By Ed Avis
You’re a business owner, and you want to reach other business owners. Period. That means your website needs easy navigation, visible contact information, a persuasive sales pitch, and a look that establishes your credibility but does not slow down your clients’ browsers.
Here are five top tips, with links to reprographics sites that do it well:
1) Make your homepage clean and quick to load. Remember that each second a client spends waiting for your page to load is another second he’s thinking about switching to another reprographer, so skip all the fancy stuff and get right to the point on your home page. Here are two repro websites that are not at all pretty, but which tell their story front and center:
http://www.imperial-blueprint.com/
Notice how in each of these examples you can find all the basics in an instant – what we do, who we are, how to contact us. These two shops let their clients do the fancy graphics work.
2) Put contact names, phone numbers, emails, and other communication options everywhere. Don’t make it hard for clients to call, email, chat, whatever. Put all the contact information on every page and encourage people to use it.
Check out the website of Maryland Reprographics – on the right side of the home page, clearly visible, is the firm’s phone number and a list of emails and contact names for each department: http://www.mdrepro.com/
Also see the homepage of United Reprographics in Seattle. The phone number is big and right at the top, and there’s a handy “LiveChat” option: https://www.unitedreprographics.com/page/home
3) Use video. This might seem to contradict my advice at the top about making a clean webpage, but I don’t mean a video that automatically starts playing the second someone goes to your site. That’s a drag. And I certainly don’t mean cat videos! What I mean is a video of something reasonably interesting – like how fast you can print a client’s documents or how your laminator works.
The website for Digital Now features a video of the Oce Colorwave that will answer client questions (which raises a good point – most of your suppliers probably have videos they can provide you):
https://www.digitalnowinc.com/
Hobs Reprographics in London does a nice job with a video on its homepage that discusses its “tender and bid” options:
4) Create easy navigation. Don’t make your customers guess where something is, or have to go through a cutesy image to get to what they want.
The homepage of Standard Digital Imaging in Omaha makes it easy with three main links right in front – Print Services, Planroom, and File Upload – and then five ancillary links to the right -- About Us, Equipment, On Location, Contact Us, and More:
http://www.standarddigital.com/
AIR Graphics in Boston also does a nice job of making it easy to go where you want. All of its key services have their own clean square on the home page:
5) Include testimonials. One of the most powerful marketing tools you can use is a comment from a happy customer. When someone sends you a good email, or responds to a customer satisfaction survey positively, or simply tells you she was happy with your work, ask if you can use the comment on your site. Most people are delighted to be quoted.
Check out the Testimonials page of Horizon Reprographics in Denver. It’s got 12 testimonials!
http://horizonrepro.com/index.php/about-us/testimonials/
But Memphis Reprographics beats them with 15 testimonials!
http://www.memphisreprographics.com/testimonials
Whether you follow all of these tips or just one or two, your site should be a little more effective.