Are Websites Worth It Without Management?
Business begins with a simple premise.
We offer a service.
We need to find people who are willing to pay us to provide that service.
It sounds so simple.
There is the one issue we all face in business.
How do you get those customers to come to you?
If you have a business, everyone will be telling you need one thing.
Create a website.
You build them, customers find them and suddenly you become an over-night success with thousands of leads.
Or so, Wix and many amateur website designers would have us all believe.
The truth?
Like any other piece of marketing material, your website is a resource.
Creating a website and expecting new business to come flooding in?
It is the same as ordering a thousand business cards, leaving them in your drawer and expecting people to call.
The business cards needs to circulate into the hands of actual people to bring in customers.
They're no good in your top drawer, collecting dust.
Your website is exactly the same.
Without directing traffic to your website, it can sit there for years, with no tangible results.
Collecting dust.
And guess what?
When you do direct them there.
That's only half the job.
What about having all the right information, updated on a regular basis?
Ask yourself.
Would you do business with a company that's website made them look outdated?
We live in a world where customer's have an expectation.
The expectation for your business to be online.
Consider these points:
- Your website could be the first impression of your business to potential customers.
- 57% of people say they wouldn't do business with a company that had a poorly designed website on their mobile.
- It takes less than 2 seconds for people to judge your website.
What does that mean?
A poorly designed website could lose you thousands of pounds worth of business.
And the worst thing is, you would never know.
Is having a website could actually hurt your business?
That's the fundamental question that we are asking today.
What if when you do get the visitors to your website...
They're not impressed.
Your content is out of date.
You haven't posted anything for 12-months.
The 'call us' now button doesn't seem to work.
They click away.
And you never hear from them.
And yet, that may not be the only thing you're missing out on...
Websites don't necessarily have to only be about attracting new customers.
You don't need to ask "do we really need a website?"
You need to ask "how does a website assist my business?"
Your website could serve a number of purposes:
- New Customers (Lead Generation)
- Customer Retention
- Branding & Awareness
- Requirement (Commercial Work)
- Define Your Audience
It could be that you want to narrow down your target audience and bring in work in a certain industry.
It could be that you want to retain the customers you have.
It could be a mix of all the above, and many other objectives (business requirement, employee retention, direct sales, customer retention, etc).
Without an update, how do you keep up with business growth?
New opportunities come.
And we must change to suit the needs of our customers.
That's what business is about.
You know what the means?
Sooner or later, you'll need to update your website.
As you adapt to your customers, you will need to adapt the site to the needs of your business.
Some of most common changes our customers want to deal with are:
- New services that you want to offer
- New industries you want to target
- New company focus
Designing your website is only the first step.
You now need to think about how your website will be managed.
And updated.
Let me ask you...
If you don't update your website, how do you engage your customers?
You create a Facebook page - and you realise you have to post there regularly.
Gathering attention isn't easy.
Why would you expect your website to be any different?
Treat your website with the same amount of respect.
You can update your website with:
- Case studies of new work
- Relevant content that engages your audience
- Photographs in your website gallery
- Blog on recent business expansion
- Covid-19 response/updates
Did you recently sponsor a community event? Mention it on your website!
Keep it dynamic, keep things fresh.
Engage with your website designer and have them upload some more content.
That part is simple.
And then... how will you monitor the website's progress?
It is hard to put the real value on a website.
The brand awareness.
The consideration phase of your customers, as they explore your competition's online presence.
And then there's the advertising.
Google, Facebook, paid search, organic results.
All the different ways you can direct customers to the website.
Who really knows what is working?
Setting up your Google Analytics can be a daunting task itself.
Understanding the data?
That's the real nightmare.
How do you even begin to monitor the progress of a website?
- How much traffic do I have?
- Where is that traffic coming from?
- How long do people spend on my website?
- At which point do people leave my website?
Those are maybe some simple questions you can answer with analytics.
And even then, the data and interpretation of the data is one thing.
It's what you do with that information that matters.
The real question is...
How do you improve upon the website to increase your engagement, and ultimately your sales?
And then...
We have more question...
What if something on your website was to break?
WordPress powers the majority of the internet.
We've had so many updates to WordPress in the last six months, I've lost count.
We manage our customer's websites, so they don't have to deal with these issues.
One of our customers had a major issue with their website.
I stayed up for 24 hours fixing it.
Why?
Customer retention is important to me, and the reputation of this company is one of the most important thing to me.
And if someone is paying me for a service, they will get the best service I can provide.
But I was only thinking...
What if we, Prospect27, built websites for an upfront fee, only to leave it in the hands of this customer.
And then it broke.
The joys of going back to the developer just six months after having it created...
Only for them to tell you that it's your fault, and you need to pay them more money to restore the website.
Ouch.
Audit your website on a monthly basis, avoiding any issues long-term.
Wouldn't having a professional on-hand much be easier?
Let's face it.
There's a million things we wouldn't do ourselves.
We wouldn't operate on ourselves.
We don't convince ourselves we are engineers, and create our own cars.
We never decide to install our own boiler and central heating system.
Why?
Because we don't have the expertise.
Paying to build your own website is like attending your own funeral.
Great as a practical joke, not so good for your business.
And it may well be a literal nail in the coffin for your company.
That's why we have built a business, that is determined to continue to serve the needs of our customers for the long-term.
We understood one thing.
A 'website' will be nothing but detrimental to your business, unless you have someone to manage it for you.
And that's why...
We don't need one-time customers.
We don't take 'setup fees' and charge thousands for your website.
We don't leave websites in the hands of our customers.
We search for lifetime customers customers.
Who understand the value of our service.
And now, we manage over 80 websites.
We stuck to our guns.
Money-back guarantee within the first month.
Fully managed.
No extra charges.
Monthly updates.
And no upfront costs for the website design.
Not only saving hundreds of pounds for our customers, but ensuring their website works for them over the long-term.
And after a year... the answer is in. Management works.
Without a developer to continue to develop on your website long-term, based on your business needs?
Your website becomes a liability.
Think about your business.
Fast-forward, five years time.
Where do you see your business?
How does your website assist you in getting there?
And how will you maintain your website to ensure that it maintains it's relevance as your business moves forward?
Original posted at Prospect27:
https://prospect27.co.uk/are-websites-worth-it-without-management/