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Tuesday 8 March 2011

Not Using A Web Professional Can Hurt Your Business

Due to the layman’s impression of the web, many small business owners decide to undertake the responsibility of, or to get someone they know, to create a website for their business.

On the surface, this approach makes sense to most business owners: Why hire professionals for between £250 to £1000 or even more when you could read some tutorials yourself or use an online template? Your Brother’s lad is also pretty good with techie stuff, so give the job to him; or a friend who’s in IT. Why not ? Building a website is easy. No it’s not. Done through ignorance, it’s a car without an engine.

While advocating the Do-It-Yourself approach to your business website seems like an efficient way to minimize cost and maximize revenue, poorly designed websites actually cost your company much more than professionally designed websites.

One of the most damaging myths, and one that will cost a small business lost revenue, is that it doesn’t matter who builds the website, as long as one gets built, and it sits on the web. I’ve met small businesses who have been really smug about it too. “No thanks, what would we need you for, we can fix it ourselves”. Might as well fix your own car instead of using a mechanic or turn the gas board away when there’s a leak outside your house.
Your business can have the prettiest, most stunning website on the web; but if it doesn’t get visitors, or if it does, but doesn’t convey the right image in less than 8 seconds or get the visitor to take action, it’s worth exactly zilch to your business, and you might as well not have the website at all.
Website designers are professionals. Building a website is like building a house. You need the skills of an architect, an electrician, a plumber, a carpenter, a heating engineer, a roofer, a builder, a decorator, a plaster, a tiler, etc, etc ,etc.
You can build a house with just a builder and a roofer, but when the fantastic outside shell is up, looking great; it’s actually a completely useless house. No heating , no plumbing, no electricity, no inside walls finished off, etc, etc, etc
It’s not about just throwing up a superficial entity that looks good. Your website is an intrinsic part of your business and needs serious thought because it actually has to work for your business.
An analogy might be to design a billboard advert for sand, and then place it in the Sahara Desert. Wrong place, wrong target, no business
Also, one of the easiest ways to lose a potential customer is a mediocre website. What does it actually mean to lose a potential customer?
If you fail to grab the interest and trust of a potential customer, they will not think about exchanging their hard-earned money or call you to ask about your goods or services. If your website continually turns people off your product, the amount of initial sales lost will begin to accumulate. Good websites convert visitors into contacts and customers, not just because they look good, but because they carry the right message to the right people in the right way. Mediocre websites simply cause the visitor to hit the back button and never return.
Professional designers understand the form and function of the web and can implement visual, copywriting and other marketing strategies to increase conversions/sales. A website that fails to convert traffic into eventual sales serves no purpose.
If a potential customer has a problem they need solved, they are going to pay someone to solve it. Your website is your first impression, and if the impression is unimpressive or uninspiring, and you fail to show how you will solve that problem, in less than 8 seconds, potential customers will take their money elsewhere.
Every business action taken has a cost. Simply stated, each moment you spend doing something could be spent doing something else. If you are a baker, you should spend your time baking. If you are a painter, you should spend your time painting. If you are an accountant, you should spend your time accounting. These painstakingly obvious truths stem from the economic idea of comparative advantage, or the idea that better products and services are created when individuals focus on their strong points. The web design process requires a considerable amount of time to execute correctly. Extensive testing, brainstorming, design, and development goes into the creation of effective websites. An accountant who makes a website, in most cases, simply becomes an accountant behind schedule with only an ineffective website to show for that lost time. When you or anybody else undertakes the creation of a website without extensive experience, your business suffers.

Sub-par websites, ranging from do-it-yourself projects to premium templates, all have one major similarity: their inability to fully capture the image of a business. One of the 5 Principles of Web Marketing is knowing your customers and catering to their wants. A member of an exclusive country club wants to feel exclusive when he visits a website. A young child wants to feel happy when they visit Nick Jr. online with their parents. A young adult wants to feel cool and relaxed when on Facebook. All these sites give their respective target audiences exactly what they want and expect. Crafting a design that encompasses the wants and expectations of your target audience takes immense skill, research, and experience. When customer expectations are satisfied, customer trust grows, leading to sales. However, when customer expectations are not met and that critical element of trust crumbles, customers become confused.

Once a customer is confused and unable to render the business image in their minds and feel comfortable with it, they will take their business elsewhere.

professional web design company can create a beautiful, functional website that lasts as long as you need it to. You may think you can’t afford a professional website. The truth is you can’t afford NOT to have a professional website. Settling for a mediocre website only hurts your business in the end.

I am so passionate about this that if I fail to persuade a prospect that they need my services to grow their business, I actually feel as though I have let THEM down.

HW Marketing UK are the Affordable Website Design Company of choice for Small or Startup Businesses in the area. Easily understandable pricing packages start at £250. 

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