By Joel Black on 01/28/2013
For many companies (and people) the new year brings promise and another opportunity for growth and improvement. There is a common sense of hope and optimism with an attitude that looks to the future and what can be achieved. Goals are set, commitments are made and the road to success is now paved with good intentions. Now, apply this to your website. When was the last time you looked at it? Are you afraid to send a client to it? Of course as we all know old habits die hard and in many cases by February the promise of the new year has dwindled. When will the little hard-hat stick figure guy go away? – Under Construction 2009…Coming Soon!! 2010.
Some resolutions are successful but, like our own personal goals, many are broken or forgotten. If the newest content on your website dates back to the Bush Administration, its time to bite the bullet and focus on your online presence again. Remember how important it was to buy that domain and just throw something temporary online? Now its time to improve on that and establish a strong presence in the market. The days of the yellow pages are over and a company’s website is now a huge part of its brand. If a client visits the site, what would they say? Could they even find it? Commit to it.
Don’t be embarrassed to send someone to the site and definitely don’t cut corners. Educate yourself and your company on the value of a great site. For many companies the website IS the sales staff. Compare that to the overhead of a full blown sales department with benefits over 5 yrs. The cost of a great website is negligible, plus a website will never ask for a raise or time off.
Of course with every commitment there must be a specific goal, something you hope to achieve and improve on. Within that goal there must be milestones and checkpoints. A process must be developed with a clear vision of the outcome. What do you want it to do? Educate, make sales, encourage feedback?
Do not become discouraged if you don’t succeed. Change is painful. It requires more work than we are comfortable with and most certainly a few extra hours in the office. Create tasks that are necessary to reach the goal. Write them down and check them off. Treat yourself when you’ve succeeded. Take a moment this month to decide again what is important for 2013. Most likely the website has been brought up somewhere in those meetings. Review the topics from January again. Are you on track or have you derailed?