You’re not buying a website. You’re buying a desired reality
When you buy a ‘website’ solution, you’re being sold what you think you want, not what you need. What you need is clarity on your best business and personal outcomes for being online. Now and into the future.
What is it that really matters to you? If your potential web developer doesn’t invest significant time in working with you to understand that, dig deep and establish your ultimate business and personal outcomes, you’ll end up with a website.
Not an asset. Not your desired reality. Not spending time with your grandchildren (or your parents) or doing what matters most in your life.
Let’s first examine a script of the most common issues business owners face ‘buying’ a website.
‘I’ve been in business for years and spent a fortune but never really got a website solution I’m happy with.
I’m embarrassed by my current website, but I’ve been burnt before. The thought of trying to find the right developer knowing how much time it’s going to take let alone how much it will cost puts me off doing anything about it.
The developer who built my last site has gone off the radar and doesn’t answer my calls, I have no idea what my login details are or how to change stuff on the site.
I’m a bit technologically challenged, so it’s hard to know what’s true and what’s bulldust, especially when they start using geek language.
I don’t know if what I’m being asked to spend is fair and reasonable. How do I get an apples and apples quote on something so complex as a website and all the other online stuff?
A web developer I spoke to said they will build the site, do SEO, SEM and also sort out my social media. They do it all in India. Seems like a good deal although they haven’t told me much about the return on investment or if there are any ongoing costs.
My web developer has his own platform. He says it’s brilliant and much better than WordPress because it’s doesn’t need plugins.
It’s frustrating because I have so much to share with my market about my value, but I wouldn’t have a clue how to do it on my current website.
I don’t know whether to blog in my business name or in my personal name. I’ve bought quite a few domains, but don’t know which one to use. Should I ask my web developer?
I’ve written some blogs, although they seem random and unrelated. My web developer said to just get some content onto my site because it’s good for SEO.’
The real problem
The real problem is much greater than these relatively superficial issues. It’s about working very hard in your business for decades building your value and then not realising the asset that should be represented by that value.
Handled correctly, the online space is a vital set of tools, way beyond marketing, to help you achieve success.
Success online starts with clarity of your offer. That alone builds your business. Then it becomes the repository of your value, it builds your profile and influence, establishes your credibility, puts you in touch with the people you most need to work with and drives your own and others’ perception of your value. It helps you make a difference in others’ lives.
It’s a minefield isn’t it?
The online space might be portrayed as a minefield. It’s not because it is overly complex or unwieldy in itself.
It’s because it’s populated with experts of fast opinion about the best way to build a bells and whistles website, not about the best way to use the online space to build your business and realise your personal outcomes.
Web developers are rarely business or life coaches. They’re not marketing experts. They build websites. The best advice they could give is for you to seek excellent business and marketing counsel first before going online.
You need the ammunition to make sure you don’t ‘buy a website’, but partner successfully to secure your ability to:
- disseminate your key messages and reach the people who most want what you offer
- enrich, change, even save lives
- secure a sound exit strategy.
Exit strategy? Absolutely. You’re not busting your gut now to just work for the rest of your life. You’re working so you can spend more time with those you love and make a difference in theirs’ and others’ lives. Or whatever floats your boat. Although, that seems like a good enough reason to warrant getting it right online now.
Here are three principles to help you get it right online and guide you away from those who would have you believe your business and personal outcomes will be served with their brilliant website solution.
1. Clarity of intention directs why you position what and for who online
Having a clearly articulated intention for anything you do is a great way to go forward and upward, not sideways and in circles. It’s vital to your success online.
You have to understand with, dare I say it, brutal clarity, what you’re positioning and for who. Brutal, because it’s excoriating work.
It means you can’t indulge in multiple offers or ideas or possibilities. You have to shed all but your best offer for the people you most want to help.
You need to understand how to attract the fewer people online you should work with because you really can make a difference in their lives, rather than the multitude you should not touch with a barge pole because they don’t give a toss.
If your web developer suggests ‘services and products’ as a standard part of the website’s primary navigation options, they just don’t get this. Walk away.
2. Getting it right online is an investment in clarifying, ordering and sharing your business value
Once you’re clear on your best offer for your best client, how do you go about organising your value and the content that supports that, so you can share it coherently online?
If this is not a conversation your web developer has with you, then you will be saddled with a brochure website solution.
It might do a passable job at articulating your offer’s features and benefits.
It won’t support a block by block building of your purpose for the work you aim to deliver that will change people’s lives. That’s why you’re in business isn’t it? If not, then just buy a website.
3. Confused positioning compromises the right choice of online asset
It’s a waste of your time, money, resources and it compromises your exit strategy.
Being online is a strategic and tactical exercise in ensuring your future business desires. It should also deliver your service so that it honours your value and the people you serve.
Which is why it is a tactical error and waste of your resources not to work out exactly what you’re positioning for what outcome.
Did your web developer ask you what your exit strategy was? Did they ask you how you want to serve others, make a difference, build an asset, leverage your value, scale your business? Did they ask you to paint a picture of your ideal client? Did they say they wanted to partner in your success?
Or did they just talk about functions, design, templates, costs, inclusions, exclusions, SEO, SEM, social media?
Invest in finding a collaborator who wants to build you an online platform from which you can make a difference in the lives of the people you serve. Who understands there is a realistic timeframe in which you can work before life will change for you. Then value them and support them to do the work that will make a difference in your life.
Wow, Sandy, I wish I had wrote this! I may have to … er… borrow some of your ideas here and write my own post anyway 🙂
We try to hammer this stuff into people all the time. Your website isn’t just this thing you build and leave there. It needs to be part of your marketing, your message, it needs to grow and change and improve with you. And it’s quite an investment! It takes time to get clarity on a lot of this and time to put it into reality.
I always tell people that building a website is easy. It’s everything that goes into planning it that’s the challenge! What will it say and do and mean and be? How will it work for you and what’s the point, really?
I love your points here and I hope more people start to think of a website as an asset and not a commodity to be built quick and cheap.
Carol Lynn recently posted…It’s Time To Consider Your Business Super Fan Bubble
Carol Lynn, consider it yours! By way of both of us helping the people who will soon spend silly amounts of money for a nothing solution. As you say the web build is not the challenge, but planning it, what it will say and do and mean and be (which I love BTW) is.
With apologies to those ethical web builders who do a grand job building a site for the right amount of money. Maybe a great solution for your clients would be to partner with folk like Carol Lynn and I to get the intention, outcomes and planning done first.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
You two would make a beautiful and awesome team.
Melanie Kissell recently posted…Comprehensive Knowledge and Skill Does Not Mean Youâre An Authority
A big amen and a hefty hallelujah for that, Carol Lynn! 🙂
Melanie Kissell recently posted…When Affiliate Marketers Shove Promo Links In A Blog Post Like Theyâre Stuffing A Turkey
I also wish I had WRITTEN that in a grammatically correct way 🙂 Ah, the power of proofreading!
Carol Lynn recently posted…Blogging, Content Creation And Marketing Mindset
Another great post Sandy. I come across so many clients and prospects who describe exactly the situation you have. They are unable to access their own sites, or the developer refuses to give them access or take calls. Many don’t even have a blog facility on the site and have been built on generic sites such as weebly which for a professional business is not ideal. Working in the field of social media, I constantly have to remind people that the website is the asset, and the platforms are merely tools to support that asset. We don’t own our social media platforms and they can change at any time, but we do own our websites.
SO want people to understand that building an asset of all your remarkable knowledge and value on a generic platform is so not a good business practice. You need to own your asset as you say Fiona. Thanks for stopping buy.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
I’ve had the same conversation with people about writing content and managing social media: knowing the purpose is a much bigger achievement than the nuts and bolts. Great read, Sandy (and I like your other site, too!)
Sharon Hurley Hall recently posted…3 Issues That May Drive Your Writer Away
Thank you Sharon, that’s lovely to hear.
My husband would laud you for this comment, being a writer and editor too. Too true, how can you write for people without fully understanding their desired reality. It is a hard one to explain that getting to understand that must be built into the cost, but essential I believe if we are to provide a great solution in whatever service we provide.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
My favorite bit: “you can’t indulge in multiple offers or ideas or possibilities. You have to shed all but your best offer for the people you most want to help.” — Mostly because this is probably THE hardest thing for business owners (new and old) to truly understand. Focus like a laser if you want to be effective.
Tea Silvestre recently posted…One of the Biggest Storytelling Mistakes You Can Make While Marketing Your Business
It is the hardest thing for entrepreneurish type people to do. They are so full of ideas and possibilities. I wag my finger at them (kindly of course) and then do exactly the same thing myself. Sometimes, I can placate myself with the thought, ‘I’m just like the plumber who needs to fix their leaking tap.’ But mostly, I must take stock and abandon that lovely new idea, unless it builds on and improves the existing offer. Probably why coaches need coaches!
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
“Being online is a strategic and tactical exercise in ensuring your future business desires. It should also deliver your service so that it honours your value and the people you serve. Which is why it is a tactical error and waste of your resources not to work out exactly what you’re positioning for what outcome.”
This, yes, +1. I love that technology has lowered the barriers to entry so much – I steadfastly, stubbornly cling to my belief that’s a good thing. But the downside has been this rush to the marketplace without sufficient planning and clarity of purpose.
Annie Sisk recently posted…When Someone Starts Telling You “The Right Way to Market Your Business Online,” Run Like Hell
I do to Annie, and it is a wonderful thing. Just human nature that so many would have seen a way to make a buck, but not necessarily the responsibility that comes with that. I’m certainly not wanting to accuse all web developers of shonky practice, but I believe many of their clients would be better served if they had an arm to their business that ensured as you suggest, planning and clarity of purpose.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
This hits home today—I was just talking with a client who hasn’t been able to get in touch with his web developer for weeks, and can’t access the back-end of the site to fix a glaring typo on the homepage. It’s causing him headaches and frustration, and it’s making potential customers think less of him (or worse, choose not to do business with him).
It is absolutely key to find a web development partner who can help you get your overall marketing strategy in line with the site, and hand off a finished product that you can access and use right away. If they’re not helping you clarify your “why,” both for your site and your business, they’re not the best fit for you!
Molly McCowan recently posted…How to Hire an Editor, Not an “Editor”
Heard this story so often Molly. It’s terrible to consider how many business owners are in this fearful predicament. It shouldn’t happen, and certainly when thousands of dollars have traded hands. How awful for your client. LOGINS! They are vital. Every person who ever gets a website built should insist on the logins to their domains, their hosting environment and their website as part of the contract. I met one women whose web developer had changed the email for her domain to his, then gone AWOL and the domain expired. Terrible.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
Sandy, you had me at “You have to shed all but your best offer for the people you most want to help.” Right as rain! I bump into folks on the web who are peddling everything from soup to nuts … and it’s nuts! If only they knew how disjointed and chaotic they appear and how their lack of clarity is very apparent.
For me, the trust factor gets flushed down the toilet when someone claims to be a blogging expert, a life coach, a website builder, a public speaker, a business trainer, and just for fun, a beauty consultant. I want to scream out to them, “Get a grip, get your act together, and get some focus!” And just for the record, I would never hire a jack of all trades.
I REALLY love this post, Sandy. Every word leads me home.:)
No, it’s not about purchasing a piece of real estate on the web, an online brochure, or an internet storefront. But we’ve all seen those static sites, haven’t we?
The common factor that rings true through all of them is the absence of personality, pizazz, passion, clarity, a desire to build lasting and vibrant relationships, or just about anything you can think of related to being “human”. NO doubt about it, somebody sold these people a website. 🙁
Melanie Kissell recently posted…When Affiliate Marketers Shove Promo Links In A Blog Post Like Theyâre Stuffing A Turkey
Mel, you make me laugh. That description of the all things to all people approach to a website is hilarious and sadly so true. Purchasing real estate on the web, what a delightful description of what a website should not be. I have a visual of a sleazy type sales person with a virtual banner screaming ‘location, location, location’. Imagine if we had to vie for the best piece of real estate not the Internet, wouldn’t that be a nightmare! Sadly, your last comment reflects too many good people’s predicament. They have just been sold a website.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
Thanks Sandy for reminding me to publically thank my graphic and website designer! She is exceptional at understanding me and my needs, and she is fantastic as a designer too!
Blaze Lazarony recently posted…The Dirty Offer Hook Exposed
That’s great Blaze that what I wrote cuts across different service providers. As an ex graphic designer I could hug you on behalf of your designer. What a wonderful client you must be. Didn’t even want to begin writing this on behalf of designers, they get such a bad rap these days because people believe they can get design (but not great design based on purpose and desired reality) at places like fiverr. Sigh.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
The big fat glaring problem here is this: web design is a LOT more than just coding PHP. It’s a lot more than writing the CSS. It’s a lot more than managing databases. It’s more than proper DNS/domain management. It’s more than finding a good host. It’s a lot more than graphic design. It’s a lot more than branding and logo design. It’s a lot more than color theory and aesthetics. It’s a lot more than business logic. It’s a lot more than user interface design. It’s a lot more than content creation. It’s a lot more than SEO. It’s a lot more than writing marketing copy. It’s a lot more than writing sales copy. It’s a lot more than taking orders and tracking sales. It’s a lot more than interpreting analytics. It’s a lot more than…
I’m wicked good at the web development stuff – but that’s because I had to work really hard over a long period of time to understand that it’s more than “just HTML hosted somewhere”.
Web design isn’t a hugely dangerous industry – not in the same way as bioengineering, for instance. But with a little knowledge comes a whole lot of power. Which is why I cringe every Super Bowl when I see the ads for Wix and GoDaddy.
Well-meaning business owners jump on there and assume they can build the site of their dreams… and they end up getting something with business logic created by a kindergartner and the user interface designed by an artist whose work to date has consisted entirely of fingerpainting with elephant dung.
Web design is probably the easiest way for most small business owners to totally lose control of most of their business (and their finances).
Good web work costs money, but costly web design isn’t always good and it’s not always apparent on the surface. You HAVE to have someone who knows the sum of the Everest-level peak you set off towards when asking a company to help you build a website.
It doesn’t have to be scary or unmanageable. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It just has to be planned for, considered, and then managed effectively. A good web developer will know that.
Nick Armstrong recently posted…Marketing Nonsense: Meaningless Words and Red Herring Concerns
“You HAVE to have someone who knows the sum of the Everest-level peak you set off towards when asking a company to help you build a website.” Agreed, entirely.
To get a perspective, everyone who thinks they are just buying a website, should read your summary of what web design is so much more than.
As usual, you have made me hoot. I will laugh now whenever I see one of those websites you have described and think of it as a fingerprinting with elephant dung. Thanks Nick.
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.
“You have to shed all but your best offer for the people you most want to help.”
Where were you 4 years ago? I could have really used that advice when I started my business. Even now I continue to shed. At times it’s HARD. I have so many fun ideas.
This post is a must read for anyone who has a website.
Nicole Fende recently posted…Serious or Sucker? When to Spend the Big Bucks
Thank you Nicole. I would’ve LOVED to help you four years ago. It’s an evolving journey isn’t it. Keep shedding and keep having fun!
SandyMc recently posted…Why you shouldn’t buy a website.