It’s going fantastically well. You’ve just met a potential new client and you’re getting on like Bert and Ernie: sparkling conversation, mental connection, business need identified and matched to a service you offer, they even have a budget.
But, any minute now: the one question that could end it all will pop out of their mouth. It always does. You’re braced for it and painfully aware that as soon as this question gets aired, you’ll start feeling awkward. Sweaty palms. Anxious tummy. Your once crisp shirt feeling tight and damp.
“Do you have a website I can look at?”
Inward groan. Dry tongue. The atmosphere plunges from electric to oppressive as you struggle to fashion an answer.
“Ummm, yes, I do, but, it’s not up to date… please don’t judge my business by my website… it needs a huge overhaul…I need a new website… I’m working on it, but… ok, bye then.”
‘Website Shame’ is real.
A website that’s dated, hard to navigate or so homespun it’s broken and painful to the eye is not supporting your business. No wonder it feels so painful when you’re forced to share it.
No matter how much time and money you invest in brand awareness, or driving traffic to your online home, if the site is a major turn-off or prospects can’t find the information they want, they’ll quickly be disenchanted and find someone else to sell them what they need.
You’ll never reach the level of sales that your business has the potential to achieve.
For the majority of service-based businesses, your website is your shop. You can’t afford to limp on with the digital equivalent of Poundland!
It’s time to do something about it.
Commissioning a brand new website always takes a lot of time and sometimes costs a lot. But, this slash and burn approach isn’t always necessary. On occasion it’s actually a better idea to salvage what you have but give it a makeover.
This repurposing method costs far less and can be implemented in a matter of weeks.
But, how do you know whether you need to ‘kill’ or ‘cure’?
We often help our clients to figure out just how bad the situation is, and make the decision between creating a new website versus reworking the existing one.
Using our in-house audit process, we can figure out how much of a need for a new website there really is, which areas need urgent attention and how it could be better. Then we take the weight of this huge project off our client’s shoulders by managing the build or redevelopment process for them.
In our experience, businesses with Website Shame are typically facing one of 4 common scenarios. Have a read, work out which situation is closest to yours and we’ll give you our view on whether you should ‘kill’ or ‘cure’.
- The content and messaging of your website is still relevant enough to engage prospects, visitors often take the next step in your sales process and the navigation works well, but you hate the ‘look and feel’ of the site.
Resolution: Cure! Update the brand identity of your website by asking your web developer to redesign your page template and tell you if it’s possible to ‘reskin’ the site.
- Your website is static, it has remained the same for at least a year. Your original developer has disappeared or folded and you don’t have access to the back end of the site, so you can’t update it. It’s ugly and dated and the content doesn’t reflect your business accurately.
Resolution: Kill! It’s time for a rebuild I’m afraid; unless you can reinstate the original developer, it’s going to be cheaper, faster (and far less painful) to cut your losses and start again.
- Your site feels clunky, it’s hard to navigate and confusing, it rarely converts visitors into leads, but you don’t want to ‘kill’ it because lots of the content still attracts visitors and your blog is very popular.
Resolution: Kill! If the website ‘pathway’ is hard to follow and the navigation is dated, it’s probably time to invest in a new website. This is the ‘bones’ of a site and hard to rebuild without a major time investment by your web developer. It’s probably cheaper to start again. Don’t worry about your blog content, because WordPress blog posts can very easily be imported into a new website automatically.
- Your site looks nice, but it’s like a brochure. You get lots of visitors, but they don’t hang around for long, and you aren’t ever finding out who they are, and if they end up becoming a client.
Resolution: Cure! If you have a good looking site, with well-written copy, perhaps all you need to do to increase the conversion rate, (the rate at which people take the next action towards becoming a client) is to add some content that helps your client to qualify themselves as a lead. This could be detailed videos, downloadable tutorials or guides, specific email content, a price list, etc etc.
Of course, it may be that you just hate everything about it. Or you mostly love it, but there is one change you want to make. Our description of four possible scenarios is based on client situations we’ve dealt with frequently, but it is somewhat simplified so that you can understand our method and apply it.
Perhaps your situation is way more complicated.
We can help you figure out what to do with your under performing website and end your website shame FOREVER!
Visit this page to book a 30 minute no-obligation call. We’ll tell you more about our audit and how we might be able to help you. Or, you can send me an email: pip@marketingarchitect.co.uk to ask your question about killing or curing your website, I always write back!
