If you’re planning to have a website built, or if you’re already running one, take a step back in order to consider the bigger business picture and the need for a long-term strategy.
Hello, this is Darren, it’s Christmas, and so I thought I’d record a message to summarise the typical issues encountered when someone decides to either build a new website or redevelop an existing one.
Usually, the thing that is missing is a basic strategy.
A deep understanding of end business goals (sales) requires that everyone take a step back and think carefully about how to attract customers in the first place (marketing) on a long-term basis.
When Websites Are Built Just for the Sake of It
Lots of web designers and agencies will happily “sell” you a website as though it’s some kind of commodity. Read the Yell websites review and you’ll get a good idea why this type of thinking goes so badly wrong.
The client paying for the project often thinks of the work they are about to receive in the same way they would if they’d ordered fish and chips for dinner or dropped their car at the MOT garage. “Is it ready yet?”
On the contrary, planning, project management and a realistic grasp of costs is key.
All Businesses Marketing Requires Constant Attention
Hopefully, you think of your business and livelihood as your “baby”. Obviously, it must be fed, nurtured (and possibly obsessed over) so that it will grow to become a good person and productive member of society.
The businesses most likely to succeed are those who use their website as a tool to achieving the end goal (turning business suspects into business prospects, and business prospects into sales).
Search Engines Need to Be Fed with Good Content
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the way most people expect to get traffic to their site.
This is a great approach and usually brings in the most qualified customers (they had a problem, looked for a solution online, and hopefully found you).
But that is not the be-all and end-all, because being able to rank for keywords in the first place requires well-researched, well-written content that answers questions people are putting into the search engines.
You can and should target specific queries at all stages of the process from the customers’ awareness, to consideration/comparison with your rivals, to the moment of truth itself: enquiries and/or sales.
Local Competitor Marketing is Usually Crap, So Seize The Opportunity to Be Great
Creating all the basic service pages and other assets to support your operations is the top priority, but the rest of the customer’s “buying journey” needs attention too.
Because a lot of local companies tend to ignore this (because they don’t know how to do marketing or mistakenly believe that they’re not interesting enough), competitors almost always fall into a steady rhythm in which they basically just, well… imitate one another.
The entire market becomes bland as hell. It’s like a bloody stalemate… trench warfare! That there is your opportunity to do better.
Anyway, here’s some punk poetry…
You might have or want a website, but if it’s trite, you’ll never be in the business fight.
I don’t wanna make light of the fact most are crap. Don’t wanna be “talking left while walking right”…
So, I humbly suggest you plan to have the knack to attract, engage, sell and retain…
(over and over again, always solving problems, always fixing pain)
…without the typical written drivel, you know what I’m on about… the classic sort of incoherent chest-beating corporate-sounding abstract word salad claptrap that has no value to add.
As you can tell, I like to rhyme and rap. You might think I’m a twat, but, look… lighten up… yes, business is serious, (but people are weary with this) and people like to laugh!
What I’m saying is: drop the big business act and just ask, “What does the customer want and need?” You build the mousetrap to get decent leads, but don’t be so stingy with the content please – that’s the cheese!
Use words to heed, words that feed, words to help, words that sell. Lean in, Listen, reflect, repeat back and be heard.
Communicate, disseminate, persuade, build trust but don’t just take. Prove your worth and educate, strategically, fearlessly, for there’re opportunities in all industries, yet rivals are often only about survival, so get busy thriving or dying on vines with the passage of time like all the has-beens we’ve seen get dealt the death blow before, cos they chose to snore rather than roar.
Oh my!
Also… f*ck the price war!
No one profits as the “cheapest” AKA weakest, trying to stick out meekly instead of standing up uniquely, so give quality, take pride, don’t hide, step out from behind, keep the key questions always in mind: for whom and for what purpose do you have or want this website?
Find reasons why then kindly design for digital versions of real life online, first discovering how audiences love or hate to browse and use, research and choose, buy and behave, say, think, share, recommend and review with the ultimate goal of driving your business revenue…
Cos if you don’t know where any one is going, any old website will do.
By the way: although it’s important to have search engine success, think beyond being top of Google, since their future direction is anyone’s guess.
You’ll do best wearing your wholistic marketing head instead of being overleveraged on this predictable algorithmic roulette. Yes.
See below if you wanna talk and say hello, I’ll gladly chat with you to tell and show stuff I like to learn and know. I’ll give you the business website “how” if you describe your ideal “who” and “why”.
Gotta run, so until next time… bye!
