Client relationships are at the heart of every small business — the connections you form with prospective clients when they discover your business, the relationships you develop while working with your current clients, and the ways you support, encourage, and equip former clients for success. Relationships are at the center of all we do as small business owners. Today, we’re excited to share how you can showcase and strengthen client relationships through your web design, laying the groundwork for strong and meaningful client relationships in the years to come.

Strengthening Client Relationships

Welcome to Episode 180 of the Brand It, Build It Podcast: Strengthening Client Relationships.

Here, we often share how your web design is more than a place for showcasing your portfolio of work, but a tool that can work on behalf of your business — communicating your unique, one-of-a-kind expertise and approach.

If you’re an online small business owner, you may be wondering how you can build trust, establish credibility, and foster connection solely through your online presence. Today, we’re excited to share how your web design can work effectively on behalf of your business — and help you to build and foster meaningful relationships with prospective, current, and former clients.

To begin, here are just a few ways your web design can lay the groundwork for your success:

• Your web design can build trust. It should showcase the quality and caliber of your work, so when visitors see your website, they feel confident they are in the right place and can trust you to execute their vision.
• Your web design can communicate effectively on behalf of your business. It can speak to and connect with prospective clients, and seamlessly lead and guide your visitors toward getting to know you and your services, and then confidently choosing to work with you.
• Your web design should create results for your business. It should help you to effectively and authentically connect with your Ideal Clients, grow your high-quality leads, and help you to achieve your business goals.

So, how are all of these pieces and elements achieved through your web design? Here are 5 ways to ensure your web design is laying the groundwork for building and strengthening your client relationships:

1. Your website offers a user-friendly navigation menu. Whether your website houses a few pages or many pages, a well-organized, straightforward, and user-friendly navigation menu equips your visitors to seamlessly and effortlessly find the information and content they are looking for. What better way to establish trust than to create an easy, transparent, and straightforward experience for your visitors? At With Grace and Gold, our goal when serving our custom design clients is to create a refreshing balance of beautiful design and strategic design — so your website is not only beautiful, detailed, and engaging, but also user-friendly and conversion-driven. This balance can be challenging to create — but is where our expertise lies.
2. Prioritize revenue-generating content in your web design. Your Home page, for example, should use hierarchy to showcase the areas of your business most meaningful to your prospective clients, and most valuable for your business. Calls-to-action and highlighted sections should equip your visitors to seamlessly learn about your offerings and then confidently purchase your products or book your services.
3. Include user-friendly, clear, and concise calls-to-action on every page. Some clients wonder why we use repetition within their web design, specifically when it comes to calls-to-action, and there are a few reasons why. First, as the owners of our websites, we may navigate our own websites in a certain way. However, we need to be mindful that our visitors may find our website through a blog post, or through another secondary page within our website. Having calls-to-action on every page helps to ensure that, no matter how or where a visitor enters our website, they can be guided with regard to what to do next. Further, including calls-to-action helps to create a distinctive, memorable rhythm and structure within a web design as a whole — building brand recognition, and creating a comfortable experience for visitors who are new to your business. Lastly, having calls-to-action on every page ensures your visitors are being guided toward their expected next step.
4. Offer a lead magnet. A lead magnet is a free resource or offer to gather newsletter subscribers. By providing value to your audience, you can build trust, establish credibility, and foster community with your subscribers. Having a newsletter community allows you to stay connected with your audience members and strengthen relationships as a whole.
5. Lower barriers for communication. Transparency and accessibility are vital elements of a successful web design. Ensure your website makes it easy for your visitors to reach out to you, connect with you, and maintain communication with you.

Today, we talked about how your web design can lay the groundwork for building and strengthening your client relationships — and create a space from which your business can seamlessly, efficiently, and effectively grow. We are so hopeful today’s episode equips you to ensure your web design is designed with your success in mind. And as always, With Grace and Gold’s Custom Brand and Web Design Experience can equip you and your business for success. Thanks for tuning in!

About Brand It, Build It Podcast, Hosted by Kelly Zugay

Hosted by Kelly Zugay, co-founder of With Grace and Gold, The Brand It, Build It Podcast is a leading small business marketing podcast for small business owners, creatives, and founders. Weekly, brief, actionable episodes will equip you to build a successful, sustainable small business. Since 2014, With Grace and Gold has provided award-winning custom brand and Showit web design and completely customizable Showit website templates for small businesses worldwide.