Customers are online now more than ever. Whether they’re hunting down the next great deal or searching for a specific type of product, there’s no denying the influence of online marketing in today’s digital age. As a business leader, it’s your job to give your products home on a marketing website. A well-designed website can boost visibility for your products or services, increase your revenue and grow your customer base in the long run.

You might have a general idea of what makes a successful marketing site, but do you know which specific ingredients you need? If not, we’re here to help you build a website that will leave a lasting impression on all of your online visitors. Here are some of the defining characteristics of a successful marketing site that are worth keeping in mind.

1. A Clear Purpose

Without a clear sense of purpose, your website will lack direction. It’s important to know what your goals are before you begin building your site. Are you looking to raise brand awareness? Do you aim to increase your market share? Every business has unique goals, and only you know what is best for your specific company.

Once you’ve outlined all of your primary objectives, be sure to keep them at the forefront of your mind as you bring your marketing website to life. Your customers will be more inclined to spend time on a website with a clear sense of direction. If you overload your page with unnecessary information and distracting graphics, users will have a hard time discerning what your brand is all about.

If you’re struggling to define your purpose, pick a strong starting point and expand from there. Maybe your products share a particular theme or offer the same set of benefits. Use this information to set the overall tone for your website and attract customers’ attention. The more compelling your message is, the more likely people will be to take an interest in your products or services.

2. A Defined Audience

What does your ideal customer look like? This is a question that you should be prepared to answer as you plan out your marketing website. Knowing your target audience Enables you to tailor your products or services to a specific type of consumer. As a result, you can ensure that your brand message reaches the correct kind of crowd.

To define your audience, ask yourself who would benefit the most from your products or services. You can even dig a little deeper and identify the specific traits of that type of person. Generally speaking, a target audience can be dictated by the following characteristics:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Income range
• Spending patterns
• Interests
• Challenges

By taking these critical characteristics into account, you can form a much clearer picture of your audience. This will ultimately allow you to create your marketing website with more intention.

3. Intuitive Navigation

No matter what users are looking for when they arrive at your homepage, they should have no trouble finding it. You don’t want your customers to get lost before they’ve even had the chance to explore your site. Make their experience as seamless as possible by offering intuitive navigation throughout your website.

Confusing navigation can frustrate users and send them to one of your competitor’s websites instead. In addition, your website should be set up in a way that invites your customers to spend time browsing the various areas of your site. If you do your job correctly, your online visitors will be so engrossed by your website’s setup that they’ll end up spending far more time on it than they originally planned.

4. Ease in Managing and Updating

The most successful websites aren’t stagnant. They’re subject to ongoing changes and improvements. As you study the latest trends in your industry and strengthen your SEO strategy, your marketing website will naturally evolve. Failing to keep your site up-to-date will cause your ranking to fall, which can shrink your customer base over time.

When planning your site, be sure to leave plenty of room for improvement. It’s essential to make it as easy as possible to manage and update your website at any time. Whether you need to update your images or add fresh content, your interface should allow you to make changes without any hassle.

The faster you can update your website, the more online visitors you’ll receive. If you have to shut down your site for maintenance for a prolonged period of time, customers may lose patience and head to a different page instead. A website that accommodates any change is far likelier to see a higher level of success.

5. Harmony Between Text and Images

Your marketing website should be visually cohesive to provide a more pleasant experience to customers. The aesthetic appearance of your site has a powerful effect on viewers, so it’s well worth your time to optimize all visual elements of your webpage. One of the best things you can do to enhance the overall layout of your website is to ensure that there’s enough harmony between text and images.

Whatever fonts or images you choose to display throughout your site, be sure to select them carefully so that they complement one another. Harmonious text and photos are more pleasant to look at, and online visitors will have a more challenging time leaving your site if you draw them in with an attractive front page.

6. Clear Points of Conversion and Engagement

As a website owner, one of your main goals for building a marketing website is boosting conversion rates. A website conversion occurs when a customer fulfills a specific type of action on your site, such as purchasing a product or submitting a contact form. Another important metric is engagement, which refers to the depth of customers’ relationship with your brand.

To effectively measure conversion and engagement, it’s crucial to set up your website so that it lets you assess these metrics quickly. By tracking the number of times a user completes a desired action, like making a purchase, you can get a better idea of your target audience’s overall engagement level. As a result, clear points of conversion and engagement go hand-in-hand when it comes to optimizing your website.

7. User-Friendly and Accessible Across all Displays and Devices

You’ve perfected every last detail of the desktop version of your website. You finalize everything and make it go live. Easy enough, right? Not quite.

If you want your website to reach as many viewers as possible, you’ll need to go the extra mile and optimize for all displays and devices. There’s no shortage of electronic gadgets out there in today’s constantly connected society. Because you have no way of knowing if customers will access your site from a laptop, phone, or tablet, it’s up to you to provide a user-friendly experience across all devices.

Keeping your website consistent also helps to build brand loyalty. Customers have a particular set of expectations when interacting with your brand, whether through browsing your website or using your products. To exceed their expectations through a Superior website experience, ensure that your site is accessible to all users, no matter what type of display or device they opt to use.

8. Exceptional Speed and Performance

Even if your marketing website is filled with engaging content, it will go unnoticed if it doesn’t load quickly. The attention span of internet users is growing shorter and shorter, which means you only have a few seconds to gain a new customer or lose a potential one. It’s well worth your time and effort to increase your website’s loading speed and overall performance.

Improving your site’s performance also helps to reduce your bounce rate. Bounce rate refers to the percentage of users who leave your website after only viewing a single page. Because you want customers sticking around for as long as possible, you want to do what you can to keep this percentage low. Maintaining a speedy website is a highly effective method for holding users’ interest after entering your site.

Keep in mind that visitors will likely move on to a different site if yours takes too long to load or experiences frequent crashes. If you’re determined to stay ahead of the competition, it’s vital to ensure that your website offers exceptional speed and performance.

9. Scalability

Your website might be successful today, but that doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow. All types of marketing websites, no matter the industry or target audience, need to be open to progress to achieve meaningful growth. When a website is developed with progress in mind, it is known as a scalable website.

Scalability is a worthwhile tactic to incorporate into your digital marketing plan. Not only are scalable websites more responsive to change, but they’re also more adept at accommodating a greater number of online visitors. This is essential to your brand’s long-term success. Once your customer base starts growing (which it hopefully will!), your website should have no problem handling the resulting spike in traffic.

10. Measurable Results

After all the work you’ve put into your website, you want to see how well—or poorly—it’s performing. That’s why measurable results are essential to any business website. Fortunately, there is a wide variety of metrics that you can use to get a clearer picture of how your site is doing overall. Some of the most critical metrics include:

• Number of visitors
• Interactions per visit
• Session duration
• Bounce rate
• Traffic sources
• Average time on page 
• Page load speeds

Each of these metrics plays a vital role in the performance of your website. If you’re not seeing the success you want but can’t pinpoint the issue, analyzing these areas of your site will help you conclude. It’s important to know what you’re doing wrong so that you can improve your online marketing strategy in the future.

Additionally, evaluating website metrics allows you to reflect on what you’re doing correctly. You should be just as familiar with your strengths as you are with your weaknesses. This will enable you to build a powerful marketing website at the end of the day.

Build a Better Marketing Website

Whether you’re just starting to create a new website or want to give your current site a makeover, there’s always room for improvement. These guidelines will provide you with a strong starting point for designing a marketing site that helps your brand succeed. If you’re having trouble figuring out where to begin, contact Propr Design today.