A website is an investment. Therefore, it should have a Return on Investment (ROI). You create a website so that it helps your business grow either by serving your existing customers or attracting new consumers. This means that a website with no ROI is useless.
A website can therefore only be deemed “effective” if it can give you returns. However, having an effective website is not easy. It requires a lot of effort.
Here are some things that you need to consider for you to have an effective website;
A Website Must Have Goals
Goals define whether you will succeed in every venture of life or not. It is the same with a site. The reason that prompted you to have one is the primary goal and must be broken down into smaller goals. Your website goals are what defines what you want to achieve with your website. What problems do you want to be solved through your website?
Do you want to serve existing customers with new products and services? Or do you want to attract new customers? Put them in black and white. If you don’t have them, it will be hard to measure the effectiveness of your website. Remember, goals will determine the structure of your website and its features to effectively reach your targets.
Listen to professional advice
The “the customer is always right” rule doesn’t apply in the technological world. If you want the website to be effective you have to take advice from your developer. The things you want as a client on a site may not match the technical needs or marketability of the site. An example of this would be asking your developer to add hundreds of photos on the home page, which might slow your website.
Nobody likes a slow website including search engines as it affects the user’s experience. Remember, the website is not for YOU but for your CUSTOMERS. Many websites fail because the company wants the website to serve them, not their customers. A professional developer who wants to help you won’t always say “yes” to all your requests. As a client, your role is to make sure you get the best developers to develop your site.
Blogging
When was the last time you updated your website? If someone visited your website today, what new things are they going to find? It becomes frustrating to users looking for new information when they see information from six months before.
In this competitive world, the chances are that there are also other people running the same kind of business as yours and it is, therefore, important to make sure that you always stay ahead of them. Make sure that when people search for the kind of products and services you offer, your website should be found on top of the first page of the search engine. This can only be possible if you update your website frequently to improve your search engine ranking.
Google hates outdated websites because it assumes you don’t exist anymore. The best way to ensure that your website is updated is through blogging. So, if you don’t have a blog page on your website, consider adding it now because this is where you will be publishing your latest news and updates. Apart from the latest news, you can also write anything interesting about your products and services.
Use the Power of Social Media
Social media is a very important tool to connect and interact with your customers. But it also helps you generate more traffic to your website. Social media is where you post links to your new blog posts because some people go there to see what’s new. The chances are that you have found this link from any of our social media platforms — that’s how powerful social media is. You can post manually or you can automate it. So if you don’t have a social media account, stop reading this now and go set up one.
Consider Advertising
If you have enough money and you want to reach a wider audience, consider promoting your website through online advertising. You can do this by boosting your blog posts on social media or by promoting your product and services with Google Ads. Either way, you will be allowed to put a link to your website, hence more traffic. If you don’t have enough budget, consider blogging frequently to continue generating traffic for free.
Clear CTA (call to action)
A CTA is what you want those visiting your website to do. Do you want them to make a donation to buy a product or contact you? Then add a call to action button on the page so that your audience knows what to do. Make this clear by adding specific buttons. If you want someone to request a quotation for a product- make it clear by adding a button. Do you want them to call you? Add active phone numbers which will appear on every page of your website. Do you want them to know where your offices are and your business hours? Consider adding a physical address (preferably with a Google map) and opening/closing hours.
Make it look professional
One way to make your website effective is to make it look professional. Make it visually appealing so that it entices people to stay. If you don’t have enough funds, wait till you have to engage a professional designer. Don’t be pushed to a cheaper alternative as it may prove not affordable in the long run if it is not helping you attain your goals. There is no way you can pay 50 bucks for a website and expect it to look like a 5k bucks website.
Hire a professional developer if you want a meaningful website. At Freelance Web Solutions, we help small businesses grow online by building effective websites and by providing them with professional advice throughout. Read the story of KB Accounting Services Ltd Here.
You can do many things to have an effective website, but let’s stop here for now. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter to get our latest blog updates.
Despite the Covid-19 Pandemic, the company reports that their sales value has increased by 255.95% in the past 9 months alone because of the website.
In 2018, we were approached by KB Accounting Services Ltd. They are a great group of professionals offering Accounting, bookkeeping, taxation, audit, HR and recruitment, and accounting packages in Malawi.
They have the services and products but struggled to reach out to a bigger audience with their lucrative products through their previous website which was failing to meet their goal– sales generation.
“We approached Freelance Web Solutions in 2018 when we realized that our previous website was failing to generate sales. So, we needed a website that would help turn our dreams into reality,” says Mr. Kadzakumanja, the Director.
Upon hearing their challenges, we sat down together to review their goals. We proposed that the best way to achieve their goals was to revamp the whole website which they agreed.
At Freelance Web Solutions, we believe that businesses that have a website with no Return On Investment (ROI) are the same as those who don’t have one. This is why we are tough in our client onboarding process. We ask you a lot of questions to find out your business goals and objectives so that we can see how we can factor into your new website project. What we did was to redesign the website.
We offered advanced search engine optimization so that they rank well on certain keywords they provided. The company was a sole proprietorship then and in 2020 it had grown into a limited company.
Here is what the Director says: “Today, we can say since we switched to Freelance Web Solutions, our sales have increased tremendously. For the past two years, our website has managed to generate over 90% of our sales with more prospects on the table. In the past 9 months alone, our sales value has increased by 255.95%. It is a big achievement for a small business like us.”
He adds, “Our business is growing every single day such that in the next two months, we are planning to open a branch in the Capital Lilongwe.”
However, this achievement didn’t just come on a silver platter. It involved a lot of effort and he has some advice to small businesses reluctant to have a website;
“My advice to Entrepreneurs and Business individuals is to embrace technology and avoid the mistakes big companies made in the past years. A website is a sleepless, boundary-less and tireless sales and communication agent that tries everything possible to grow your business. All you have to do, is to keep your agent (website) alive by writing articles/blogs, updating content and sharing it on other social media platforms.”
If you want to be the next KB Accounting Services Ltd, don’t hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to offer effective solutions.
Actually, the number of small businesses that have a website is quite low in spite of the growth and expansion of technology. It does not matter how small your business might be, having a website proves to be a key when it comes to modern exposure and marketing.
Following are the reasons why your small business requires a website:
1. More Professionalism and Credibility
In general, websites offer a sense of credibility and it helps in establishing your brand as a reliable and professional service. Without a website, your services or products will not be acknowledged by most people because they cannot really be found online. When you have a website, it offers an opportunity to build a long-lasting relationship with your consumers. It gives them the reassurance that is required for trusting your brand.
2. Increase in Consumer Reach
In recent times, online shopping has proven to rise significantly. It implies that the number of online shoppers has increased significantly and since there is no closing time for the internet, sales are rising even after hours. Since you are capable of accessing a website almost anytime and anywhere, the reach has become significantly wider. It enables your business to grow globally and target demographics beyond your specific location.
When you have a traditional store, your reach is quite limited. In fact, it is limited to only a specific geographic area and it is quite difficult to go beyond this area. However, it is not the same when you have a website. When you have a website, you are able to extend your reach significantly. For instance, you can target not only a regional audience but also an international audience.
3. Effective Marketing
Actually, your website is working when you are sleeping. It means your website is always promoting and marketing your services and products when you cannot directly. It potentially generates sales almost all the time. Therefore, paying that one-time development fee for your website is quite beneficial when it comes to ensuring the relevance of your brand.
You might be surprised to realise that your website alone functions as an advertisement for all of your services and products. You can further increase your reach by considering social media. It might be a big spend on your budget but it is worth the investment.
4. Saving Money
Another important benefit that you get by having a website is you save money on distribution and printing costs. A website is capable of acting as your online catalogue or brochure that can be updated and changed any time you want. In addition to it, if you make use of a content management system, you can quickly make changes without paying anything.
Let’s suppose that you are updating your services, you don’t need to go and have brochures or flyers printed in large numbers. Instead, you can just update information on the website and that would be it.
5. Easy Access to Customers
It is quite important for a business to continue making customers. If it does not make customers then it would not be possible for the business to survive. However, making new customers can prove to be quite difficult. However, when you have a website, it becomes a lot easier to make customers. For instance, your website is online and anyone on the web can come to your site.
6. Improve Productivity
When you have a website, it serves to improve the productivity of your business because generally, less time is spent in explaining the service or product details to your customers because all of this information is available on your website. Your customers can visit your website anytime and they can gain the information they need.
7. Educate Consumers
Actually, when you have a website, it serves to provide free advice about your services and products to the customers. It should be noted that this information can be delivered in a consistent and well-thought-out manner at any time of day.
8. Two-Way Communication
When you have a website, customers can easily and quickly contact you, provide you with feedback, and ask about anything that confuses them. It implies that having a website plays quite an important role in facilitating your communication with customers. Usually, consumers have to consider numerous steps before they can reach out to businesses.
However, there is no need for customers to follow such a long process when they can just reach out to you from your website. If you need a website for your small business, you can let us build a website for you. We will deliver a functional and responsive website for only MK200,000. With such a small investment, you can avail all the opportunities that you need to grow your business effectively.
Since the Coronavirus outbreak also known as Covid-19, a lot of things have happened. Many companies have taken bold decisions by adjusting how they operate and some have even told their staff to work from home as one of the precaution measures.
If you are reading this message from a country with confirmed cases, please feel it in your heart that the entire Freelance Web Solutions team and I are with you during this difficult moment. To be honest with you, we at Freelance Web Solutions are also concerned with how devastating this pandemic has been.
Nonetheless, this letter is to assure all our customers, that so far, it is still business as usual. You don’t need to worry about anything in regard to the services we are offering to you. Although we may be taking a bit of time in responding to some queries that won’t have much effect on any of our services offered.
Please subscribe to our newsletter in order to get updated on some upcoming exclusive services that we have which we feel might assist your business to not completely shut down during this traumatic period.
Lastly, let’s sensitize our friends and family that they should no longer live in denial or in Limbo.
Rather, accept that Covid-19 is here but at the same time be optimistic that whatever the case (if God willing), we will all pass through this together if we follow what health experts are advising us.
In this post today we are going to discuss Website Maintenance Service. If you have a Website I am very sure that this is not a new term to you. However our ten years of experience on different website design projects, we have discovered that most of our clients still don’t understand the importance of this service and how lack of it can affect the performance of their website.
In a nutshell, website maintenance is the act of regularly checking your website for issues and mistakes and keeping it updated and relevant. Regular monitoring of your website is a must for checking your business running smoothly. This service contains very important things outlined below:
Software update: this helps your site to use the latest software always.
Security: it gives 100% security to hackers & other problems that occur like the website being down.
Fresh Content: this helps your site to contain new information always.
SEO: it helps your site to rank in a high position & it helps a lot of your customers to find what they want easily.
Back up: helps you to keep your important information easily without giving you the headache of losing it when something bad occurs.
The advantage of having new features.
It improves visitors experience.
Reach every client.
Still confused? Let me put it this way:
Let’s assume you have bought a car from a car dealer. We all know that after some time for that car to still perform well you take it for a service. Even if it does not have any problem, you always pay a little something for it to be serviced. This is what exactly happens to the website. Before something bad happens, you need to maintain it often.
You may wish to know that a website is made from a combination of different tools that need to be updated always — otherwise, you risk it down whether through hackers or outdated code. When a website is maintained regularly it attracts and retains customers, maintains search engine ranking, and presents new information, products, and services to the public.
Website maintenance is also required to maintain the value of the website over time as the outdated website tells your customers you no longer exist or you don’t care about your business anymore. I hope by now you understand why websites need maintenance.
Freelance Web Solutions is pleased to announce a special offer for website design services. With only MK200, 000 you can claim your responsive website of up to 40 pages.
The offer includes free one-year domain registration, free one-year web hosting (1GB Disk Space, unlimited emails, unlimited bandwidth, unlimited hosted domain etc), and free one-year maintenance. Terms and conditions apply.
NB: This offer doesn’t apply to e-commerce website design services.
Grab your offer now before September 30, 2019. Contact Us on +26521226352 or Call/WhatsApp on +265885096052
As one way of giving back to the community, Freelance Web Solutions is offering free website design and development services to non-profit organisations in order to help them use the web to drive their missions forward. Proposals are solicited only for Non-profit organisation. Proposals from other sectors, will not be considered.
It’s an undisputed fact that the world is going digital. Over half of the world’s population is already online. This is an opportunity for every nonprofit organization to showcase their activities online thereby attracting potential donors and volunteers. Up to five websites will be granted this year. For over ten years, we’ve worked with several nonprofits.
Along this journey, we have learned a lot especially how we can build a useful nonprofit website. You can appreciate our work by checking www.factmalawi.org, www.merchildren.org, www.focold.org or www.askamuslim.com just to name a few.
Website Design Features
Up to 10 pages i.e Home, About, Projects, Gallery, Contacts and Get Involved
Online Donation System Online
Volunteer Recruitment
Newsletter System
Social Media Integration
Requirements
The organizations should be from indigenous Malawians
Must be ready to meet direct costs i.e for domain registration, web hosting and web management services.
Be able to mention why they need the website
Application opens: March 16, 2019
Application closes: April 15, 2019
If you have any questions on how to apply, please contact Faith Chisale at faith.chisale@freelancemw.com
If you are reading this article, it is either you want to start a new Facebook Advertising campaign or you already have one but you are failing to know how to measure its success.
You are not alone. Many people spend hundreds of dollars to run Facebook ads but don’t have a clue as to how they can measure the success of their campaigns. So, if you are one of them then continue reading this article.
To begin with, measuring the success of Facebook campaigns are pretty straightforward because Facebook provides you with an abundance of metrics that allow you to track your ad’s results.
However, one thing I have discovered is that most business owners find it difficult to measure the success of their ads because they fail to set clear goals and objectives for their campaigns.
Just like any other marketing campaign, you need to have a clear goal as to why you are running a campaign. What is your goal? More Clicks? More Likes? More Video Views? The choice is yours. However, the point is, without a clear goal for your campaign, you won’t be able to measure its success.
The good news is that Facebook helps you to come up with a formula to measure the success of advertising campaigns. That’s why when you start a new campaign, from the ads manager you are asked to choose one objective.
Your choice determines the kind of data you will receive as the main result to measure. For example, when you choose “boost post,” you’ll see a cost per interaction. By choosing “send people to your website,” you’d get a cost per link click and when you select “promote your page,” you’ll get a cost per like, etc.
Setting Up a Facebook Campaign Goals
Yes, you might be wondering as to how you can set an effective campaign goal. One thing you need to understand first of all is that a goal is something you want to achieve at the end of the campaign.
Therefore, the following are some of the common goals of Facebook Ads:
Brand Awareness
If you want to promote your business to reach many people, then brand awareness can be ideal for you. This means that your success will be measured based on the number of people who have seen or reached by your Ad. So, even if people don’t comment and like your posts, it won’t be an issue.
Lead Generation
Do you want to generate new potential customers? Then, you need to set up an ad campaign in which you will be able to collect customer information such as phone number and email address in exchange for a product/service discount or something valuable.
The success of this campaign can be measured by looking at the number of people who have shared their information by messaging you or signing up for your newsletter.
Driving Sales
Sometimes you may need your ads to give you more sales. Therefore, your campaign can contain a direct product link to your online shop for online purchase or a text which simply asks your customers to visit your physical shop in exchange for a discount or something valuable.
You can measure this based on the number of people who have actually purchased the product by clicking your link. Link clicks only doesn’t matter on this. It can also be a number of people who have visited your physical shop and bought your goods.
So, as you can see, it all depends on your campaign goals and objectives to be able to measure its success.
If you want to know more information on this, our certified online advertising professionals are here to help you.
I am assuming that you have already heard about Ecobank Web Acquiring System. If you haven’t, it is still cool — as by the end of this post you will be able to grasp what this system is and why I call it a game changer.
I thought of writing this blog post after receiving many questions regarding the system. In fact, Ecobank is the first bank to introduce the system in Malawi and we are the first to integrate it at Hashmar Shoppings.
We were also invited to demonstrate how the system works during the official launch which took place at Sunbird Mount Soche Hotel in Blantyre on May 3, 2018.
Thanks, Lumbani Manda and the entire Ecobank team for the invitation.
So, to help you understand this system, consider the following scenario: You have an online shop, a restaurant, a hotel or any other business and you need to start accepting payments online. The first thing that comes into your mind is how you can collect those payments because you are not registered as a financial institution. But still more, you need to increase revenue and grow your business online. This is where you need to think of solutions that can truly meet your needs and the needs of your customers. A solution that is more secure and user-friendly.
Web Acquiring happens to be one such solution. This involves entering a contract with a bank known as ‘Acquirer’ that will be responsible for handling and processing your debit/credit card payments online.
The acquirer, also known as acquiring bank or merchant bank, is a bank or any other financial institution, licensed as a member of Card Association e.g. Visa or MasterCard, that creates and maintains your bank account. These financial institutions have to comply with the regulations and meet the requirements of Card Association before they are approved to become an acquirer.
Ecobank is an approved financial institution that allows shop owners, travel agencies, hotels etc to receive their payments online in a convenient way. Ecobank follows security standards for fraud prevention. It is a Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant. Therefore, you don’t need to worry about security or fraud.
How Ecobank Web Acquiring System Works
Firstly, you need to have a business account with Ecobank. This is an account where the payments you receive online will be settled to. Then you need to submit an application to become a merchant of their Web acquiring system.
If you meet all the requirements, the bank then will create a merchant account for you and send you an API alongside the necessary documents on how you can start to accept payments on your website.
Once you complete the integration, you will actually go a number of steps to test the system in sandbox or I should say trial mode to ensure the system works as required. If you pass all the necessary steps, Ecobank then gives you other credentials for live transactions.
How Long Does it Take to Integrate the System?
The timeframe of the integration process varies from a few minutes to months or years depending on the level of knowledge of your developers. The good thing is that the Ecobank team is always there to help you get this done.
However, if you still get stuck, you can buy our plugins for Woocommerce, Magento, Prestashop which will allow you to integrate the system within a few minutes. For our e-commerce clients, these plugins are provided for free. I should also mention that, so far, we have a solution to every coding problem that one may face during this process.
After the Integration, What Next?
After you have successfully integrated the system, a new payment gateway is added to your checkout/payment page.
For online shops for example, when a customer chooses this payment option during the checkout process, the order details are sent to the payment processing link, where during the payment process, the acquirer (in this case Ecobank) authorizes card transactions and connects issuing banks (cardholders bank) on your behalf as a merchant.
Whenever a buyer uses a credit or debit card for a purchase, Ecobank either authorizes or rejects the transaction based on the data from the issuing bank and card network (like VISA or MasterCard).
In short, Ecobank receives the payment authorization request from your website and then sends it to the issuing bank for approval. If the purchase is approved, the funds are credited to your account. The approval by the issuing bank is instant while payment settlement to the merchant’s account is done within 24-48 hours maximum.
Also, depending on how you have configured your website, any response that will come from Ecobank as a payment processor will be sent back to your website so that you can determine what to do next. E.g to cancel, hold or process the order.
Why Should Malawian Businesses Go for Ecobank’s Web acquiring System over other solutions?
Well, in short, I can say, when you use platforms like PayPal, Stripe etc when someone completes an order on your website, the money is not credited to your bank account directly. It goes to these institutions that, then process the payment and send you (normally via wire transfer).
You also need a bank account in countries like USA for you to be able to receive the payment, which is a non-starter.
With Ecobank’s Web acquiring, when someone makes a payment, it goes directly to your account. You therefore need to have an account with them for you to be able to receive the funds directly.
However, your customers can make a payment using Visa debit/credit card or MasterCard issued by any other bank.
How Much Does it Cost?
Ecobank doesn’t charge the customer but gets a commission from the merchant which can be negotiated with the bank. The more the transactions the less the commission will be. Ecobank also doesn’t charge merchants any setup fees.
However, if you are not a developer get prepared to pay setup fees to external developers who will create your website and set up this system for you.
If you are a Freelance Web Solutions client that shouldn’t be a big deal of course, because as I have mentioned above, we have plugins for almost all popular shopping carts that will make the integration process a breeze. Just send a callback request and we will be back to you with more details.
Lastly, I can say Ecobank’s Web acquiring system is a game changer. It has really revolutionized the e-commerce industry in Malawi and no doubt, it will complement to boost the country’s economy.
A big credit should also go to the Reserve Bank of Malawi for approving this system. I just hope to see more similar innovations from other local banks.
No matter how decorated it looks, if it has no return on investment (ROI), you get zero out of ten. Of course, it depends on the type of goals you set up for your website but mostly, people want their website to attract online donations and/or increase their mailing list. Every organization needs money to support its causes and a mailing list to engage the donors and volunteers, and the website provides this opportunity.
Nevertheless, not all people are able to get donations online or increase their mailing lists because they fail to define their value proposition. In this post, we will discuss one way to increase your online donations and grow your mailing list by simply defining your value proposition.
Imagine you have a high-class website with more visitors coming, reading through your About Us page, checking your projects, reading your wonderful stories and even going as far as the Donation page, but leave the website without taking any action?
If you already have a website I am sure that at some point you might have experienced or still experience this.
But why do hundreds of people visit your website but still not sign up for your newsletter? Donations? Do you think you are not doing a great job? Or is it that your cause is not worth it? No! A big NO! You might be screaming, ‘If no, then why? Why me?’ Don’t worry! I can understand your pain but wait…! Open your website in a new tab especially where you embedded your donation and newsletter signup forms………….
Done?
Great! Now, let’s talk about these two key features one by one.
Donate Button/Donation Form
Your form still looks good, right? Fantastic! But when was the last time you received a donation through that form? If you have never received any or you get less than expected, then I suspect your donation form has no value attached to it. It’s just there, to fill blank space.
Yet, this is a great opportunity for you to offer value. We are not talking about the values of goods here but an emotional value – something that will influence someone to contribute to your cause. Or is there any text accompanying the form? If so, what does it say? Is it something that can entice people to contribute?
Let’s say you are a nonprofit organization working on getting girls back to school. Instead of only placing the donate button, you may inscribe some text and attach it to the donation form saying: “By choosing to donate, you are helping 3000 girls in Mangochi to go back to school and reduce maternity mortality.” Got it?
Now compare that with a website that only has a donation form with the text “Donate”. If you are interested in donating, which one will you go for? Obviously, the first one is because you know why you are donating – there is an emotional value attached to it.
Newsletter
Likewise, an E-newsletter is very important for nonprofits. It helps you to engage with your volunteers, and your donors and even provide updates to the people who share the same vision with you. However, if your newsletter signup form just has a title or a text like “Newsletter” or “Sign Up For Our E-Newsletter”, that’s enough of a reason you should be failing to grow your mailing list. These texts don’t provide any effective value proposition.
The reason why people should sign up is not communicated and it will make them wonder what kind of content they will receive and how often they are to provide their email address. Therefore, if you are a nonprofit organization working on girls' education like the example above and you want to get more signups, your text might read like this: “Sign up for monthly news, and stories of our girls.” The value is clear, right? If I’m interested in girls’ education and I want to know how this organization is changing the lives of girls, I will definitely sign up. After all, I also know that emails will only be sent once a month, so I’m not concerned about daily emails flooding my inbox.
To sum up, many nonprofits fail to get more online donations and grow their mailing list because they fail to provide value propositions. They fail to communicate the benefits visitors receive or will receive for taking action on their website.
For instance, you may go for a business website and someone selling weight loss pills might write this text alongside their newsletter signup form: “Signup to our newsletter and Lose weight in 30 minutes.” That’s a clear benefit to giving away your email address, right? Great! It’s the same with a nonprofit website.
If you have a website with these things taken into consideration and still more you can’t get donations or grow your mailing list, you can contact us and request a free one-hour consultation.
