Customers will form an opinion of your business as soon as they look at your website. Therefore the same basic rules apply that you use in the production of your brochure and your business card - It needs to grab attention, be easy to read, have a benefit statement, be friendly and make a statement about your business.

More and more potential customers will look at your website to find out more about your product or service or even to place an order. Here are some further points:

#1 Keep it updated - all information, prices and technical details needs to be kept right up to date

#2 Easy to understand - just like your brochure, your customers need to find what they're looking for quickly and easily

#3 Not cluttered - some websites try to convey too much information and people just "click off" Remember the KISS principle - Keep It Simple Stupid.

#4 Don't get too clever - no fancy fonts and flashing lights. People are fed up with sites that try to be too clever. They're designed by people who want to show how clever they are and who aren't really thinking about the customer

#5 Fast loading - photographs and graphics can slow down loading, so be aware. If customers can't get to what they're looking for quickly enough, then they'll "click off"

#6 Friendly - your website just like all your other marketing materials need to suggest to the customer that you are a warm and friendly organisation to deal with

#7 Call to action - every page of your website needs to tell the customer what to do next - order something - phone for more information - sign up for your newsletter

Alan Fairweather

Alan Fairweather is a business development expert who, for the past twenty-seven years, has been turning ?adequate? managers, sales and customer service people into consistent top performers.

After training as an engineer, Alan moved into sales and management and held senior positions in the Electronics, Industrial Supplies, Car maintenance and Drinks Industry.

He?s a qualified Psychotherapist and Hypnotherapist (no, he won?t put you to sleep) and he founded his business as a Professional Speaker in 1993. He works with people and organisations to achieve business results through behavioural change.

Alan has broad experience across many industries and runs seminars and workshops for people in ? Financial Services, Telecommunications, Hospitality, Healthcare, Property Management, Legal, Accountancy, Printing, Media, Computer Hardware and Software.

Results ? That?s what Alan?s about and he?s committed to helping your business find new customers fast, lose fewer customers and win more sales from existing customers.