As the business owner, you are
the only person that can make critical decisions that impact your
business.
I am sure you don't just willy
nilly let anyone decide how to run your business.
But when you turn over your
website to a webmaster, give no feedback and ask no questions,
well you just gave that webmaster control of your business.
First lets talk about the
modern webmaster.
Websites have become
increasingly more complex, however managing them has become
easier and easier because of great tools being developed by
companies like ours.
So while webmasters in the
past needed to know HTML and scripting languages, now they only
need to know how to drag and drop pictures into a page and the
software does the rest.
So the skill set of the modern
webmaster has changed. Most are graphics designers or have
artistic experience giving them an eye for design.
But what webmasters are not,
is business owners. And even if they do run a webmaster business,
it is nothing like your business.
So when they design a website,
they have one goal in mind, to WOW the visitors. To make you say,
that LOOKS Amazing!
But you know, just because
something looks great doesn't mean it works well, or that it even
works at all.
Designers are artists.
And while I love art just as
much as the next guy, artists have one obligation, to create art.
They don't have to worry about
fiscal projections, market trends, customer support, inventory
management or other things you deal with daily.
So when they build a website,
their primary goal is to make it look great.
If that means using a huge
image in the background with floating text that blends into the
picture as you scroll down the page, so be it.
They want your Art, I mean
website, to be different, special and unique.
Unfortunately they tend to
ignore the not so fun stuff, like how long will it take your
customer to download the page on their iphone or other wifi
connection?
Will the page be visible to
the 10% of the people with Macintosh computers.
Is the page easy to read when
someone is outside in sunlight using a tablet or ipad.
Does the website have the
information that your customers need? And even if they think it
does, what do they know about your business?
Does your website convey your
message, does it interest your customer base or are they just
engaged in the amazing design and missing what it is that you
offer?
Now, companies like Coca Cola
spend millions of dollars on focus groups, market research and
business analysts combing through customer data to build
demographic profiles.
That is all before planning
the look of their website, or a TV commercial, or an add campaign,
or anything else that is seen by anyone.
Why?
Because the wrong impression
can cost them their business. One wrong move can destroy
everything they spent years building.
And there is no place more
impactful on a business today, than the company's website.
Now, you and I as small
business owners, we know our market.
Because we talk to our
customers every day, we work with them, we get all the
compliments and complaints.
So we usually know what to do
without all that market research.
But does your webmaster?
Does the webmaster know what
you know about your business?
Of course not.
So as the business owner, you
need to be involved in your website. Ask the right questions, do
research and understand what the wrong design can do to your
business.
That whole attitude about, I
am website illiterate and I don't know anything about this stuff.
Well burying your head in the
sand just doesn't work in the modern age.
Because your customers will
just go someplace else, they know your competitor is only one
click away.
Making one mistake on your
website can destroy everything you built.
So don't hand over the future
of your business to a webmaster and assume that they know more
than you do about your own business.
If you use a webmaster to
design your website, make sure you stay involved in the process,
make sure you get your vision on the pages and not necessarily
theirs.
