When Bad Websites Attack Good Businesses

Sometimes No Website is Better Than a Bad Website.

A major part of my companies income comes from web design and maintenance. So you would expect me to tell you, “Of course you need a website.” Well I’m not. Instead I’m going to say that if you don’t get the right website for your business, you may be better off without one.

Surprised? Let me explain. I talk to business owners every day that say things like…

“I paid a lot of money for my web site… but it doesn’t do anything. I “google” it and I can barely find it. Nobody visits the site or buys anything from it and my customers don’t even seem to know the site exists.”

I hate hearing this because in a small business it hurts when you invest good money and get nothing in return. What’s even worse than getting a useless website is the classic “cheap” website that is so bad you actually think less of the company after you visit it. I call this “a negative web presence,” it is online marketing done so badly that it actually repels customers.

How does this happen? Why does it happen?

The answer is quite simple. Most small business people are highly capable specialists. They are brilliant at what they do, and they are busy doing it. So logically they do not have time to play web designer. So they hire someone that builds websites, because they know nothing about web design. The small business owner just trusts that the web designer will build a website that will help his business. This is where the problem begins.

You see unfortunately most web designers are either artists or computer nerds. They typically know nothing about the harsh world of business. Most have no sales experience, no marketing experience, no advertising experience, and absolutely zero experience handling the “meat and potatoes” operation of a company. So they do what they think they were hired to do. They build a website that they think is cool, and they hand it to you. It doesn’t matter to them if anyone comes to see it, and they don’t have a clue how it fits into your overall marketing strategy. In fact they don’t care if it makes a single dollar. Because you asked for a website… and that is what you got.

The trouble is most business owners don’t want a website. They want a way to get more business. To a business owner a website is just a means to an end. To a computer nerd a web site is it’s own end. It’s cool – It doesn’t have to do anything.

So this is how it usually ends… The business person feels slightly frustrated and can’t figure out what he or she got for the money they spent, and the website designer leaves grumbling about  what an unreasonable jerk the business owner is. Neither really understands what happened, and no one is happy. No one gets it.

That’s why Red.i.Design is unique. We get it.

We entered web design from a business background. So we don’t build web sites… We build web business. It has been our philosophy from day one that creating the website is the least important part of our job. The real trick is to integrate the power of the internet into a businesses daily operation. We want a website to generate sales leads, place orders, take deposits, improve your customer service, educate your customers, and help train your salespeople… and then we want it to do more. In fact we believe your website can do as much as you are willing to let it do. Contact us. We will show you.

No Recession Online: Web Spending To Grow 19% During 2008

Small Business Warning! Internet marketing critical.

Consider this….. “U.S. online retail sales are expected to reach $148 billion in 2008, up 19 percent from sales in 2007 and comprising about 6.4 percent of total retail sales. That figure will grow to $166 billion in 2009 and $215 billion by 2012, for a compounded annual growth rate of about 11 percent, according to JupiterResearch analyst Patti Freeman Evans.”

Is your business growing by 19 percent? Probably not. More than likely, you are like most small businesses and are struggling to avoid shrinking. So what is going on?

Not a surprise. For those of us who have been working in internet related fields this comes as no surprise. I have been telling friends, family and clients that every small retail business should be preparing to do at least 10 to 20% of their business online by 2010. Furthermore all (including non-retail) businesses should be trying to adjust to the reality that a majority of potential customers will expect to research you and your company online before making any purchase decision. This fact applies just as much to service related companies as it does to retail businesses.

Bottom line: Your website will soon become the primary method for marketing your product and service both online and offline. One restaraunt owner put it this way, “It’s unavoidable… the restaraunt that has great pictures of their signature dishes, good photo’s of their dining areas, an online menu, and a page to learn about the owner and/or chef is just going to get more chances to find new customers. We recently rebuilt our site and shifted all of our print and other marketing to drive customers to it. Our site traffic is way up, our sales are up and I am very happy with the results.”

There is a catch. The current web savvy customer is no longer happy with a poorly designed “do it yourself” website. The web has gone mainstream, and customers expect websites to be designed and laid out in the same attention getting manner as a good magazine advertisement. It used to be impressive if you just had a website, but now customers know what “professional” is supposed to look like. If your site looks sloppy, they actually wonder if your worth doing business with. They also expect to find everything they need on your site. Specs, manuals, menus, contact forms, product videos, appointment scheduling, and payment processing, all at their fingertips.

The owner of a small home remodeling business summed it up this way “You either make it easy for them to do business with you, or you risk them doing business with someone else. I’ve been in business since the seventies. I had to get with the program… things are just different now. The customer has a lot more access to information and can check your competitors website and hear his sales pitch 24 hours a day 7 days a week. You have to have a plan to address that competitive reality.”

author: T.Schaffer