Ready for a New Website? 3 Things to Keep in Mind!
Are you looking to develop or re-develop a website / blog for your company? If so, I have three things I thought would be helpful to share that I usually only share with people who I can be painfully honest with.
Usually these types of people are friends or family, sometimes people who were referred to me and place trust because of the recommendation. You can’t always be completely honest with people who don’t “know” you due to the fear of being perceived as arrogant or rude. That said, with those who know you and need honest business advice, you can get to the nitty-gritty and make great decisions.
So here is the advice I give friends / family who happen to be in business.
First let me say, I sit in consultations weekly with my clients, my clients clients and those who may soon become someones client. If social media / networking has done anything, it has shown people that there is life BEYOND the static “brochure” website. In the next couple years we will see a massive revenue stream come from companies re-doing their website(s) in hopes of creating something that furthers a business process.
All that said, if you were my friend, I would say:
#1 Don’t partner with a company who spends the majority of the time asking you what you want your site to do.
If you can layout the answer to this question you are a DREAM client for a web company. Why? Because they aren’t business experts; by and large, their marketing people. Truth is, most web companies long to be viewed as marketing companies and what are these companies comfortable with?
Marketing.
Not only are they stuck usually trying to sell what they have, their stuck selling what they know. These companies usually have a hard time probing to find deficiency in your company that they can fix via the web. Same is true for furthering your strengths.
So the conversation becomes, “What do you want it to do? What do you want it to look like?”
A colleague of mine who is an Art Director for a local Digital Solutions company calls this, “selling brochures vs. creating conceptual solutions.”
Run from companies selling you a website and partner with the company that understands business, can conceptual a strategy and implement it.
#2 Don’t worry about the color scheme!
I’m not saying graphics aren’t important, but the color scheme of your site pales in comparison to the usability and features of your site. If a site is usable, if it has features that the end-user cares about, graphics are secondary. Want proof? Craigs List is the ugliest site on the internet and we all LOVE IT! I’m on there three, four times a week.
Is it ugly? Sure! Is the flat screen HDTV I got on it for 70% off? NO!
Now which do you think I care about?
If this is where the bulk of the conversation is happening on your site, shame on you and shame on the company you are using. Your web company should be producing a useful site. If they are not, they are selling you pretty – useless – site. Why would they do this? Either they don’t want to fight over colors and hurt a relationship or they don’t know anything more.
If YOU are the on harping on this, you are missing the point completely of having a website.
#3 After it’s all done, will the site make you a better company?
If the answer is no, don’t waste your money. I’m not kidding, don’t spend one penny on a new site! Why would you? If it doesn’t strengthen your company its a waste of money.
So, is a brochure – static – pretty site REALLY going to be the competitive advantage your company needs? Look at the websites of your competition. If they are a small business, most likely they have failed in creating a significant business tool; they have a poor, useless sites.
I was in a meeting last week with a client and he had a business associate with him. The associate was telling us how great his site was (looked) and how proud of it he was.
By the end of the meeting, he admitted it neither drove, nor converted any new business, had a lame content form NO ONE EVER FILLED OUT and has been a massive waste of money. He started the meeting with how great it looked, he left the meeting with the reality check that it did as much as a non-existent site for his business.
So my closing thought.
Any money tossed at these no-no’s is too much. On the flip side, if you find a business that can really get to the core of your company and build a strong business tool, calculate the amount of money it would cost if you DID NOT move forward over the next three years. So long as you don’t spend MORE than that number, you’ve made a great investment.
Spread this post...
 |  |
Adam Bickford
Nov 3, 2009
11:26 am
Nice thoughts John, i don’t think your as brutal as you think. anybody who is truly looking to better themselves or their buisness is wanting to hear this kind of feedback…And by the way i like the color scheme of your website!
Wes Thompson
Nov 3, 2009
6:55 pm
John, I always appreciate your perspective, however I do disagree on a few small areas here. Although I must admit that overall I agree with the driving point that a website that does not accomplish business objectives is worthless and is not worth the investment.
I disagree that Marketing is the issue. The issue is people who don’t truly understand Marketing. Artists or technologists perhaps, but not marketers.
“Because the purpose of business is to create a customer, the business enterprise has two–and only two–basic functions: marketing and innovation.
“Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business.” – Peter Drucker
The only other thing I disagree with is comparing craigslist with a small business website. I do agree that websites such as craigslist can exist without any impressive or even tolerable “look and feel”, but a small business is much different than craigslist.
Using your website as an example, many users simply would not take you seriously (or spend any time on your website) if it had poorly designed graphics/color scheme and impractical design architecture.
Tony Legrone
Nov 17, 2009
1:24 pm
Wes, I think craigslist is an exaggerated example to prove a point. Obviously, no one thinks a website is going to work as well if it looks amateur but, as I’m sure you know, clients tend to nitpick about unimportant details and slow the project down because of it. I think craigslist and other hard to use sites get away with it because they have tools people come back to use repeatedly.
As for marketers trying to be web companies. I think you have to be weary of those people. Marketers don’t always know how a business should work and run. They only know how to promote. I think the potential downfall there is that a website planned by a marketer will end up out of date too soon.
For instance. If I build my site around a marketing plan and 4 months later I change the marketing. Now I need a new website. If I have built my site around how my company works and it fits in with my sales process, then I don’t have to change my site for a long time. On top of that. If I come up with a marketing initiative. I can make something temporary on a smaller scale that plugs in to my main site and spend far less money.
Lastly, I’m not saying marketers can’t get leads for companies. They can do awesome at that if they’re good at their job, but it’s not their responsibility to do close a lead. So they pretty much get paid for doing only half of the job.
Ed
Nov 25, 2009
1:41 am
I disagree with your #3 a bit. Every small business ought to at least have a dumb static page on the web with contact info, hours, location if nothing else. People do search for those things and the cost is so low as to be ignored.
Wes Thompson
Nov 25, 2009
10:02 pm
Tony,
“Marketers don’t always know how a business should work and run. They only know how to promote.”
Who then would you say is best qualified to design and develop a website?
“If I build my site around a marketing plan and 4 months later I change the marketing. Now I need a new website. If I have built my site around how my company works and it fits in with my sales process, then I don’t have to change my site for a long time.”
What about when you change your sales process or “how your company works”? Won’t that require a new site then?
Maybe I’m crazy, but I think that businesses should avoid having any aspect of their business operate in a vacuum. Marketing as much as sales should function as part of a businesses grander plan.
So, in reality “marketers” aren’t exactly the issue… yet, anyone who designs or develops a company website in a vacuum as opposed to intrinsically part of the businesses overall objectives. Right?
Garrett
(Author)
Dec 24, 2009
12:17 am
I’ve, months later, see this discussion and I’m not sure how I missed it LOL.
Wes, I think it has to do with what a person expects of their website. The Craigslist point was to prove that function out plays “look and feel.” That is to say, there are tons of nice looking sites that don’t do a damn thing. Their owners, unless this was their intention aren’t happy about it either. I’ve never had a client say, “It’s pretty, but useless and that’s just want we wanted.”
Marketing is the issue if the site needs to do more than “market” a company or product. If it simplifies a process, integrates systems, furthers a sales process, acts as a loss liter etc. then marketing can get in the way at times, trying to make it a marketing tool.
We do what we know in life. So who is best to build a site? I think we’ll see an evolution in web firms (and have to a large degree) that don’t do JUST the marketing deal, but do have an in-house marketing staff.
Digital is our life now, for the foreseeable future. Social Media and websites often get clumped in with marketing because they (marketing) were the first to really tap into them as a service based businesses model.
The other comment you had was in regards to changing a business process (while talking to Tony). Marketing measures are changed less often than business models. I do agree with you in that no portion of a business should be in a vacuum though, truly.
My last point would be this – I bank. I bank with a company whom I like their online banking. I’ve NEVER read a word on their site that wasn’t tied to my online banking. Take away that NON MARKETING feature, I don’t bank there. I don’t think the design is great, I don’t care for the color palette and I’ve not been in the bank since opening accounts there.
But I can bank online and that is the online function that won my business, retains my business.
Ed – OK. So long as they don’t think it really helps them and they know they are putting money into, as you put it, “a dumb static page on the web with contact info, hours, location if nothing else.”
I don’t know I’ve ever had a client who wanted this or had it as an expectation; that isn’t to say they aren’t out there. However, seems like a problem waiting to happen on the “expectation front.”