Thinking of investing in a new website? While a new site has the potential to greatly enhance your business and grow your sales, there are a lot of other determining factors as well. Before you jump in and invest your hard-earned marketing money into a new site, we want to help you make sure you’re making the best decisions for your site and your business. Here are six of the most common myths of a new website.
Myth #1: A brand-new website will give you more leads
A new website might help you get more leads, but if you’re hoping that business will boom overnight just because your website exists, you might need to think again.
Just because your website is created and exists on the internet, that doesn’t inherently mean that people will care about it or even visit it.
In order to get more leads, you need to actually direct people TO your website. In the digital marketing world, social media is one great way to do this. Invest in your website, definitely, but don’t neglect your other channels. Stay up-to-date with your Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts, as well as any other social media channels that are important in your industry. With these, you can stay connected with clients, and your fresh new website will be ready for them to visit when they need or want to do so.
Don’t have time for social media marketing, or feel like you’re lacking engagement? Check out our social media management packages here to see how we can help.
Email campaigns are another great way to connect clients to your website. To learn more about nurture and sales campaigns, check out this blog post we wrote. Email campaigns are an effective way to get your customer to think of you and eventually to visit your website and buy your product or service.
As you create your new site, be sure to optimize it for SEO. Search engine optimization definitely helps to get more visitors to your site, but it won’t do the trick all by itself. Not sure how to optimize for SEO? Check out this post, invest in the Yoast plugin, or view our SEO services here.
Myth #2: Your new website should be design-focused
Everyone knows that if your website looks really, really good, business will be smooth sailing from here on out, right? Wait….scratch that.
Sure, you want your website to be aesthetically pleasing. However, great design shouldn’t be the main focus of your site. The focus of your website should be on how you can help your customers. Most importantly, you want to have a clear message that addresses the problem you are offering to solve for your customers.
Having clear copy on your site is very important. If your site looks really good but people aren’t quite sure what you do, you’re not going to get leads. Focus first on being straightforward, concise, and easy-to-understand in terms of your wording. Tell your customer how you can make their life better. Design is important, but it’s only part of the equation.
Myth #3: Your new website can’t have stock photography
Worried about yet another investment in your new site? Slow down—you don’t have to hire a professional photographer right away. While creating high-quality, original photos is a great asset, it’s not mandatory, at least not right this second.
There are lots of great resources for finding stock photography that will still make your site look great. Some are free, and some require small fees in order to use the photos. FreePik and Unsplash are just a couple of the helpful sites out there that you can use.
Whether you use stock photos or take your own, do your best to display a variety of races on your site if you’re going to use photos of people.
Myth #4: People shouldn’t have to scroll on your new site
Back in the day, there was a sort of rule in web design that your site had to be viewable “above the fold”, or without scrolling. The term “above the fold” comes from the newspaper world. Newspapers put catchy headlines and information on the top portion of the page, where they can be seen without having to first unfold the paper. In the same way, web designers would cram tons of information on the part of the website that was viewable without scrolling. This was because it was seen as too much of a hassle for users to have to scroll down the page.
Nowadays, people are so used to scrolling on their smartphones and other devices that they hardly think twice about it. In addition, there are so many different screen sizes around that it’s impossible to accurately predict “the fold” anyway.
However, don’t completely throw this rule out quite yet. While you shouldn’t be afraid of visitors having to scroll on your site, you should still be strategic about the information you put on the top of your page. As we mentioned above, a clear message about what you do and how you can help your customers is of the utmost importance. Put this at the top of your page. If your site is clear and interesting, people won’t have a problem scrolling. On the other hand, you never want to expect that someone will be willing to scroll around, searching to find out what exactly it is that you do.
Myth #5: You will have results (sales, leads, etc.) in one week
Nope. Well, maybe. But simply having a fresh site isn’t going to guarantee you results. Your new website will get you results quickly IF you have a great marketing strategy. At Lifedge, we use the StoryBrand marketing framework to guarantee marketing success. This is a five-part sales funnel that includes a one-liner, a website, a lead generator, nurture campaigns, and a sales campaign.
We’re StoryBrand certified and would love to guide you through the process of creating a clear message and an effective marketing strategy.
Myth #6: Your customers will go to your website every day
What’s your very favorite brand? Ford? Nike? Chick-fil-a? John Deere? No matter how much you love and support a company, you’re most likely not going to visit their website every day. It may sound harsh, but your customers aren’t going to do so for your website either.
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: simply existing on the internet doesn’t guarantee visitors to your site. You’ll need to use your marketing strategy to point customers toward your website and give them a reason to visit.
A thorough digital marketing plan will give you results!
We love a fresh, new website as much as the next person. In fact, creating websites is a lot of what we do! Most importantly, though, we want you to have a well-rounded, thorough digital marketing strategy that will really get you results. Don’t be tricked by these myths of a new website. A new site won’t necessarily get you results, but it sure can help as long as you don’t neglect the rest of your marketing strategy.
You can check out our blog for more information on how to effectively implement digital marketing. Additionally, you can always contact us to set up a free meeting and take the next step toward growing your business. We’ll create a plan that fits for you!
0 Comments