Okay, yes, I’m going to be explaining some struggles experienced by Industrial and Manufacturing companies on their website redesign mission, but I can’t just jump right into industrial web design. That wouldn’t be much fun, plus how much of a robot do you think I am? I think I should start this from the beginning of my tenure with Sharp Guys Web Design. Don’t worry, it’s been less than a year, so this will go quickly.
So he’s not waving… but the robot is!
When I started with Sharp Guys’ back in April of 2018 I noticed that we tend to work with a lot of different industrial and manufacturing clients, and each company has their own unique story. We’ve worked with companies that make custom machinery, a company who lays asphalt for major city roads, even a company that creates robots! Yeah, they may not be the type that you can say “hi” to and high-five, but they still make robots, so that’s incredible in itself. I guess if you wanted to say “hi” to a non-speaking robot, you are more than welcome to, but you may get some funny looks. Anyways, once I realized that we work with so many different industrial and manufacturing companies, I began to notice that despite their differences, a lot of these companies tend to have the same struggles when imagining a website design. So I’ve decided to summarize some of these issues, and how we helped work through them.
Order Online or Request a Quote? “A tale as old as time” when it comes to the debate between sales departments and the new technologies of eCommerce websites. Both answers are correct, but a company really has to look at their business model before picking one. If what a company does requires collaborating with the end-user in their respective space, then ‘Request a Quote’ is probably for the best, but if you have one-off parts, an eCommerce component could be beneficial. In some cases, both work perfectly fine in unison. One of our clients, the robot makers, sell both custom robotics, and add on pieces.
More Pictures or More Descriptions? Details for your end-user are incredible important, but what if a company is a niche business? What if their products are so specific there are manuals of information that don’t necessarily need to be displayed on the website, but will eventually need to end up in the customers hands? Once again, it depends on the business. We have clients that list each make and model of each product line they sell, showing information for all of them, and then we have clients who simply display their beautiful machinery to make a purchasing agent salivate. So, determine how finite your products and/or services are, and determine from there.
Connecting an informative website to sales leads: Ahhh the mother-of-all questions that each and every company wants to know; how can my company (which is so unique in its own industrial way) use a website to generate leads? The is such a loaded question. I feel like a pair of jeans, busting at the seams, but I’m going to keep this as eloquently as possible. Every company has something very unique and specific about them… a story maybe… they can tell to captivate their potential customers. By using tools and functionalities of a well-built website… like eCommerce functions, good SEO practices and descriptive images (do you see where I’m going here)… they can position themselves in a new, or in some cases re-newed, space that can help them reach new potential leads.
