They say you should never go into business in a sector where you have to educate your clients about your product, because education is expensive. Well, we’re in the web industry where everything moves so quickly that we’re constantly educating ourselves never mind other people, so looks like we are going to have to live with that one!
One thing it is sometimes hard to get across to clients is that a website is an investment, not a cost. (A website that earns its keep, is, anyway.) That’s why to us, it is so important to:
- Find out what a client wants the website to do (is it generate leads? Sell goods? Find business partners? Keep people hanging round long enough for them to click on the ads?)
- Put a financial metric on that (how much of the desired action is OK, good, excellent….)
- Plan a website that will hit this goal
Otherwise, clients quite rightfully see a website as something that just costs money. And so many websites out there – flashy, attractive, feature-laden as they may be – cost a hell of a lot of money but have no obvious goal or purpose other than “we had to have a website”.
Educating clients as to the possibilities for ROI from a website and then building them sites that align their business and online goals is surely increasingly what web agencies who really understand business and care for their clients should be striving to do.
So to append an old witticism: Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach. Those who can do both, run business-focused web agencies!
