Make an impact above the fold with a strong header
- What do you offer?
- How will it make my life better?
- What do I need to do to buy it?
A strong heading and subheading
Call to action
Hero shot
Top menu
Tell customers how it all works
Describe your approach, methodology, and process for solving BI problems
In-depth service pages
This page highlights one service with a detailed description, relevant images, and a call-to-action.
This website tries to overview four different services on a single page. It lacks depth, visual appeal, or a relevant call-to-action.
The engagement process
Contact page and form
Show that you know your audience
Highlight the features and benefits of your data analytics or BI solutions
State your value proposition
Show that you understand their data and BI problems
Explain who you help
Showcase the industries you specialize in
Show how you help specific departments/business functions within an organization
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Build trust and credibility
This can be done quickly and visually by including the following content on the homepage, which should be prominently featured and immediately accessible:
- Testimonials
- Logos of clients
- Awards
- Partnerships (e.g., Microsoft)
- Certifications (Power BI, Tableau, etc.)
Cement your credibility with case studies and customer stories
Establishing quick visual credibility is great, but some prospects are looking for more — they want to know exactly how you helped someone else in their situation. For this, in-depth customer stories/case studies can help further build trust.
Here are a few examples of companies making use of customer stories and case studies:
Highlight your business capabilities with statistics and data
Add more credibility with numbers and figures where it makes sense, for example:
- Years in business (some tools like Power BI were first released to the general public on 24 July 2015, so even showing that you’ve been a Power BI consultant for a handful of years is extremely impactful)
- Number of clients/successful projects
- Number of team members
- Typical return on investment
Show off your dashboards
Create a gallery of dashboards or feature dashboards on relevant pages to demonstrate the impressive dashboards that you’ve created for clients in a variety of industries or business functions. This is another trust-builder that can help nudge visitors toward conversion.
Tell them who you are
Create a solid about us page, as this is one of the first places prospective clients look before picking up the phone or filling out a contact form. This is the most important place to distinguish yourself from the competition, not through the solutions you provide, but through your mission, values, and the people in your organization.
Check out these companies and how they distinguish themselves through their about us pages:
Answer questions and educate your audience
Create resources on your site in the form of articles or standalone pages that can answer frequently asked questions and top sales questions, and provide educational materials and technical blogs that can be useful to your audience.
As a data analytics or BI company, your prospects might be searching online or asking questions like these:
- How much do data analytics/BI consulting services cost?
- We’re looking to roll out Tableau in our company. How do we ensure we do it right?
- How do you gauge visual colors in Power BI?
- How do I fix my reporting?
- How do I implement a data warehouse?
- What are companies that implement advanced projects like a data platform, data warehouse, AI, machine learning, or predictive analytics?
- Will you be able to help, given our inadequate data source infrastructure?
Check out these examples of resources that educate and answer questions that a prospect might have:
One way to ensure you have an endless stream of content ideas is to make sure that you note down every question or concern a prospect has. This will become your repository of content ideas.
Offer something valuable in exchange for their details
Pique the curiosity of your prospects by offering a free downloadable in exchange for their email address. However, do keep in mind that each segment of your target audience has different needs and interests For example, you may want to offer a Power BI developer a development checklist or an operations leader a free assessment of their data environment.
Additional best practices
In addition to the above-mentioned elements to include in your website, here are some general best practices for a positive overall user experience.
Present your content clearly
Doing the basics right is key, and how you organize your content is one of the most basic elements that websites tend to get wrong by overcomplicating things. Make sure the content is presented in a clear and logical order from the top left to the bottom right, and that you use short paragraphs and lots of formatting so that your text is easily scannable.
Sweep it under the footer
Create a footer section at the bottom of your page so you can feature links without cluttering up the rest of your page. You might have a number of links on your BI/data analytics website that are not really essential to feature in the top menu or the homepage. By moving these to the bottom of the page, your entire website is more streamlined and easy to understand.
Things to avoid
Now that the website essentials have been covered, here are a few tips on what not to include.
Image sliders/carousel images/slideshow banners
Although these may seem like they’ll make your site stand out, they are, in fact, bad for usability. Most visitors will read your headline and begin scrolling, not even seeing your second or third slide. In addition, it may also have a negative impact on SEO due to the use of multiple H1 headings, so you’re better off just having a powerful headline with a clear call to action.
Stock photos
These are to be used only as a last resort, as they usually feel inauthentic. Also, seeing the same picture over and over on multiple websites can be an unpleasant experience for users.