If you’re a modestly funded new business startup or a smaller business with negative marketing experience in-house, you’re most susceptible to slipping into the trap of thinking that a shiny new website will get your business branded, noticed, and buzzing. It’s tempting to believe that you simply can just sit back and let the website do its magic, then presto, the phone rings! on the other hand, it doesn’t.
Consider this: A shiny new website with no other marketing efforts isn’t much different than a bright new card that you simply never give to anyone. That’s right… you retain that box of 500 cards on the shelf just in case you would like them. And once you do need one-you cannot find them! This is often where most businesses fail to realize a successful website or e-commerce strategy. They fail to understand that a shiny new website is merely the principal step of the many that cause online success.
Let’s dive below the surface and look at the differences that aren’t so obvious but presumably will have a big impact on the success of your website, and yes, your business’s go-to-market strategy.
First of all, I totally get the lure of “free” including, therefore the appeal of paying “only” $/mo for an internet site that gets your business up and running online. These sorts of SaaS website building studios companies have their place within the world. Yes, there are conditions once I recommend these services to clients.
I noticed recently that a typical marketing message of most SaaS website builders focuses around the entrepreneur, characterized by the “get ‘r done” types that pull up their sleeves and chart the waters of website design with a pure passion for his or her business. Apparently, these determined entrepreneurs need some useful online tools that are seemingly smarter than they’re, and therefore the Internet is theirs for the taking. No doubt, it’s an appealing message to all or any of those Type-A’s, but unfortunately, it isn’t that honest or easy to achieve success online for many businesses-small or large.
As a marketing director for 16 times within the high-tech industry, where I helped develop new B2B services designed and implemented as software-as-a-service, I even have experience on each side of the fence. That said, this text isn’t a rant but an indication of what separates a reputable digital agency from a web service provider. It’s these differences that will make a difference for your business, and once you recognize what they’re, it’ll give your fledgling business website a fighting chance for fulfillment.
Here’s my message-in-the-bottle to people who are deserted on a deserted website island, unable to make their SaaS (or template) website successful by any measure, much less turn it into a thriving position to get sales leads as most business owners want.
The first lesson business owners got to study the web is that just having a “cool” website design (however you would like to define that) isn’t really getting you where you would like to travel. Fortunately, a fumbled website strategy will cost you tons but this colossal mistake: Imagine building a gorgeous store where nobody goes because there aren’t any roads.
“Preposterous!” you say? Yes indeed, and this is often the essence of what’s going wrong once you only own a cool website and zip extra to support its purpose.
Of course, good website design may be a skill that’s a crucial part of your website strategy, but it’s only one part of a skill matrix that creates an astounding website strategy. Here’s a sample of just a few of the competencies a competent digital agency applies around a typical website project:
- Creative
- Graphic Design
- Logo Design
- Custom Programming
- Branding
- Marketing
- SEO
- Analytics
- Video Integration & Promotion
- Social Media Integration & Promotion
- Hosting, Testing & Troubleshooting
- Security
As you’ll see, once you hire a reputable website design company, you’re actually getting seasoned marketers, programmers, and creatives who partner with you to not just get you online that’s the straightforward part-but to figure with you to assist build your website into a lead-generating machine, or whatever your purpose could also be.
I think we all know the marketing hype around SaaS website services. a number of it’s justified-much of it’s not. Let’s flip the hype over on its backside and skim the tiny print to find out what a business isn’t getting from a web website service:
- you’re not getting a custom website that appears UNIQUE.
- you’re not getting a custom website that DOES exactly what you would like it to try to do.
- you’re not getting any unique functions that will be CRITICAL to the success of your online business.
- you’re not getting an internet site development team who has your best interest in mind by working with you as a PARTNER.
- you’re not getting a uniquely branded and positioned website developed by MARKETING specialists.
- you’re not getting top organic GOOGLE rankings because SaaS-based websites have but average SEO capability.
On the opposite hand, with a web SaaS provider, here’s what you’re getting:
- An amateurish, template-based website that you simply can pay on monthly FOREVER!
- A DO-IT-YOURSELF service that needs you to be the expert on everything. what proportion of time does one need to devote to the present endeavor?
- OK, since you’re getting to be the MARKETING EXPERT, who’s getting to actually run the company?
- A SaaS website may be a proprietary website (typically) STUCK on another host with no easy thanks to transferring. Professional websites use WordPress or other open-source platforms that offer you unlimited hosting advantages.
- Unless you’re paying BIG SaaS BUCKS for digital talent (real people not just algorithms), you’ll only get a small amount of technical support and tiny marketing insight.
So by cutting through the marketing hype, some important questions any business owner must ask are often boiled, right down to … what proportion is my time worth? And… What proportion of expertise do I even have inside the major website competencies which will be enough to line my business apart to succeed in brand objectives?
OK, maybe you’re a jack-of-all-trades entrepreneur often portrayed within the SaaS website promotions, and you actually do have multiple skills which will create new leads or sales for your business. We wish you simply the simplest. However, before you journey to deeper waters and make hard-to-break commitments of a SaaS/template service, you could possibly consider some additional facts of custom websites vs SaaS that you simply might not have thought of yet.
A digital agency that develops websites offers tons of faceless DIY website builder service, which is the essence of what SaaS online builders are selling. For instance, a digital agency provides expert branding, marketing, SEO, and programming expertise with ongoing consulting which will craft the central message of your website into a singular, differentiated customer experience. Digital agencies are commonly found in your region, they understand your local culture, and that they have an intrinsic engagement in your community because it’s where they live and work, too. Bottom line: Your success is your success.
