I've heard it's so easy!
DIY website builders have one hook: it's easy. And while you might think that ease is the key, I'm here to tell you that it's not.
It takes hard work and dedication to build a business. Some people do believe that all you need to do is build a website and people will come. Not true.
Another common belief is that SEO is the free way to get traffic online. Not true. SEO is expensive, time consuming and doesn't refine your market audience or provide any insight into their behaviours.
Because these companies market themselves so aggressively it lulls you into a false sense that they deliver everything that a dedicated marketing company will. Words like "SEO ready" only further the false sense that these systems will deliver results.
What does it cost to market a website?
Marketing online in this age is actually defined by your own budget. You can market your website for $1 per day, or potentially, millions per day.
The truth is that the general rule is, the more you put in, the more you get out.
Trying to save money on marketing is like trying to save power while on life-support. Marketing is the lifeblood of your business, if you don't market effectively you aren't going to find customers, grow or make money.
If you aren't reasonable about the requirements of marketing your website you are setting a course towards failure.
How do you avoid failure?
Set reasonable expectations
If you aren't reasonable about your expectations you can get yourself unstuck. Marketing isn't a guarantee of sales. You need a good product, a good way to sell, a market for your product, and a bit of luck.
Don't try to be economical
It's hard to spend money you don't have on marketing. But really ask yourself if you can afford not to? If you are a miser and save all your money for a rainy day, chances are you're going to need it, sooner than you think. For long term sustainability you need to be constantly marketing your business to customers. Ask yourself why McDonalds and Coke still spend millions on advertising? Because it generates a return on their investment.
Continuously optimise the results you get
Once you are spending money on marketing it's important to be monitoring and refining the results that you're getting. Clear and easy to understand reports help you notice trends, cull marketing that doesn't return on your investment, and make decisions about where to place your marketing budget to maximise your return.
Simply building a website is not enough.
A website is one part of the equation, not the entire equation. A successful website has many more moving parts than just simply building a pretty website. It needs to have goals, ways of tracking goals, clear customer funnels, and then be backed up by delivering on your promise.
The content you choose to put on your website needs to have a lot of consideration about how it relates to your business values, your marketing collateral and the products that you sell.
Your marketing needs to target the right audience, be able to generate a return on the investment, and be accountable to the dollars spent.
Just having a website without considering all other factors is a path to failure. Being reasonable about the requirements of success is a path to success.
More than a website, you need a system
You could stumble around in the dark for years trying to figure out a system that works. You could waste tons of money on advertising that yields no return. We have heard so many customers say "We tried that once, it didn't work." but can't answer why it didn't work.
A well defined system is one that is setup to identify what works and what doesn't. To give you tools to make informed decisions about your business. And it's our job to help you understand what is working, and how it's working. What would happen if we spend more here, if we spend less there. An agency should be invested in returning a result for you. Otherwise what are you paying us for?!
The path to success is different for everyone. Our goal is to help you on the right path to your success.