One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen in my work with website owners is striving for perfection. I can’t say that I blame anyone for coming into a website project with this mindset but I want to warn you its going to set you up for failure, disappointment and a lot of wasted money.
The thing to keep in mind is that your site, much like an app on your phone will be updating all of the time. Some sites have new content published daily, others weekly or monthly. If you are investing $X,XXX or more in the design and development of a website he are some things to keep in mind.
Target Market
Who is your site aimed at? Who are the people you imagine will be coming to your website to buy your stuff or book your service? Is the site designed for them, or you?
We can sell anything to anyone and we’re good at it…
This rarely works out well. Amazon sells anything to everyone. You planning to beat Amazon with a freelance developer and a couple grand saved up from last year?
Amazon with Books, or Zappos with Shoes, they both started with a narrow focus. I’m not saying you can’t sell to a wide and varied audience, I am saying you need to focus on winning with repeat customers focusing on a small group first, will help you get enough of a return on your investment that you can grow into supporting more customers and markets.
Goals
Almost all of my customers start with, we want MORE.
I reply with, what would it take to make this project a success
Answer: More
How much more?
Answer: A Lot
These are my least favorite customers to work with. Obviously more sales is a solid business goal. However if you have never sold online, or have not made a real effort online. Start with something simple:
10% of new appointments are requested through the website.
If 10% of your appointments are handled via the website instead of your busy staff… how much more time would your staff have available to do other things? Deliver value to people inside your office instead of slaving away on the phone? This is return on investment.
Frequency
How frequently will you be updating your site? Do you have a plan for making frequent updates to your site? Do you have budget to pay someone else, someone on your team or will you be learning how to make these updates yourself?
Clients who do not have a solid plan for updates and maintenance run into trouble in a couple ways.
- Site is too complex to update on their own
- Owner tries to squeeze more out of his designer and developer to compensate
A brochure is designed, printed and handed out over months and various events. If your site doesn’t update frequently its a brochure. No shame in having a brochure site. Lots of businesses need a place online to hang their phone/email address so new customers can see they exist.
This happens when a friend texts a link, or shares an experience on social media so you likely need a homepage with contact info that looks good on a phone. This is an easy site that doesn’t need to be updated very often.
In this case, you don’t need to pay for services that give you flexibility to make a million design choices. You can pay someone to just be your web guy. Get a new truck 3 months later? Hey Bobby, here’s photos of the new truck can you add them to the site? Easy
Running a doctors office? Want to accept appointments through the website? Need to consider HIPAA in your booking process? This type of site is likely to change more often based on specials, time of the year, to sheer experimentation to find what your particular target market wants or needs to feel safe and book with you online.
To be successful you need to build just enough to get the next step of your business online going. Work that out a bit, then iterate again.
Apps update weekly, so should your website. The good news is, there are new tools coming out every day to make owning and operating your own website easier than ever before. This is why looking good, is not going to fool your customers for very long.
Your customers are going to stay because of the content. Who you are. Not what you look like.