Having a website is a good start, but its no longer enough to make your business stand out from your competitors. (They all have websites too.) To have a truly successful site that works hard to bring you new customers, new leads, and helps to maintain relationships, you need to have three aha’s. These realizations will transform your website ownership from passive to dynamic and get you the results you need.
Aha #1 – Your website is not just a website.
Back in the 90s, websites were text, links and images. And in the 90s that was okay – in fact it was bleeding edge technology! We’ve come a long way since then and websites are now information resources, lead-generators, sales forces, instruction manuals, up-to-the-minute news resources, jukeboxes, televisions, a way to meet people, a way to communicate, a way to give seminars (virtually), stores, relationship builders and so much more.
If your website is still back in the 90s, you will not see any business generated from it. Text and links is just simply not enough anymore, and your customers and prospects expect more from it. Your staff also expect more from the website. For the people who have to give out your website address, it is either a point of pride or shame. Your site can make their job easier or harder. We can now add morale lifter to the list of things your site must do! Your website is definitely not just a website.
Aha #2 – Cheap web design costs exponentially more in the long run.
How much are you willing to spend for a website that can accomplish all the things it should be doing? Listen closely to these words of advice, and do not skimp on your investment. A website is an investment in your company, and should be treated as such. You will have it for many years to come, and your clients will base their impressions about you from that site.
We’ve had too many clients come to us after paying upwards of $3k for a brand new site, only to have to redo their entire web design because their new site is worse than having no site at all. When this happens their budget is already shot and they have to settle for a pared down version of what they really wanted. A bad website can ruin your reputation and chase customers away – and cost you more than once!
Aha #3 – If you own a website, you are a marketer.
That’s right… if you have a website you are a marketer. It doesn’t matter if your day job is CEO or Business Manager, whenever you think about your website, you need to reach for your marketer hat. Essentially, all websites are an extension of your marketing efforts. You need to be sure everything is aligned and all your messages are saying the same thing. In fact, your website is your strongest source of marketing mojo. If you’re uncomfortable with this responsibility, you need to call an expert to help you.
Without an eye toward how your site can market your company, you’re missing huge opportunities to capitalize on your website’s ability to close the sale.
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Do You Have any Realizations of Your Own?
As a website owner, share with us and our readers any other words of advice you have about owning a website and making it work for your business. We’d love to hear from you!
About the author: Jeune Ortiz is VP of Marketing and Creative Director at future-ink. With more than 20 years of experience in graphic design and marketing, Jeune brings extensive knowledge and creativity to each website and internet marketing solution to grow your business.
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2 Comments
Josue Kynard | May 20, 2010
Thanks for the blog article. Fantastic.
Ed Maez | September 5, 2010
Just wanted to give you a shout from the valley of the sun, thanks for the information. Much appreciated.