It’s a new year. 2017. And new initiatives and targets for your company have either already been set or will be shortly.

So, does your current digital marketing offering reflect your new focus and vision or is it hindering your success? Does it back up your sales message? Is it out-of-date? Is it stale and uninviting? Is it boring and uninspired? And that’s just your website. What about social media?

One thing at a time.

Designing and populating a new website, we’re told, is a very expensive business. It takes a massive amount of time. It’s hard work. And then there’s the question of whether it’s static and you pay to get it updated or you invest in a solid back office. And don’t forget SEO and analytics.

I, like all business owners, evaluated my business at the end of 2016 and that’s why, over the Christmas/New Year break, I re-did our website. Not just updated it, completely re-did it. New look, focus and objective. It took four days. New content, style and it can all be updated easily.

Your website is your shop window. It gives the viewer an overview of what you do and offer. And like all shop windows, the display needs to be updated on a regular basis to encourage the customer (or in this case, Google, etc. spider) to visit.

Why should you change/update your website?

I’ll start with one word – mobile internet browsing is massive and it’s only going to get bigger. It overtook desktop usage in 2013 and the amount of time spent browsing on mobile devices is nearly double that of desktop.

So, if your website isn’t optimised to work on a mobile device, you’re missing out. Big time. You need to offer a seamless experience between all platforms. Even Google is taking mobile seriously by changing from “Desktop First Index” to “Mobile First Index”. And what this means for your website, your shop window, is that Google will generate your website ranking via your mobile site, rather than your desktop site.

But let’s remind ourselves of the basics, content is still king. It’s everything. It either grabs the viewer or not. Does it tell part of all of the story? Does it give the view a good reason to contact you? Can they easily contact you? Is it obvious what you do and how you can help them? But how you present it is just as important. Social media, video, blogs, etc., are all elements to be included and now an integral part of communication.

And then how often you update and refresh is critical to the experience. So presentation and navigation of the content needs to be done hand-in-hand and not exclusively or one given more emphasis than the other.

A website redesign or update also gives you the perfect opportunity to refresh your message and look at your target markets – existing and/or potential.

All this is wasted though if you can’t update it yourself. You need to have a good back office. Everything should be able to be changed and updated – including some elements of the design. It’s the single most vital element of any website. If it can’t be updated, it will be out-of-date/useless very, very quickly.

Changing/Updating your website

The first place a customer or partner or supplier will go is your website. It needs to reflect you and your offering. It needs to be what you are – now, today.

Whatever your strategy might be for 2017, make sure your website and associated digital marketing is on the list.

And now?

Manor Marketing is proud to have a dedicated digital communications specialist as part of the team. We understand what a good website and digital strategy means. We know the good, the bad and the ugly!

Talk to us about what having a good website really means.