There was a time when websites were super new, and if you had one, you’d be noticed immediately. It was a high commodity to be launching a new website, and only the biggest and best businesses out there could. Fast-forward about 15 years and the website market and general business market is more competitive than ever.
The Big Marketing Mistake
The number one mistake that we see businesses making over and over again is that they hire someone to write, design, and build them a new website, then they think that magically they’ll start getting leads. The “If you build it they will come” method of marketing isn’t working very well as we enter 2020. In fact, it hasn’t been working for a really long time now.
Why launching a new website by itself doesn’t work
Putting up a new website can max out your marketing budget, whether $5k or $30k, instantly. It may leave you with a stellar new look, but NOTHING HAPPENS.
What do you mean nothing happens? We mean that new websites won’t guarantee new visitors, more traffic, or more leads. This is because no one else, besides your current word-of-mouth customers knows you exist. That is, if you aren’t spending any money to drive people to your website. Your website is a great tool for guiding users and solidifying leads, but ultimately, not much help if you don’t get new visitors to it.
Now, there are instances where this does NOT hold true. Some businesses are large enough that they need the authority and brand awareness of an $80k+ website because of what they stand to gain in the marketplace by having it, so building an expensive site isn’t inherently bad, I mean, it’s what we do (when appropriate). But, what we passionate about communicating is that it’s not always the best thing, especially for businesses that gross less than 1 million per year.
You might now be wondering, “Well, if we have $15k to spend on our site in 2020, what should we do with it?”
It’s a great question, and one we are asked a lot. Depending on your business type, size, market, current efforts, etc, it’s hard to say with a blanket statement, but we’re going to do our best to get close. So let’s say that you have set a budget to redo your website.
- You could utilize about 50% of the budget to rebuild your website. The key points of the site would truly be copy/messaging, branding, design, and build. Everything should be focused on driving the user to make an action. You can always come back and push the design limitations, or add additional functionality to the site, but a rock-solid framework is crucial.
- Utilize the other 50% of your budget to do some of the following things:
- Keyword Research so you know what your users are looking for in relationship to the market that you serve.
- Speed Optimization, Secure your site and host it with a powerful hosting provider, make sure the theme is built without all the bloat of standard themes.
- Start doing monthly Organic SEO and/or Local SEO. Spend your money getting the highly optimized small website that’s built super well found by your visitors. You’ll spend a minimum of $600 to do this at a small level. But DO IT!!
- Start asking your clients for 5 star reviews and let someone manage that process for you. It’ll help with social proof, and it’ll help you build your local SEO because those ratings help a TON!
- Get Data and Return on Investment (ROI) reports so you know what you can and will need to do next.
This seems crazy, right? Wouldn’t it be better to just sink all of that money into a design, branding, and launching a new website? If you are running a large business, and you have a large budget, do it all at once. If you’re budget conscious and looking for a solid return on investment, this type of approach tends to work much better!
“What happens when I run out of money?”
This is the secret that a lot of people forget to mention. You won’t run out of money 😎
If you do the above process properly, you WILL increase your leads. While your site may not directly sell to your clients, surely if you’re in business, you can close a deal, or have salespeople that can. If you’re given say 10 more leads a month, and each lead is typically worth $1,000 each, you’d have $10,000 more dollars to work with than if you did not get those leads off of your website. So, you increase your monthly spend, and you get more return. It’s the ROI numbers game, and it plays in your favor.
When you start seeing the return you’ll be able to invest more into your lead generation efforts. You’ll likely want new features on your site, you’ll want more branding, you’ll want a bigger and better logo, you’ll want to look like you’re worth the price increase you just made because you have TOO MUCH BUSINESS! This is what a killer website and digital strategy can, should, and WILL do for your business!
Start Driving Leads in 2020
By this time you’re starting to maybe think we’re crazy. The truth is that a website can and should be doing a job for your business. It absolutely should not be a one time cost to your business (like having your entire house painted) where it doesn’t really yield a whole lot of return. It should bring in more business, thus, justifying its existence as a solid business investment.
Instead of saving up for launching a new website that just sits there, engage in one that’s a living and breathing business making machine!!
As always, Muletown Digital is here to assist you with any questions! Please contact us or if you are ready, start a project!
Muletown Digital offer Web Design services to businesses throughout Tennessee, including Columbia, Nashville, Spring Hill, Brentwood and Franklin.
