Whether you are a photographer, designer, or any other successful artist, your website is the image of your brand you portray globally. This vast and wonderful audience includes potential customers too. These days, the digital identity of your brand is crucial to your ultimate success. Considering the importance of it, launching a website is a daunting experience!
There are tons of tiny details you have to consider and it takes months to prepare. Things can get intense!
This guide will help you get your website successfully up and running in a flash, from creating a launch day buzz to advising you about bolstering your site with viral content from design, photography, and other niches.
Before Day Zero – Get Your Digital Ducks In Line
It would be best if you thought of the launch of your website as a super important event. After all, it is the day that your brand and everything it offers become available to the public. Thinking about it this way will put the importance of the launch into perspective.
The first thing you have to secure is a domain name that’s relevant to your business and is easy to type and remember. Getting this down pat is your first step to establishing credibility. It can also create awareness and attract potential customers.
To make sure what you put out there is geared to help you achieve your desired objectives, you have to look at the three essential elements of the site: the design, the user experience (UX), and the product pages. In a nutshell:
Product Pages
The more attractive and user-friendly your product pages are, the more they will affect conversions. After all, you are in the creative sector. The trick is to introduce products and services as lifestyles. When looking for a photographer online or seeking out designer services, it’s never about what is on offer, but rather what the photographer or the designer can do. This is precisely why Instagram sales are shooting up!
Ultimately, you have to make sure your website is engaging before you launch it. No matter what you offer, engagement increases brand awareness and eventually leads to higher conversion rates and improved loyalty.
Design
As a representative of the creative sector, you probably know that first impression last, and your website’s design is your image in the digital world. Whether it’s conscious or subconscious, we all react to visuals. According to a study, 75% of users judge a company’s credibility based on visual design alone.
UX
It’s all about positive experiences. Every experience on your site has to be meaningful and relevant to potential customers. Creating this type of user experience will allow you to define their journey on your site to be in line with what is conducive to your business success.
You can achieve this by ensuring your site is responsive, using updated extensions, user-friendly, and has simple navigation and top-notch content. Compelling storytelling helps trigger emotional responses required to convert visitors into customers: the idea is always to elicit an emotional response in users.
Setting up Communication Channels
There is nothing worse than having a question about a product or a service online and not being able to ask it. Think about how you can respond to customers, and set up your channels accordingly. This could be live chats, Messenger, or WhatsApp, texting, telephone calls, or email.
If you have the resources, live chat is an excellent way to give a remarkable customer experience and offer customers the opportunity to communicate. According to recent research, nearly 80% of consumers prefer to use live chat channels. This is because they get an instant response. Conversely, the same study showed that over 40% of businesses believe customers prefer to get help over the phone. You could try any live chat software to help your customers.
No matter your chosen communication channels, make sure they’re ready and working 100% before the launch.
Shout it From the Rooftops!
Your design is on point, you know your users will love every minute of the experience, and your product pages are so stunning, they will undoubtedly lead to conversions. That’s enough, right? Sadly, no. You have to get it out there! Here’s how:
- Build it up. In the weeks leading up to the launch, create anticipation with social media posts and email marketing.
- Use the same platforms to announce the launch, and do it several times. Don’t just post it; use this opportunity to build interest in your product or service offering.
- Use CTAs but remove “Check out our new website!” from your vocabulary. Instead, try something like, “Our brand spanking new site is live. Visit us and sign up for special offers!” or “Our new website makes shopping for [product/service] so much easier. “
- Don’t forget to send an announcement email, and when you do this, remember to promote individual aspects of it and prompt users to take action.
- Make sure your email marketing is aligned with your efforts on the site.
Bring it All Together
Once all the hard work and tense moments are over, and you’ve launched your site, your next step is to keep the attention of would-be customers. You can do this in the same way you initially launched it, through engaging with your audience or maybe online advertising?
Throw in some special promotions for your photoshoots and discounts to yoru design services, and make sure it’s worthy of word-of-mouth promotion. Remember, consumers trust their friends.
Author Bio:
Kristina Žiauke is a content manager at sixads. Want to know more ways to increase traffic and attract buyers to your online store? Connect with sixads on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or YouTube!
