Creating a Website that will Inspire and Present the Right Firm Image
Thanks to Burkey Belser for this guest blog post:
I have some bad news for you. Your old, stale firm website isn’t cutting it. Sure, your competitors haven’t done much better, but that’s not the point.
Your firm’s website is the face it presents to the world--to potential clients and strategic partners. Research demonstrates that the vast majority of purchasers of professional services rely primarily on online resources when deciding which firms to hire. How much business do you think you are losing right now because your website is undermining your brand?
Your site is not judged by your industry. It is judged against all websites. In other words, our collective Internet experience subtly informs what we believe to be good, innovative, communicative, and helpful. If your firm site is unimaginative or uninteresting, it’s telling the world that your firm is too.
So, the question is: how can you create a website that will inspire and present the right firm image?
Today’s business purchaser isn’t just surfing the Web on a desktop in the office. There is a host of new technologies providing access to the Internet, and new tools are constantly being introduced.
Does your site display well on a smartphone? How about an iPad or Android Tablet? Launch your site on your smartphone and judge for yourself. You’ll have to be Harry Potter’s elf with bony fingers to manage the navigation unless the site has been adapted for mobile. How patient do you think prospects will be with your site if they can’t navigate it conveniently?
Even the smallest mobile platforms are lightning fast today. It takes just seconds to access the most complex pages. This means that designers can “paint” the entire page with an image and even place images within images. Or combine those images with motion for effect. And this same bandwidth also allows us to use computer-generated animation to display information in diagrams, maps, and charts.
In the past, there has been a tug of war between content and graphics. This is partly a reflection of the traditionally conservative nature of the legal field, and partly due to technological limitations that made downloading graphics painfully slow. Today, however, these limitations are a thing of the past, and savvy designers know the most successful sites are exciting. And exciting sites make use of the full canvas and all the rich interaction that image and transparency and motion can deliver.
Social Media Has Transformed Monologue To Dialogue
Social media buttons have become ubiquitous, now adorning almost every web page. Link me in. Friend me. Tell me what you like, and what you don’t (I know, this last bit requires courage). But what better way to engage your prospects and partners than to encourage them to reach out to you?
The most successful firms have embraced technology and grown with it. Don’t be afraid to be creative when you show the world who you are and what you have to offer.
Burkey Belser is the president and creative director of Greenfield/Belser. Greenfield/Belser can be found online at www.greenfieldbelser.com.
