How a Website Can Drive Business Success for Creative Arts Entrepreneurs
A website works to promote your business 24/7. It drives traffic from search engines and social media, helps you to display your creative works, builds brand awareness, allows you to sell products and so much more. As a creative professional, you’ll want to share your portfolio with the world, and do so in a tasteful, professional way. A pay monthly website offers you the opportunity to not only demonstrate your offering, but also expand your business’s opportunities through attracting new collaborators, generating leads and opening new streams of revenue.
Showcasing Creative Work
Think of your website as a platform to show-off all your creative works. From your portfolio to projects, graphic design to fine art, your site allows the world an insight into your talents and lets potential collaborators, art lovers and other creative professionals know what you’re all about. This way, they can get a better sense of your artistic vision and whether it’ll align with theirs for collaborations. In doing so, you’ll attract the right people which may turn into more promising leads.
Building an Online Presence
In the digital era we live in, it should come as no surprise that your business needs to be online to properly thrive. You may currently be targeting locals in and around your area, however, to level up your online presence, you’ll need to expand your reach. While social media accounts are definitely worthwhile, the addition of a website will see much more web traffic. Establishing a professional website will enable you to attract a much wider online audience and seek out new opportunities.
Branding and Personal Identity
As a creative, you have a distinct sense of identity which encompasses your style, personality and values. Similarly, your business needs to have its own brand identity. From a business personality and culture to its vision and mission, to brand colours and logo – these elements need to be fully fleshed out and translated into your website design and content. Ask yourself: what sets my business apart from others? In order to develop a unique identity, you’ll need to identify your Unique Selling Points (USPs) that will encourage potential clients to work with you over someone else.
Online Sales and Ecommerce
If you’re looking to sell your creative elements such as artworks, merchandise, designs, contemporary art or other creative works, your website offers the perfect place to do so. Chat to your web developer or agency to implement ecommerce functionality into your website so you can display products, pricing, checkout systems and more. Some of the leading platforms are WooCommerce, Shopify, Magneto and BigCommerce. Selling products through your site will assist you to expand business revenue streams and share your offerings on social media to increase sales.
Testimonials and Client Feedback
Adding testimonials to your home page is a fantastic way to create a positive impression of your business. Not only does it allow you to demonstrate the quality of your artistic projects, it encourages others to work with you. Collaborators and consumers will most likely be looking for third party feedback when deciding whether to convert. Approximately nine in ten UK consumers stated they would check online reviews before buying from a particular website. As a result, a positive testimonial on your website can work wonders for your sales as well as to build credibility amongst the creative community.
Blogging and Thought Leadership
To become the best in the business, it’s important to portray yourself as a thought leader – someone who is an expert in their field and offers guidance, advice and inspires others. The best websites have a business or personal blog that is regularly updated with content. A blog page is a great resource to create and share interesting articles that offer insight into your industry. Being in the creative field, you’ll want to produce content that is unique, thoughtful and engaging to its audience. Consider sharing behind-the-scenes snippets and providing tips and tricks that will both offer value and allow you to position yourself as a thought leader.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
Once your website is up and running, you’ll want it to attract the highest possible number of web users. Search Engine Optimisation is crucial as it makes your website more visible, meaning more traffic and more opportunities to convert prospects into customers. Using SEO can mean increased traffic to your online content and work, more people getting in touch and ultimately, more leads. SEO can be integrated as early as the website build, putting your website in good stead to receive further optimisation.
For a free SEO audit of your site, feel free to contact the folks at Cariad Marketing.
Analytics and Performance Tracking
In order to keep track of your website’s performance, there are a host of analytics tools that can track user behaviour and conversion rates. But, how is this useful for your business? Well, through performance analytics, you’ll be able to see your page views, average session duration and load times, allowing you to make improvements. User behaviour analysis will enable you to track user journeys and engagement levels on different pages, leading you to identify popular content and improve the user experience. Further, you can make data-driven decisions about website design, content creation, marketing and targeting specific audiences.
Best websites for creatives
At Cariad Web Design, we pride ourselves on transparency and collaboration so you’ll always be involved in the process. We believe the proof is in the pudding – so browse our portfolio for some creative inspiration and to see what we can do. Our friendly graphic designers and developers are happy to answer any questions regarding websites for creatives. You can also check out FAQs for more information on pay monthly websites.
Need more advice? Check out our blog on the Basic Elements of Creative Website Design.
