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In the last few years, more manufacturing businesses have become aware of the importance of having web presence. Unfortunately, only a few are incorporating best practices into their web design. This piece takes a look at some important tips that will help a manufacturing business to design a modern and more productive website.
Visually appealing design
Regardless of what the business manufactures, you simply cannot use the style and fonts of 7 years ago in today’s web space. Headers look different today, menus look different and even navigation has changed. If your design is not visually stimulating, you will lose a vast majority of your website visitors and potential customers. A quick tip is to use a big background that encapsulated the manufacturing business. Here is more on modern website design. If the company has an antiquated logo it is definitely time to push for a rebrand.
Ease of use
When people land on any webpage, they are, most of the time, looking for specific information. It is very important for you to make sure that they can easily find whatever it is they are looking for regardless of the device they are surfing on. Use sidebars and properly optimised drop down menus to make it easier for people to view the site’s content. The majority of manufacturing companies have quite a few products to display. Clear navigation is a key.
Most importantly, make sure the design is responsive. A responsive design guarantees you won’t lose potential customers because text or links are too small on a mobile device!
Uniqueness
You need to find a way to make the design stand out from the competition. Options include having round the clock support system on the site, using video testimonials, offering site based promotions (like offering discounts for orders through a particular form) etc. The key is to have something that can’t be found on the website of the competition. This may be tricky if the business is in an advanced tech niche. You may have to work an angle and be a little innovative.
Interactive content
As a manufacturing business, one of the things your visitors and clientele will want to see on your website is content that explores your products and services. You can achieve this by making sure the design of your website allows regular upload of videos, animations, etc. without compromising the fluidity of navigation or site load speed. Check out this CNC Machines website by Retrosystems. They do a lot of things right in this regard, and as a whole.
Highly visible contact information
You need to ensure your design makes it easy for website visitors to get in touch and connect. Have contact details displayed prominently and consider including buttons for Twitter, Facebook, Skype, LinkedIn etc. The main goal of having a website in the manufacturing sector is to make sure more people can engage with the company. That goal will be defeated if prospects have to look through layers of menus to find a contact email. People are impatient online. Remember that.
Consistent message
With a manufacturing business, you need to make sure that you have a well thought out and consistent message for the audience. This message must be in line with the business’ values and brand story. The content should be focused, instead of employing a scatter gun approach.
With these tips, your manufacturing business website project will have what it takes to tower above the competition. When working with a manufacturing client you should talk though these themes and how they are relevant to the project. If they are not website savvy then a little bit of education can go a long way.
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