Don’t Buy A Website

I’m being facetious when I say “Don’t buy a website” because we all need a website.  We need an online address to manage our reputations, build our businesses, and connect and grow our target audience.  But before we ‘buy a website’ we need to have an internet marketing strategy.  What is the purpose of our website?  It should be one or more of these things:

1. build brand awareness
2. build brand loyalty
3. educate the visitor
4. engage with the visitor
5. collect an email address
6. process an order
7. drive traffic to your ‘brick and mortar’ store
8. learn about your customer
9. learn about your business
10. become more efficient

Once you have a strategy you can then move forward with a plan.  It might look like this:

1. Buy your business name URL
2. Buy a mobile responsive website
3. Optimize it for search
4. Make sure all the features you need can be included or added later
5. Make sure the site can evolve with technology, that it is open source
6. Make sure someone you hire on staff can easily edit important text
7. Make sure the site can integrate with your business if you are selling something
8. Create a blog page
9. Insert Google tracking code
10. Include a Google map
11. Include a Google Calendar
12. Open business social media accounts
13. Use a social media plugin to push your message from the blog to the social media accounts
14. Invest in video
15. Create a YouTube Channel
16. Upload videos to the site
17. Pay for tech support
18. Post compelling original content multiple times weekly
19. Engage with visitors and get them to sign up and follow you
20. Track results
21. Invest in paid ads
22. Track results
23. Dedicate one person in or out of house to manage your digital assets daily

There are a lot of moving parts that need to be installed and managed effectively which is why I say “don’t buy a website.”  Of course we need a good website.  But don’t buy a website and then once launched walk away and expect business to grow.  Invest in an internet marketing strategy that includes a website with a purpose and an internet marketing campaign that’s updated daily. A website that gives the visitor what they’re looking for and gives you what you need; data, an email address, and ultimately a new customer, fan, or donor.