As an entrepreneur, your website is your most critical communications and marketing tool that can make or break your product and business credibility. But writing code to build a quality, custom website for your business is the last thing you want to spend your time on. Outsourcing to a web design firm can be costly and also a time drain as it usually requires multiple iterations to capture your vision.
You can do it yourself, but it’s critical that you choose the right tools to help you get the job done quickly and effectively.
Fortunately, there are some efficient, powerful and interactive tools that let you build the website you need without the coding effort or outsourcing expense. The Sparkle visual website design tool is one of the more powerful yet easy-to-use tools that helps you manage your website rollout efficiently and economically.
Sparkle is a Mac web design app with an array of helpful features to help you get up and running quickly. Here are some of Sparkle’s key advantages that let you focus on your other business needs.
Simple to use
HTML and CSS are very powerful and allow for detailed website function and presentation. Yet, with the power comes complexity, even if your initial website is simple. Nuances related to layout, graphics, device and browser compatibility, media handling and performance are time consuming to even the most proficient coders.
Sparkle goes beyond “simple” and “visual” website builders with fast, interactive, freeform editing and clear how-to-use instructions. You’ll need the controls that interactive design tools provide to see your changes instantaneously.
Comprehensive features
You also need a rich feature set that will give you a custom, professional look and functionality to your website. High quality retina graphics give you the best quality display for your products and marketing images. Video embedding is now an important part of any marketing strategy. Video embedding is now simple in visual website design tools.
Design tools like Sparkle also have a broad array of web fonts to ensure browser compatibility. The multi-device world we live in means you need to make the content usable to every possible device. And since 56% of consumer website traffic comes from mobile, mobile device compatibility is critical. Sparkle addresses this by letting you pick a different position for all the page elements, for a few popular device sizes.
Easy integration with ecommerce platforms
The goal of your website is to engage your customers and make their job easier when they are looking for information on your products or to make a direct purchase. You need to easily integrate with purchase and finance platforms. What you don’t need is to replicate the purchase and finance platforms like Shopify and PayPal. Your website design tool should easily integrate with external platforms. Sparkle allows third party platform integration without coding. It gives you access to the shopping cart and secure payment tools you need for a quick e-commerce launch.
Search and social media integration
If your website is not found, you’re wasting your effort. Websites are not only for potential customers you are already engaged with. The website should be viewed as a communications platform for the world that may not already know you. It should both draw inbound traffic via searches and be a content management bullhorn for you outbound messaging. Your chosen design platform should seamlessly facilitate SEO functions sitewide. You could outsource your SEO, but the Sparkle SEO integration tools help offset yet another marketing cost.
For social media interaction and monitoring, Sparkle has intelligent elements that integrate Facebook, Twitter, and other social media connections that broadcast your messages. These will build both your visibility and product credibility. Its user reporting tools also help you easily track customer engagement.
Web design can be fun
Easy to use visual tools provide the instant gratification experienced with visual interaction. Exploring various color/design alternatives with immediate feedback is engaging and enjoyable. It can even be a great team exercise to review alternatives with your startup colleagues. Since your website is core to establishing your product and business messaging, having team input builds a stronger team. Coding based tools don’t easily lend themselves to group reviews.
Summary
A great web design app should be direct, visual, and not require you to use HTML code. As you ramp your company, saving time and saving money are critical to startups. Visual web design apps like Sparkle will do both, allowing startups to focus their time and resources on their primary product and service delivery capabilities. An easy to use website design app eliminates the need for professional designers, coders, and SEO consultants. It lets you focus on your startup’s primary business needs.
As a benefit to The Startup Magazine readers, Sparkle is offering a discount on their professional platform, here.
