Are you ready for a website?
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Are you ready for a website?
You work hard to grow your business and you think the next step is to build a website, but are you ready?
You may not ready for a website. Sadly, I've had to say this to a few customers. It hurts, but I say this from the bottom of my heart because I care about their business and their customers. Frankly it is better to have no website than to have one that does not help your customers and makes your business look bad.
To have a successful website requires commitment. Like every healthy relationship, you have to know what you want out of it and what you need to put in.
You must have a business reason
to want a website, such as:
- formalize your online presence with a branded experience (formalize certain processes)
- engage in some inbound marketing
- allow your customers purchase products and services
You must have a vision
with tangible goals.
In other words, numbers that you can compare your results to such as:
- Generated 10 soft leads in 3 months
- Made 25 sales in 6 months
- Sold $50,000 in 12 months
Your commitment
be ready to invest.
I really want to stress this point for transparency and just plain honesty. Rome wasn't built in a day, nor is a successful website. Be ready to invest in the necessary money, talent and manpower to achieve these goals. Due to the investment required it is so important to outline what you want out of your website in the first place. Some points to keep in mind:
- Having your website designed and developed with sales in mind; Average cost $5,000+ You may be able to find it for less but please make sure they will be able to produce the quality and results you expect. Remember you get what you pay for.
- Content curation and creation Collect resources and create content to inform you customer regarding your products, services and industry.
- Online marketing and SEO optimization This is an ongoing cost that can start as low as $100 up to a few thousand per month depending on your market competition.
Your website is where the customer service department never closes. Before you open for business, be ready to optimize every visitor’s experience by offering a website that represents the best parts of your brand. Be willing to invest in this real-time brand ambassador.
If you are not ready to make the commitment read our article “Do you really need a website” for other options to get you business growing without a website.