Your website is very likely to be the first contact a potential customer has with your brand, and so it’s vital to make a great first impression!
Remember though, that there’s more to a website than looking great. It also needs to keep the attention of your users, and inspire them to act – whether that’s by signing up to your email newsletter, downloading your menu or making a reservation. Here are three website features to consider in order to do just that…
Email Integration
An engaged email database is a great way to bring customers back to your restaurant or bar, but in the wake of GDPR, you may have some work to do in building your contact list back up.
Having a simple sign up form on your website that’s integrated with your email service provider, such as Mail Chimp or Campaign Monitor, makes it as simple as possible for both your customers and you, as subscribers will land straight in your database without any manual tasks from you.
We’d recommend having as simple a sign-up process as possible – you can always send a welcome email that gathers further information from your customers. For the site, just stick to a name and an email address field, and a succinct data privacy message.
Calls to Action
There’s no doubt all sorts of information on your website, from menus to opening hours, event details to directions. The key to a successful site is helping every user find the specific piece of information they are looking for, as quickly as possible.
To do this, you need to clearly signpost where these various bits of information are. A clear navigation bar across the top is one way, while clear calls to action, usually in the shape of buttons with minimal text, is another.
Sticky Headers
Inspiring a user to book is likely to be a major goal of your site, and a sticky header is a great option for this. It means that rather than vanishing when a user scrolls down, the header ‘sticks’ to the top of the screen. By popping your booking function in a header like this, users can instantly begin a reservation no matter where they are on your site.
Other things you might want to include in a sticky header could be a link to your menu and contact details. On mobile in particular, a click-to-call button is extremely useful and means customers can get it touch at the tap of a screen!
Small changes to your website can make a big difference, both to how easy it is for your customers to use, and in turn to the business benefits it brings. These features are of course not an exhaustive list of all the ways to improve a site, but they are a good place to start!
If you’re looking for a little support with your website, or perhaps considering updating it fully, Fat Media are an award-winning digital agency with bags of experience with hospitality clients. Check out Fat Media at www.fatmedia.co.uk for more information and to get in touch.
