Your website should work

17th July 2012

Times are tough in business. Since 2008's GFC there has been a gloom over business in general, people's wallets and purses are being opened less and people are saving more. Businesses are concerned where the next sale or project will come from. We know ourselves things have been tough. As a services business we do well when everyone does well. If people's business is booming, they have the money to spend on their website, social media, newsletters, photos, content, videos. This is all work for us. But when times are tight, just the basics are done.

We have been getting a lot of work because a website is a better alternative to yellow pages, or radio or print. For the comparable money you get a website online year round, 24/7. People are reaching your website through searches they instigate, so they are your target audience.

But I feel some clients may be treating their website like this traditional advertising. A bit hit and miss,

"We will give it a try and see how it goes"
"People tell us we need Facebook, lets set up a page".

You might get a couple of enquiries and sales but its like everything else, it costs you money but does not bring a lot of work in.

Websites are different to traditional advertising. They can change. You can meet your customers where they are and adapt your website easily. You can update content. You can compose email newsletters. You can update Facebook. For the cost of your time you can have a relevant and fresh website catering to your customers needs.

Instead of treating your website as a lost cause or just something you have to have nowdays, make it earn its keep.

Here are some steps to get your website working:

Make it earn its keep – You have paid good money for this website, you have to pay each year to keep it going with domain registration and hosting. It should earn its keep.
Review your website – Have a fresh look at your website. Navigate around it as a potential customer would. Does it answer your questions? Does it give a good impression of your business? Is the information current and relevant for people? Note down things that seem wrong.
Benchmark – Think about what you want the website to do for you. If you are going to make it work, you have to define 'work'. Do you want a certain amount of sales or enquiries a week? Do you want your website to appear in certain searches and have people stay on your website when they get to it? Write these objectives down and see if you can reach them.
Update content – In light of step 2 & 3 are there any changes you can make to the website? Change content, add something to the home page, change some photos. Making the website more up to date and relevant.
Compose a strategy – Set out a strategy and business process for making the website work. Allocate some time each week to updating the website.
Free online services – There are a number of free online services that can assist your website. Social Media like Facebook and Twitter can drive traffic back to your website. Email Newsletters like MailChimp can reach customers when they are checking email. SurveyMonkey can help you compose short surveys to get customer feedback and direction. Consider incorporating some of these services in your strategy.
Feedback – It is important when making this effort with your website to get some feedback. Google Analytics can show you who is visiting your website, what searches they used, what pages they look at. This can inform your efforts. You can also go directly to your customers, ask them what they think of your website and business.
Consider an update – If your business has changed since the website was made, or you think the website is dated and missing pages or functionality, get in touch with your web designer. Their business is based on your websites success and it is in their interests to make it work for you.

Just have a go, your website should reflect you and your business, allocate some time to it and get it working.

If you would like some assistance with this, get in touch.

See our services where we can do all this for you!