I Wouldn’t Know What To Do With A Website

I get it. I wouldn’t know how to buy the right outboard motor for a ski boat (if I had one) but then again, if I wanted it badly enough you can bet your bottom dollar I’d learn how.

I think we can all agree that when we want something bad enough, we’ll figure out how to get it and then learn how to use it properly (eg. gaming console, electric car, lake toys). And of course, if something isn’t on our radar it’s because we’re unfamiliar with its application so we’re not going to go out of our way to think about it.

Ditto for not knowing what to do with a website. If it’s not on your radar, you’re not going to be interested in it nor will you care about knowing how it works. Makes total sense.

On The Other Hand

If someone were to explain how specific website applications would be relevant, nay profitable, to your business goals, could you see yourself using it?

If you knew that a website could play a pivotal role in the sustainability and growth of your business, would you integrate online strategies into your business model?

If moving your online presence to a self-hosted website would increase your reach and customer base, would it be worth looking at?

How Successful Businesses Use Their Website

As an entrepreneur myself, I’m familiar with the many tangents that my business can take. Admittedly, I’m not a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to administration so I need guidance in this area. Plus, I confess that there are some facets of running a business that seem a little redundant or confusing. That is, until someone smarter than me draws me a picture.

My point is, I don’t always recognize a unicorn when I see it but I hope that I’m smart enough to know one when it comes running toward me. Which is why I encourage business owners to be open-minded about the practical applications of knowing what to do with a website.

I outline some of the those applications when addressing the common website objection, “I can’t afford a website” – market reach, lead generation, brand awareness, sales, passive revenue generation, time management, and analytics – all seamless (and automated) functions of the classic customer journey. And all of which, if you’re not already implementing these strategies online, begs the question, “How do you incorporate this functionality into your business model without a website?”

Baby Steps

Learning what to do with a website isn’t complicated.

Keep an open mind. If all you can muster is a mild awareness that websites might have something good to offer, that’s a start.

Get 1-on-1 with a random web designer. This might sound odd but, just call one up and tell them you’re gathering information on the viability of a website for your business and you’d like them to explain how a website helps businesses in general (you’re actually looking for advice here but will likely become the victim of a sales pitch). You don’t need to give them any of your business details because you’re not officially interested in doing anything yet, you’re strictly gathering info. Nothing wrong with doing this. In fact, it’s a little therapeutic. And don’t give them your contact info unless you’re genuinely interested in hearing back from them. If they don’t want to talk to you because you want to remain anonymous, scratch them off your list of prospects.

Mull it over. If your random web designer made valuable points that would apply to your business, start brainstorming what that might look like in your case. And every time you see a commercial from high profile brands, take a look at their website to see how they use it and imagine doing something similar with your would-be website.

Find a website designer. This can be tricky. It’s helpful to have some kind of vetting process so be prepared to ask a lot of questions until you’re satisfied that you’ll work well together. And be aware of the following three stages when organizing a website build.

Discovery Meeting

This conversation is more about your business than building a website, because it’s impossible to create the latter without first knowing business objectives. The whole point of a website is to add or improve functionality that’s relevant to your business goals and marrying it with your business model. If your web designer doesn’t have experience with business modelling, you might want to get a second opinion.

(Aside: A seasoned web designer/consultant will know how to build a website for any one of four business models: B2B, B2C, subscription-based, and on-demand, any of which could include an ecommerce element. Either model has specific elements to it and you want to be sure that your website addresses specifics.)

You should be able to confidently walk away from this discovery session with a detailed understanding of the process involved in building your website, including your part in it (spoiler alert: minimal), what your website will include (pages, functionality, content), ownership details (only you), and what happens upon completion of the project.

This will likely also be the time where you’re asked to sign a contract. Don’t do that! Take your notes home, mull them over, and make sure you’re comfortable with the whole thing because it’s a big investment. Be aware however, that it’s reasonable to be told that the offer is only good for a short period of time, after which either the quote is null and void, the terms may change, or the designer may legitimately become too busy to accept new projects. So, don’t mull too long.

Work Toward A Content Strategy

This is the part where you provide the bulk of the content to the design team OR be willing to pay a little more to have them create everything (copywriting, image sourcing, testimonials, email follow-up, funnel emails, educational content, the full monty). This decision is part of the Discovery conversation and outlined in the contract/proposal.

I would be remiss to not emphasize the significance of your website’s copywriting. Know that this is how search engines rank websites and they favor websites with dynamic (new) content so it’s important to add fresh (new) posts regularly. Otherwise, you have static (old) content that doesn’t give indexing robots a reason to look at your site and they’ll eventually ignore it altogether, meaning that your site no longer ranks for any content. Kind of a big deal.

If you don’t throw time or money at this, you might as well be building an online brochure for people who already know the URL (because no one else will be able to find you).

Work Toward A Marketing Strategy

Assuming that you’re business plan involves exploring new markets, you’ll likely have some kind of blueprint that identifies, 1) your total addressable market (TAM), 2) your serviceable available market (SAM), and 3) your serviceable obtainable market (SOM).

These terms may seem irrelevant (because most people know that they can’t appeal to everyone and have realistic goals about reaching some of them) but to illustrate a point, how do you reach such a large target audience without a website? And, how do you outshine your competitors who do?

Apart from selling, a website is the best tool that your business has to implement actionable strategies that will glean audience behaviours toward your product/service, educate your target audience on the merits of your offerings, engage with prospects and customers, determine short-term growth objectives, and establish analytics benchmarks to compare with competing businesses.

If you don’t know how to marry your business plan with a website, a seasoned web developer who’s familiar with online business development and online marketing strategies, can help you get there.

Training & Maintenance

Since your web designer is aware of your lack of knowing anything about websites, you should expect to have some level of training when your site is handed over. In fact, you’ll want to see this proviso in the contract and whether it involves an additional fee (not unreasonable).

Additionally, there’s the matter of upkeep. That falls to the website owner (you) but it’s not uncommon for new owners to farm this out at a nominal monthly expense (either to your web designer or someone else). Maintenance includes anything from simple software updates to adding content (remember Googlebots need something to read), and anything in between, depending on your website.

Caveat: Information doesn’t automatically impart knowledge. Just because you’re armed with the info to manage your website doesn’t mean that you know what to do with it. You may not have understood what to do with a website before you had one but once you own one, you’re on the clock for learning what to do with it from the second you take control of it. To be sure, there’s a level of personal accountability that governs what you do with your website after it’s handed over to you at the end of the build. The alternative is paying someone else an ongoing fee to do this for you but if your business can sustain this expense as a cost of doing business, it won’t be a problem.

Moving On…

Now that you have a better idea of what to do with a website, I hope investing in one is on your radar. Yes, it’s an investment but like all good investments, it’s tax deductible (for the initial build as well as ongoing maintenance) and it should pay for itself in a relatively short time (depending on how you use it).

Reach out if you have specific questions about what a website can do for your online presence. I’m here to help.