This isn’t your typical blog about 2019 web design trends. We’ve noticed that all of those blog posts are all aimed at web designers -not small business owners. So, we’ve decided to fix that. Regardless of the industry you’re in, your website is likely the first impression you get to make on customers. And in today’s digital marketing landscape, it’s probably your main tool for generating new leads too.
Due to the massive importance of your small business website, you need to stay on top of trends. But we’d argue you only need to pay attention to the ones that can result in increased business –since that’s the whole point of your website to begin with.
So to help you do that, here are five web design trends for your small business to leverage in 2019. Leveraging these trends will help your brand stand out while making your website more effective at generating leads.
Chatbots
Chatbots will be the most popular web design trend in 2019. Chatbots started appearing somewhat regularly last year, and their popularity is only going to grow. Chatbots are small widgets that appear on the bottom of your website. When they pop up, they allow visitors to ask either a member of your team or a chatbot questions about your products or services.
This lets users get answers to their questions about your business instantly. Plus, it makes it easy for you to provide stellar customer service right off the bat. And if you can answer their questions quickly, you will reduce the bounce rate of your website. That will in turn increase your SEO authority.
Better yet, you can even use it as a lead generation tool. For example, you could set it up so customers can book an appointment with just a few short messages. So let’s see, you can provide great customer service, increase your ranking on Google and generate leads. All with a simple widget –it’s a no brainer.
We recommend starting out with the leader of this “conversational marketing” trend Drift, especially since they offer a solid free option to try out. If you already use Hubspot as your CRM, look into Hubspot Conversations too, as that might fit better with your workflow.
While Chatbots are great for your business, it’s also great for your customers. The reason why they’re becoming so popular because it is the preferred way your customers want to communicate with you. Like it or not, people are used to being able to instantly message one another. They don’t want to bother with making a phone call or filling out a form.
Millennials ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It’s also a great opportunity for your small business website. It gives you a unique advantage over your competitors. Instead of being reliant on users being on a page with a form to convert into a sales lead, you can now transform every page on your site into a lead generation page.
Exit Intent Pop-Ups
Exit-Internet pop-ups have quickly risen to popularity too. Why? Because they deliver results. On average, you can expect about a 5-10% conversion rate on your exit-intent pop-ups. Here’s how they work: When a user is about to exit a page, a pop-up box appears front and center on the browser. From here, there are a few things you can do.
Source: Backlinko
You could build out an offer like an e-book or case study that users can download in exchange for their email. Then, you could set up a targeted email marketing campaign to move them down your sales funnel or you could redirect them to another page or post on your website so they don’t leave.
If you have an e-commerce website, you could offer them a coupon or free shipping to increase the chances of a sale. If your small business website is on WordPress, we’d recommend the Sumo plug-in to get started. It’s super customizable by allowing you to tailor your exit invent pop up based on the page a user is on. This makes it more relevant so they’ll be more likely to click on it and stay on your website.
Video
Video has only gotten more popular as internet speeds and screen sizes on mobile devices have increased. And in 2019 it’s set to become the undisputed way to market your business. Best of all, there are so many ways you can use it on your site. And you’d be smart to consider marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.
In 2018, we saw business websites start to put videos in places they hadn’t previously, and we expect that web design trend to continue in 2019. For example, we’ve seen lots of small business websites start putting a video right on the homepage header. This is a great way to quickly give people a quick overview of your business and why it’s special and it works.
Having a video on your homepage increases conversions by roughly 20%. But video doesn’t need to be limited to your homepage header. It’s also great to use on landing pages for your social media ads, and any offer pages you have that give users something valuable in exchange for their information.
Self Typing Typography
For 2019 web design trends, this is our dark horse pick. Self-typing text is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a web design effect where the text will type itself out, just like you do when you're writing in a word doc. Click here to see what we're talking about.
Self-typing typography is great, but you need to be smart about using it. Whatever you do, don’t overuse it. Make it simple, but significant. We believe it’s best implemented when it types out either your service offerings or the customer types your business serves. This way, people can quickly see what services you offer and if your business has something to offer them.
Horizontal Scrolling
You may not have seen this on many websites so far, but this trend is only going to get more popular over time. How do we know? Big brand names that you may have heard of –like Starbucks and Apple, have already implemented this on their websites.
We love horizontal scrolling. We think it’s so cool. It’s a fantastic way to grab users attention, make them stick on your site longer and ultimately leave a lasting impression.
Click here for an example.
And all of that is going to result in increased brand recognition and sales. Think about it. Ever since the internet launched in the early 90s, we’ll admit, we weren’t around for it. People are used to scrolling one way: Vertical.
By implementing horizontal scrolling, you instantly grab a users attention and get them hooked. We believe it’s best used in a way that makes intuitive sense. For example, if you have a timeline on your company’s about us, history page or if you want to outline steps in your process in a stunning way.
See how Apple does this on their iPad Pro product page.
How To Know Which Web Design Trends to Use in 2019
Implementing these web design trends on your small business website will help your brand stand out and increase leads. But we would caution against going overboard on trends. They’re trends for a reason –they’re popular now, but who knows what we’ll think of them when we look back in a few years.
That’s why before implementing these web design trends, we recommend focusing on your website's foundation. Simple, and clean web design will never go out of style. Make sure you have that in place before implementing any of those trends on your site. And if you don’t believe your website is up to par, you can always hire a freelance web developer to fix that.
