketing efforts have to lead your audience somewhere. That “somewhere” needs to be a web page that both informs your visitor about your offerings in a visually compelling and clearly communicative manner, then leads them to either buy your product or register their information with your sales team so they can be approached. Once they’ve registered their interest, they’ve become a lead and your sales team can approach in an active and engaged manner.

Well-executed websites are at the core of every leading company’s web presence and sales machine. They may not always be the most visible part of your company’s brand or presence (that’s the job of social media and advertising), but they should be the most authoritative. What do I mean by authoritative? I mean your website needs to be the central source of truth about your products and services so visitors can become introduced to your brand and learn why you’re the answer to what they were searching for in the first place. At the end of every possible search query needs to be an answer that comes from you.

Great web content points all roads to you

That’s a lot to absorb if you’re new to all this. Let’s break it down into simpler terms so you can grasp the importance of your website’s role in future success. There are a few different ways that internet strangers become welcome guests. They can contact your business page through a lead form or chat box on most major social media platforms for sure – you can read more on social media marketing here. But websites are the champ when your customers are actively searching for answers. Here is an evolutionary model that places a well-designed and executed website at the epicenter of your lead-generating machine:

Standard Product or Service Website

This is your standard website foundation. It’s what people tend to think of as “web design”, and typically consists of a homepage, an about page, a number of service or product pages and a contact page. This website really is just the first step in developing an effective online strategy. Even if well-designed and with all proper SEO work done to it, it still points at the business more than it answers any real questions for possible customers. This is a good place to start, but not a very good place to pause in your website efforts. WMC excels at designing beautiful websites with attention to clear and clever communication.

Content-Driven Website

This is where your website starts to spread its wings. With the right keyphrase research and a diligent, ongoing effort to expand your website’s ability to address search-based questions, you’re on your way to winning the website game. This content gives you some serious authority in the marketplace. Why? Because you’re the answer to people’s questions. It’s simple, but it takes a lot of effort and diligent SEO practices. This content can now effectively be used as reference material for social media and advertising (as long as the right contact forms and lead generation tools are applied). WMC offers a number of right-sized retainers for assisting your small, medium or large business with this ongoing effort.

Content Funnel & Click-Funnel Websites

This is where things get sophisticated. At this point you’ve started to answer your intended audience’s most pressing questions. With a combination of landing pages (ongoing web design), pillar pages and marketing efforts such as social media, email marketing and digital advertising, your customers now have somewhere to land when they’ve decided to engage your outreach. This is where the conversion magic starts to happen, as we begin guiding prospects through learning more about your offerings and inspiring them to give you their contact information or to outright buy your products or services right away. WMC recommends the use of an effective CRM and marketing platform to establish these advanced features.

Intelligent Automation & Remarketing

With the previous phases well-developed (this takes time), your website is ready to leverage the power of automation and remarketing sequences to deliver targeted ads, recapture abandoned visitors, automate a cadence that can handle guiding a mass audience through refined marketing processes and much, much more.

With the above model, your website has accomplished some serious influential capability. You want to do this before your competitors can, or they may beat you to the punch at which point you’ll be working to catch up for a while. With this ongoing development of your website architecture, your business can become the authoritative solution for the types of customers you really want to work with: customers who have been self-educated because of you, and are now inspired to work with you since you’re the visible pro. All this is evidenced to them by the availability of your company’s information online.

So what’s the value of being the definitive answer when people search for your segment of product or services? The answer is priceless. Do the work and you’ll get the results. Working with the right agency is a powerful way to accelerate your progress towards this goal. WMC can help.