“I want a website for my business. But how much should I spend on Website? What is the right website for me?” – These are questions often asked by business.
No website is created equal. Every website will have a different focus, look, design, budget and so forth. Your website should be tailored to your needs and marketing strategy. Learn more about Web Design Strategy.
In my 13 years experience building websites, I have seen startups that crash and burn their digital marketing investment because it does not fit their business needs. And there’s a big business that spends way too little for their website, which did not reflect their brand at all.
This post aims to share a suitable website based on your business stage.
Basically, there are 4 Business Stages, you can jump to the topic by clicking the link below.
Startup Stage
Characteristics of Startup
- Less than 5 staff
- Testing an idea to sell
- Still figuring out who the customer is, what they want, what problem are you solving?
- Bootstrap, using whatever you have at disposal
- Less than 1 year
- Prudent Spending. Think hard before spending.
- Focused on building a team.
- Not more than 100 customers (for B2C), or 3 accounts (for B2B)
- A single staff may perform two or three roles.
Common Problem with Startup Website
1. Going Full Blown eCommerce.
A lot of startups we’ve worked with went for full fledge e-commerce and it failed to reap in ROI due to lack of marketing strategy and know-how. Winning customer on eCommerce is not as easy as building it. You need at least these three elements; authority, relevance, and trust. Since startup is newly born brand, it’s difficult to win these three elements.
2. Super Customized Website
From every aspect of it. Design, technical, how it functions, the flow etc. You’ll burn a hole in your pocket. Instead, try focusing on your business. Super customize website is ideal if you have plenty of time (and money). Unless you are a tech startup and have major funding, this is the way to go.
3. A Website can Solve Your Sales Problem
A website is an automation tool. It does not perform magic. For example, if you’re tired of explaining and closing sales through WhatsApp, a website can reduce your workload tremendously.
What You Should Do for Your Website
During this period, branding isn’t everything. You do with whatever you have as lean as possible. As long as you get it working. That applies to the website as well. Ideally, you do not want to spend too much for your website, instead of focusing your energy on getting in the black, break even.
Your focus should be on Free Channel like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.
Go for a free website like Blogspot, WordPress.com, Wix, and Squarespace. Test the idea, gauge your audience, test your marketing campaign.
But if you’re a professional (lawyers, architects etc) and consider a professional one-page website. We have the perfect web design package for you which starts at RM 1,500.
Growth Stage
Characteristics of Growth
- Start seeing profit
- 5-10 Staffs
- 100-10,000 customers (B2C), 3-20 accounts (B2B)
- Have and execute a Marketing Plan
- Staffs have a dedicated role.
During this stage, your business starts to see revenue rolling in. You know your customer, they know you. You are more optimistic.
At this stage, branding becomes important. You want to differentiate yourself from your competitors. You start polishing your USP and ramping up marketing expenses.
You invest in Digital Marketing like Facebook Ads, Google Adwords, influencers etc. You have an influx of people asking about your product and you worry about the conversion rate (sales per visitor).
It would be ok to entertain 2-3 prospect via WhatsApp per day, beyond that, you’d need an efficient solution. This is when you need a professional website.
By professional, I mean, you hire someone to do it for you. These are pro’s who have been doing this for more than 3 years. Or if you insist to be cheap, you can hire a freelancer. But that comes with risks like an incomplete job, not organized work, slow response. Find a freelancer who is doing this permanently, not as a side gig.
Common Problem with Growth Website
1. Being too Cheap.
Want close to free is not going to end well. You’ll have a hard time convincing prospects.
2. Zero Cost Marketing.
Still relying on Instagram and Facebook. What if a competitor flag your Facebook page for selling counterfeit items. It’ll be down and you lose all your follower.
3. Generic Design.
Nothing wrong with using paid theme and template, but it needs to be customized. It should follow your Corporate Identity.
What You Should Do for Your Website
Your website should focus on
- Sales page (products & services page)
- Copywriting – About us, Sales etc.
- Your own image stock.
- Tracking bounce rate, dwell time
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Capturing Leads
- Newsletter
- Blog Post – Share your technical knowledge
- e-Commerce (B2C)
- Maintenance
Your budget should be within RM 3k to RM 12k for the website.
Your website should be personalized and tailored to what your prospects want to see & hear. Remember a website, is not about you, it’s about how you can help your customer. So throw away your preference for design and maintain a strict Corporate Identity.
If you already have a website, you may want to perform a website audit before redesigning the website.
Maturity Stage
Characteristics of Maturity
- Constant revenue stream
- 5 above Staffs
- More than 10,000 customers (B2C), More than 30 accounts (B2B)
- You have specialist staff
- You have lots of certification & awards.
- More than 10 years of operation
- You have Corporate Communication or Dedicated Marketing team.
Business is excellent and established. Everyone knows your brand. Your customer trusts your brand. You became the target of all your competitors.
Your Brand positioning will be your key to winning more business. Why your customer should continue buying from you. Your story should be coherent throughout your marketing channels. Your website has to be super ‘tight’ and awesome. Because if people want to find you, they Google it. Most of your traffic will be direct (they search for your name).
Your most valuable tool will be your website. It’s the digital storefront of your business to attract new business and talents.
You start scrutinize ways to optimize every click, track every visitor’s behavior, try to understand the pattern. Basically, you want better ROI from your website.
Common Problem with Mature Business Website
1. Lack of Maintenance
Just like cars, website needs maintenance too. We had a large customer who did not maintain their site. It was outdated and eventually hacked. The worst part, they did not have the most recent back up. 2 years of updating content gone in minutes.
Either do it in-house or hire a third party to help maintain your website.
2. No Content Marketing Strategy
According to a survey by HubSpot, in 2017, 80% of marketers wants to focus on Content marketing.
If you’re competitors are providing more value to you customer, do you think you can stand a chance?
Content Marketing is the cheapest way to attract prospects. Do write about your technical knowledge, success stories, White Papers, checklist, infographic.
2. Poor Copywriting
It’s all about me!
“We are the best”, “We have technical ability”, “We have the right process”.
Instead, write how you being the best can help your customer.
Example: Your success means everything to us. With the right and refined process, your product will increase by 200% and reducing 200 hours per week.
It has to be about your customer. All the time.
What You Should Do to Your Website
Your website should focus on
- Case Studies and Portfolio
- Success Stories
- Share events going on. Workshop, Free class, Launching etc.
- Sales page (products & services page)
- Copywriting – About us, Sales etc.
- Your own image stock.
- Tracking bounce rate, dwell time
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Create tools to help your customer
- Newsletter – Send EDM to previous and existing customers
- Loading Speed of Website
- Maintenance
Your budget should be within RM 15k to RM 150k per year, for maintenance and redesign (if required). Use a web agency that focuses on marketing and understands design philosophy. Please don’t be cheap with your website marketing. Your competitors are tailing you closely, and you don’t want to lose your customer to them.
Spend on Website Audit to get a better perspective on your website.
Rebirth Stage
Characteristics of Rebirth Stage
- Inconsistent Monthly Revenue
- Thinning Margin
- Loyal and talented workforce is leaving
- High staff turnover
- Customer have options
- Customer no longer advocate your brand
The signs are there, you start to worry about survival. This is the make or break situation.
Your revenue starts dipping, your ads are not working, and you don’t get the same ROI as before. This is normally due to the new businesses competition that offers better value at a lower price.
Since you have been long in business, you have three things that none of your new competitors have, Customer Relationship, Technical Knowledge and Cashflow.
Common Problem with Rebirth Business Website
1. High Bounce Rate
By high, I mean 80% and above. These pages can be corrected by changing the Call-to-Action, copywriting
2. Design Based on Gut Instinct
This is a dangerous path, often leads to disaster.
A web designer takes years to understand design, a decade to master the art. They know what they’re doing and how to help you.
Trust them but do provide feedback. Just don’t limit the creativity.
3. Poor SEO Efforts
Rebirth business typically holds an aged domain. This is good news to Google but often under utilize the power of aged domain.
SEO can attract new customers through good content, like white papers, product details etc. They may not purchase straight away, but at least they know your existence.
4. Did Not Track Traffic
Tracking your traffic can help you understand what your visitor is looking for. How long are they on the page? Which page is the most popular (after main page). It gives you insight.
And yet, rebirth business do not track this data.
Traffic data is crucial to redesigning your website. If not data, how else would the designer help you?
What You Should Do to Your Website
You must perform a full marketing audit.
Marketing audit can help you
- Understand your competitors
- Understand the current market
- Know other’s price point
- Perform survey to existing and previous customers
- Identify problems with your marketing strategy
The fee is going to cost about RM 50k to millions per year (depending on the size of your business).
Once you have the audit, you’ll know in detail how to fix it. For the website, you should focus on
- Redesign the Website
- Case Studies and Portfolio
- Success Stories
- Technical Sheets
- Share Events. Workshop, Free class, Launching etc.
- Sales page (products & services page)
- Copywriting – About us, Sales etc.
- Your own image stock.
- Tracking bounce rate, dwell time
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
- Create tools to help your customer
- Newsletter – Send EDM to previous and existing customers
- Loading Speed of Website
- Maintenance
Look forward to spending about RM 50k to 200k to revamp your website. Hire a Media Agency to have a consistent message across all channels.
Conclusion
Your Website is probably the first interaction with your prospect. First impression matters, (so do branding in the long run). Build a website that suits your business stage, according to your means. Being cheap today is going to be costly for you in the future.
I highly recommend you check out our One-Page Web Design Strategy.
Over to you and good luck!
