The fuseStarter i5 Principle is a 5-part series where we will explore and describe our trademarked website development principles.
INTRODUCTION
As we described last time, what sets us at fuseStarter apart from others is that we are technicians and artists. Granted, it’s an odd mix, and according to many personality testing methods, being technical and creative are an exceptional case.
So, we are the exception.
We’ve crafted, through ongoing introspection and evaluation, a way to have creative freedom within a structure. This enables us to get things done efficiently and effectively. It maximizes our creative impact.
This structure we call our “i5 principle.” It’s our website design methodology. The i5 distills down to 5-points what we know to be key to delivering a great website.
In this 5-part blog series, we will cover these principles. The fourth is INCITE.
i4: INCITE – defn: encourage or stir up
A great website will motivate the visitor to take the next step and make it easy for them to do so.
Now that we’ve provided our website visitor with just the right information in the right amount (see i1 – INFORM), and created a level of respect, admiration, and legitimacy (see i2 – IMPRESS) ), and cultivated their interest to dive deeper (see i3 – INTRIGUE), we will INCITE them to take the next step.
“Moto”vation – Excite the Incite
So now that we’ve accomplished i1, i2, and i3, our visitors are more than visitors, they are engaged. We’ve drawn them in and they are moving towards a decision. Their desires are becoming clear o themselves and they are seeing a potential satisfaction to those desires (as stated previously, needs are a subset of desires) with your offerings.
Now our goal is to move them to action. To get their motor running. To “moto” them. People believe in all sorts of things, but until those beliefs become convictions, no action happens. With conviction (or certainty) comes excitement. Now take all that and INCITE it – stir it up into a roaring flame (yep, more on that in the next installment – i5!).
Remember, if you are going to get someone excited, make sure you haven’t oversold them or misled them. You don’t want them ever feeling let down or shoppers/buyer’s remorse. Honesty is the best policy for you and the client.
Put One Foot in Front of the Other
As you lead the potential client to action, make sure you make it clear and easy for them. Make sure you lay out the path of action directly. Do not let them experience any ambiguity as to what to do next or how to do it.
Many websites (and businesses) fail here miserably! The worst thing is to have spent the effort and time and get to a level of excitement and trust as a potential client, just to be let down by a lousy CTA (call to action) experience!
Talk about destroying trust!
If your potential client is ready to engage, make it easy for them to put one foot in front of the other! They should not have to wonder what the next step is or how to take it.
And as important, the process of taking the step MUST WORK and you MUST RESPOND! How many times have you experienced filling out a contact form or signing up for a follow up of some sort, only to wait weeks and only hear this? Or taking that step and it doesn’t provide a confirmation of success, or gives you a 404 page?
This is the vital interface time. This is the initial docking of the potential client’s ship with yours.
Don’t blow it.
Make sure you think your process through and validate its ease of use with several different audiences. It is well worth the effort. Test the process and make sure to retest it often. Ask your clients what they thought of the experience and ask them how it could be improved. Remember, how we perceive our businesses and systems as a company internally, is usually different from how others who are not associated with the workings of our company perceive them externally.
Sometimes these can be the most valuable insights you will ever glean about your business.
Reap What You’ve Sown
Previously, explored the idea of planting and cultivating seeds. Now that your work is taking root, with the website visitor maturing into a potential client that is informed, impressed, intrigued, and now incited to action, it’s time to prepare for the harvest!
Now you must make the interpersonal experience as good as or better than the website experience! This is even more difficult, because there are so many variables involved in H2H (human to human) interactions.
The best foundational thing to remember in crafting and executing your H2H processes, relationships really, if the golden rule. I know it may seem cliché, but that’s the beauty of foundational truth – it’s foundational. If you treat every interaction with the client from here on out as you would want to be treated, how can you lose?
Whoever can better INFORM, IMPRESS, create INTRIGUE, and then INCITE is on their way to winning the customer.
If you aren’t currently inciting your visitors to action, call us! You are wasting your website and driving customers away. We can help you fix that!
Cleaning Up the Web, One Site at a Time
We’d love to help you create a website that works! We can help you encourage and stir up your potential clients to take action!
Our goal is to clean up the web, one site at a time.
Is your website one of the greats, or one that needs to be “cleaned up?“
We are fast, affordable, and easy to work with. Give as a call and let’s see how we can help you out!
