Websites are often one of the first marketing budget items to take a back seat, because website projects feel like a ‘nice to have’ rather than a ‘need to have’. Why focus on something that’s already “working” for your brand when you’ve got more time sensitive deadlines and expenses to worry about?
In this post we hope to shift this thinking and give you pause to consider how your website might not be working as much in your favor as you thought, and why as budgets begin to shift back to pre-COVID numbers, you should make your website a top priority.
Why You Should Care More About Your Website
A 2020 Forbes article says this, “one of the main reasons you should have a website for your business is to increase your organization’s credibility.” The author goes on to explain that websites provide a measure of legitimacy to your business and can serve as a competitive edge when your customers are trying to make a decision between you and the competition.
On the flip side, a poorly functioning and out-of-date website has that same power to reduce your organization’s credibility and competitiveness. It’s a sobering reality to know that the marketing tool we often allow to take a back seat holds the power to make or break a customer’s decision to make a purchase before we even knew they were considering us.
Your Website is Always Advocating for Your Brand
A 2019 Edelman study found that 81 percent of consumers said that they need to be able to trust the brand in order to buy from them. If we can agree that having credibility is a key component to establishing trust-worthiness, then we must recognize that websites are an undervalued aspect of gaining trust and subsequent customer conversions. While you might be working hard to have a well-rounded marketing toolbox, no other single marketing tool can deliver the comprehensive brand representation that a website can. From brand story to brand personality, everything that won’t fit in an ad, social post, or trade show booth will fit on a well organized website.
Your Website is Your Best or Worst First Impression
Speaking of brand representation, first impressions matter. A three-pronged study found that you have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression with your website. That’s 0.05 seconds! If you have been operating under a ‘launch it and forget it’ mentality, you are likely not aware of how those first impressions are going for you. Best case scenario, we recommend looking at your website analytics on a monthly basis to catch positive and negative trends in page performance and visitor acquisition and understand how your website is serving you. If website analysis are not your thing, DMA Solutions offers Website Auditing as a stand-alone project. We’ll do all the heavy lifting and number crunching so you can become better informed about how to maximize the one marketing tool that is representing and advocating for your brand 24 hours a day.
In a fiscally conservative budget environment, websites can unfortunately be viewed as an over-priced and unnecessary investment. But hopefully we’ve shown in today’s post that your website’s value is tantamount to that investment. In that same regard, when there has been a lack of investment to refresh and maintain your website, you can be sure you are experiencing negative returns.
If it’s time to recommit to your website presence, take a look at our portfolio of website work for some inspiration, and give us a call. We’d love to help you build a website that represents your brand well!
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