Planning to invest in a corporate website design for your business in Singapore?
Read this before you proceed. Gone are the days when window shopping was the only way of gathering information about a product or service you might have wanted to buy.
In the recent past, for you to buy something, you had to survey so that you could be sure of what you wanted to buy.
The brick-and-mortar establishment became very successful, and businesses were booming.
However, the advancement in technology has come with digital platforms for marketing products.
One good example of these technologies is the website. Websites are the gateway for complementing your entire digital marketing campaign.
It is, for this reason, this article will point out some key importance of a corporate website for your business and what you need to start one.
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It’s Important for Marketing
Websites are the virtual walls you display your products or the services you are offering.
They are the digital stores where you can post new arrivals to alert your customers of new stock.
It also acts like a virtual mannequin where you expose your products or services to attract leads that can be converted to customers over time.
They are also the places you refer new customers to get a good look at what you are offering.
Hence, your business website needs to be developed and designed in a way that it can offer all the details clients might need.
This information assists the customer to make informed decisions during the buying process.
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- Content marketing. Websites act like digital stores where your products can be stored. Products in this sense can be bios, services descriptions,s and blog posts. As products, they require somewhere to be displayed for marketing purposes. Therefore, a corporate website works well to perform this function. According to research, almost 88% of shoppers search for prices and features before buying. And which better place to research content like on a company’s website?
- Social media marketing. Websites promote social media marketing to a new level. It is known that among many other forms of marketing, social media enjoys unprecedented success. You can attach the link to your social media platform to your website. These backlinks assist potential customers in tracking a product to your official social media platform.
- Email marketing. Email marketing is a personalised way of engaging with customers and leads. However, without a proper website, it is very difficult to find somewhere you can refer leads to convert them. Hence, an excellent website complements your email marketing campaign.
SEO. When prospective clients search for products, and services SERPs provide a comprehensive list of pages that answer that question.
The traffic you have generated from the search engine with your content will require somewhere to be directed.
A corporate website should be optimised for SEO so that you can reach and convert many leads.
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Websites Are Vital for Sales
Sales make or break any business. Sales are the reasons why businesses are established in the first place. Hence, the importance of maintaining a healthy sales margin is essential.
As we know, websites are the fronts on which sales are made in the virtual marketplace.
A website offers you an opportunity to maintain a strong online presence so that you can reach more leads. The development of a website is not the end of your marketing process.
It is important to optimise your website for search engines to attract more leads with the potential to buy.
A website offers its owner the opportunity to be accessed at any time of day.
It then makes it convenient to exchange information with your clients easily.
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Website Enhances Brand Authority
Any serious business these days has a business website.
It shows the customer you are fine-tuned with what you are doing. They can trust and associate with what you are doing. The trust you have cultivated with your customers through your website is important now and in the future.
It fosters a long-lasting relationship between the business and the clients.
A website also enhances a brand’s authority. When you post educative and informative content, it shows your customers your products and services are of top quality and can be trusted. It helps set you apart from your competition.
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Convenient
A website is always functional 24/7. Its accessibility around the clock makes it ideal for this internet generation that does almost everything online.
Customers want somewhere they can rely on to always provide them with the information they require at any time of day, wherever they may be. It also helps you increase your sales because you can transact business at any time of day.
The convenience offered by websites acts as the icing on the cake.
Why? The first reason technology is in place is to simplify work and create convenience.
Hence, the importance of a website is very evident.
How To Create Your Website
The website is the key to reaching your target audience. Its importance to your business cannot be overemphasised.
Regardless of the kind of business you are running, you need a website to reach your target audience well.
However, the problem starts if you do not know where to begin creating your website to market your products and services.
But you do not have to stress yourself anymore.
Site building services that employ simple technology like drag and drop exist on the internet. Furthermore, the website building platforms are free.
They include Wix, Squarespace, or WordPress for those who have some knowledge of web design.
In case, you are in the market for a more sophisticated website able to be optimised on any gadget.
You should contract the services of a web designer. A qualified web designer is capable of developing a website in the make of Google.
This kind of website is capable of being optimised for even mobile devices to enhance user experience.
How to Make your Website Quickly In Singapore?
In the past, if you wanted to build a brand new website it was a complex and usually long drawn out process.
Thankfully with the advent of intuitive website builders, you can make up a completely new site from scratch in record quick times.
If you are uncertain where to begin, or dread that building your brand new website will cost too much and take up valuable time then this post is the ideal one for you to read.
Alternatively, you could also entrust that task to a reliable web design agency in Singapore.
Read below and you will find out the best ways to build your new website in Singapore rapidly, effortlessly and without the need for experience.
These are the main things you need to do:
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Pick the best website builder for you
Whatever their specific motivations more and more individuals and firms are turning to website builders. Once sites are up and running people can advertise, blog, inform, and sell to their heart’s content.
Website builders will allow you to mess about with the content, design and layout of your pages until you have the presentation exactly the way you want it.
Selecting the best site builder is not always done the first time, and some builder sits make things seem so easy whilst you can struggle with other ones.
 There are countless web hosting firms to pick from, though HostGator is one of the most straightforward ones to use if you are not technically minded.
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Pick a quality domain name
Choosing a quality domain name is vital if you want to successfully promote your business in Singapore. You need to think of a name that is going on the first page of Google or any other internet search engine as this generates higher bits on your sites and hopefully more sales too.
Ideally, the domain you end up with will be easy to remember, be different from any of your rivals, and will end in .com. Having a domain name with the .com extension will give your site a much wider global audience, which can aid expansion.
Generally, most individuals and firms find it easier to arrange a domain name through the firm they use as their website builder.
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Select your theme for the new site
With the website building and domain name sorted out your next step is to choose a theme for the site. A well-chosen theme will complement a professionally built site and your Singapore-specific domain name.
There is a range of theme designs to pick from, and the majority of website builders will give you the ability to drop and drag designs so that you can get the precise theme you want instead of settling for the second best.
Just remember to make your theme relevant to the goods or services you supply in Singapore and beyond.
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Customisation of your theme
Being able to customise your theme is a key way of making your website stand out from the crowd, so make the best of your opportunity.
Do not leave everything on its default or stock settings as your site will look too much like everyone else’s.
These steps will help you achieve effective customisation –
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- Replace stocks with high-quality pictures of your own.
- Change the font styles and sizes to make things stand out.
- Alter the colour scheme and adjust the brightness.
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A final preview before going live
Try to resist the urge to make your site go live as soon as it has been built.
Instead, give it one final preview to make sure everything is spot on.
- Check that all the content makes sense when you read through it.
- Do the words and the images link together to promote your brand?
- Is your website going to work in your primary market, Singapore?
- Will the first-time visitors come back time and time again, or will they go to other websites instead of yours?
- Make sure everything works and the website is fast and responsive.
- Hit the button, make your website live
So the website looks great, and it is geared up to your sell your things across Singapore just publish your site.
Once it is life do not rest on your laurels, review it yourself and ask family and friends to provide their opinions on it for you.
Ask your customers to provide feedback for you, if you operate globally consider asking different questions to people from different countries.
Finally concentrate on making the website most relevant for customers in Singapore, as they form the bulk of your client base.
11 Things Your Corporate Website Should Have to Be Successful
We have touched on the basics of creating a corporate website.
Consider it a long-term investment in your business and continuously work to improve it to get the most results.
Let’s look at 11 things your corporate website should have to be successful and stand the test of time.
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User-Friendly Structure
Your website must be easy to navigate for new visitors and existing customers to move from one page to another seamlessly.
With the attention spans of online customers getting shorter, you need to ensure that every element on the site is straightforward.
That is, the elements and pages should offer an exceptional browsing experience to all visitors.
Check the site architecture before going live to determine how easy it is for new visitors to access the different pages and walk through the checkout process.
Otherwise, if visitors who land on the site from the SERPs feel lost, they won’t hesitate to go back to the search results to look for an alternative website.
Have a few people in your office and network browse through the website and give you an honest opinion on the good sections and those that need to be tweaked.
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Great Content
Content is King. To generate revenue through your website, you need to create top-notch content that conveys the intended message to visitors and lures them to convert.
With competition for visibility online getting more demanding, you need to ensure that every piece of content you publish is excellent and relevant to the audience. It should serve a specific purpose and not just fill the pages.
We recommend hiring a reputable content marketing agency to create the content for you.
Having a team on your side will free up your schedule and enable you to get maximum benefits from your content marketing strategy in terms of traffic and conversion rate.
More importantly, continuously engage with the website visitors by posting more often.
Create a posting schedule and stick to it to achieve this goal.
Unlike before, you can use many reliable tools to schedule posts without breaking a sweat. Use them to post consistently and keep the audience interested in your brand.
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Strong and Professional Branding
In the current digital world of business, branding is everything. Online customers gravitate toward companies they know or have interacted with as opposed to brand new businesses they have never heard before.
Thus, when creating a corporate website, strive to establish a solid and professional brand. This should stretch from your domain name to the colours on your website, the logo, and the content.
They should work in tandem to promote your business and make it memorable to the customers.
Desist the urge to create the logo unless you have the required skills and expertise.
Remember, the logo will stick with you for a lifetime, and changing it would mean creating a whole new branding strategy.
Take the time to think about the best imagery, fonts, and colours that best reflect your brand and objectives. Consult widely and consider hiring a professional branding agency to point you in the right direction.
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Simple Navigation
Earlier, we mentioned the need to ensure the website is user-friendly.
One way of achieving this goal is by creating simple navigation. Today, many website menu options range from scroll triggered to dropdown and hamburger.
No matter the menu you decide to install on your website, make sure that it makes it easy for the visitors to browse. They shouldn’t have to contact the support team to locate certain pages, such as the checkout or landing page.
Test the menus to determine whether they are ideal for your website and target audience.
Monitor how the customers navigate the website to identify friction points in the menu that need to be improved or deleted.
The best practice for improving site navigation is having dedicated tabs for every significant page.
The supporting pages can be in the dropdown menu. Look into your business and consult your team to determine the essential pages in the main menu.
Remember, the goal is to make it easy for visitors to easily and quickly find the information they are looking for without having to write to the support team.
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Contact Information Should Be Accessible
One of the worst mistakes you can make when creating a corporate website is by hiding the contact information or having it in an unclear position on the website.
The customers should be able to contact the support team quickly.
The only way to do this is by ensuring that the contact information is easy to find.
You will lose potential customers to competitors if they spend more than 10 seconds trying to locate your email address, phone number, or contact form.
Don’t stop there; nurture a culture of responding to queries from the customers in a timely fashion. Never keep them waiting for more than two hours for a response.
Go the extra mile and install an AI-powered chatbot to respond to the questions when you’re offline automatically.
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Robust CTA (Call-to-action) Buttons
Stellar content will inform the visitors about your brand, product, and services. However, it’s not enough to encourage them to convert. Some of them, especially the new customers, need a little push or incentive to take action.
One way of achieving this goal on your corporate website is by including robust CTA buttons on the different pages.
A good CTA button should inform the visitor what action they should take and the outcome to expect.
Like the contact information, the CTA buttons should be strategically placed on the website pages to deliver the expected results. They should be above the fold and displayed at the right time.
Consider only showing customers the “Add to Cart” button after they have read the product review or watched the video.
A decade ago, you would get away with flashy CTA buttons. Unfortunately, such strategies are void today and could get you penalised by Google. Flashy buttons will portray your business in a bad light and discourage new customers from converting.
Strike a balance to draw customers in without going overboard.
Monitor the click-through rate achieved after placing the buttons at different locations and pages to know the ideal placement spots.
Also, experiment with different colours, preferably brand colours, to make the CTA buttons recognisable and evoke the right positive emotions.
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Social Proofs
It’s normal for new customers to be sceptical of your brand if there is little information about it online.
They need to know your brand is trustworthy and the best option in the market. One way of achieving this goal is to have a dedicated page with social proofs.
What are social proofs?
Social proof refers to content from customers that shows your brand delivers on its promises. It can be anything from positive customer testimonials, positive product reviews, customer success stories, and other user-generated content.
Desist the urge to post fake testimonials. Savvy customers can tell if a review is fake, so using them will ruin your reputation and credibility.
You are better off encouraging satisfied customers to take a few minutes to write and publish a review than trying to beat the system.
If you have an active Google My Business, request the customers to submit reviews via the profile.
The more positive reviews you garner, the better your ability to convince potential customers that you are the best service or product, provider.
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Offer a Great Mobile Experience
Mobile-first indexing algorithm introduced a new frontier in website development. The new algorithm resulted in Google ranking sites with mobile-friendly pages higher on SERPs than static websites.
This algorithm is still in effect and influences the ranking of websites.
Google introduced this algorithm after realizing that most people use mobile devices to browse websites and make purchases.
Thus, your corporate website needs to be 100% mobile-friendly and responsive to rank highly in SERPs. If you decide to use a website template, ensure it’s responsive.
Preview the different pages on multiple devices and confirm that all buttons and links work before the site goes live.
A Google mobile-friendly test will also help to pinpoint the pages of your website that are responsive and which ones need to be tweaked.
While at it, check the website load time to ensure you’re not keeping visitors waiting for more than 8 seconds for the page elements to load fully.
There are many tools for testing website load speed, but we recommend Google PageSpeed Insights.
This tool is free and more accurate as it fetches reports based on real-time data from every page on the website.
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Great Visuals and Video
A website filled with text and little or no visuals or video is not only dull to browse but also ineffective in convincing visitors to buy. Online customers are often in a hurry.
They don’t have time to read blocks of text about a product or service.
Save them such hustle and increase your site conversion rate by including great visuals and video content.
This form of content is more interactive, easy to understand, and effective in convincing customers to buy compared to blocks of text.
Without imagery on your website, your business growth will be hampered even if you have stellar CTA buttons.
Be different from the competitors by creating custom images and other visuals that best reflect or describe what your brand does and offers.
Sites and unsplash.com have many royalty-free images you can use to get your feet wet.
However, as your business grows and traffic to the site increases, consider creating custom images. For example, take high-resolution photos of your products or post videos of your team member or customer using the product.
Such authentic and custom visuals will go a long way to enhance your brand image and catapult your business to the next level of success.
Make sure you optimise them for mobile as most of your potential customers will be using mobile devices to view them.
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Live Chat Feature
Communication is key to the success of your brand. Compared to other channels of communicating with customers, live chat support offers a 73% higher customer satisfaction rate. Email-only achieves 61% and phone support 44%.
With live chat resolution rates 13X faster than email support and online forms, you should seriously consider installing a live chat feature on your website.
This handy inclusion can potentially increase your sales and revenue and cultivate customer loyalty.
AI and machine learning power the best live chat features.
They can respond to common queries from customers like the support team.
They are also wired to send a prompt message to the team if they cannot provide a satisfactory response.
Make sure that you respond to the prompts immediately you get online to avoid keeping the customers waiting.
Like other elements on your website, test the functionality of the live chat to be sure that it offers accurate and timely customer support.
More importantly, confirm that it’s accessible on desktop and mobile.
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Google Analytics
While it’s possible to launch and run a corporate website without Google Analytics, we highly recommend that you connect the site to this platform.
Google Analytics is best known for providing accurate and informative data about the website, such as the amount of traffic, top-performing pages, average site speed, and more.
Using the information presented in the report, such as traffic sources, you can create custom marketing campaigns and pinpoint website sections that need improvement.
In addition, you can set goals like customers filling out the contact form and tracking how well the site achieves the goals.
However, the reports may be confusing if you are new to the tool.
Be safe and make an informed decision by hiring MediaOne Marketing to create a professional corporate website for your brand.
We will also continuously check the Google Analytics reports and use another analytics tool to benchmark the performance of your website and make the necessary adjustments.
Call us at +65 6789 9852 for more details about our website design and development services.
Conclusion
In today’s world, websites are becoming as important as capital for starting a business.
Both these components are these days categorised separately due to their importance. Investing in the development of your website and reinvesting in continuous maintenance of your website is key.
Losing your website to hackers is like losing your entire investment. Hence, it is important to prioritise your website like other essential components of your business.
Get in touch with us for professional website design services in Singapore.Â