Due to the availability of information present on the web, many small business owners have decided to undertake the responsibility of creating a website for their business. On the surface, this approach makes sense to most business owners: Why hire professionals for $4,000 when you could read some tutorials yourself or buy a $20 template? 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 easiest ways to lose a potential customer is a mediocre website. What does it actually mean to lose a potential customer?
Loss of initial sales
If you fail to grab the interest and trust of a potential customer, they will not exchange their hard-earned money for your goods or services. If your website continually turns people off to your product, the amount of initial sales lost will begin to accumulate. Good websites convert visitors into customers, while 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 strategies to increase conversions/sales. A website that fails to convert traffic into sales serves no purpose.
Loss of sales to competitors
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, potential customers will take their money elsewhere. These customers who have rejected your business as an option will not only take their money to your competitors, they will take their friend's and family's money to their competitors as well. The moment a potential customer turns away from your business due to its website, the website has just potentially cost you a generation's worth of loyal customers.
The Time Cost of Designing a Website
Every business action taken has an implicit opportunity cost. Simply stated, each moment you spend doing something could be spent doing something else. If you are a manager, you should spend your time managing. If you are a painter, you should spend your time painting. If you are a music instructor, you should spend your time creating lessons for students. 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 undertake the creation of a website yourself without extensive experience, your business will suffers.
The Cost of an Ineffective Business Image
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.
Confused customers don't exist for very long.
Once a customer is unable to render the business image, they will take their business elsewhere.
Take care of your business: Hire a professional
A
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.
October 19, 2010
