How To Approach Building A Website
Just about every time I see and hear someone ask the question, "How do I build a website?" the answers all center around the technical requirements of building a site. So as a result most people think that having a website goes something like, sign up for Wordpress, choose a template and drop in some words. Hey presto, my first million!
In this article I would like to show you that in reality this is perhaps the worst way to build a website. The problem is that the execution has become more valued than the reason.
Why have a website?
This is in fact the most important part of every website. If you don't have clear answers to this question then your project is doomed to either failure or, at best, mediocrity. Let me digress:
When I sold cars we offered a 1.8 liter Satria GTi performance car that was a bit expensive. But it was genuinely fast and very capable for the price. I would commonly have young boys come in and want this car for a fraction of it's selling price. I would offer the look-alike car which ran a 1.5 liter standard engine and cost $10,000 less. But often they would say no and look at the smaller car with disdain. When asked why they needed the performance car, the answer was most often so they could go fast and be a race driver. I asked if they had any experience with performance driving and they would all say no.
I would helpfully suggest that successful racing car drivers all started in go-carts which have 'rubber band' engines so that they really learn the strategy of milking an engine and gearbox as well as cornering. The guys who learned to be fast in go-carts could make the most of larger engine cars. Did I make the sale of the 1.5 liter car? Sometimes. I would meet guys like the ones who wouldn't "stoop" to a 1.5 liter car at the lights driving V6 cars and then proceed to toast them in my 1.5 Satria XLs. Not because my car was faster but because I read the lights and was reasonably fast. The car was the tool.
I hope this digression can help you see that the 'race' is not won by the car but by the skill and strategy of the driver. This is exactly what Sun Tzu talks about in his "Art Of War". Matter of fact getting a powerful car too early will often destroy a driver as they rely on the car and not themselves which makes them slow.
The website itself is a solution. And no solution can be worth anything until the problem is very well defined and deeply understood. Websites don't sell anything. Sales processes sell and customers with a need buy. Top marketing companies don't quote or build a thing until a strong brief has been developed. Not having a brief developed is like playing lotto - odds are you will lose.
Field of dreams
There is a still a lot of tendency to leap in with an if you build it, they will come attitude. It doesn't work. Even in the film the people who come to the field have a need. It is the solution to their need that brings them not the simple existence of the baseball field in the corn farm. This is a subtle but massive distinction.
The key to winning on the web is to know why the website is necessary. What job must it perform? The answer lies in defining the need of certain people. It seems much easier on the surface to answer the technical questions (sign up for Wordpress etc.) than to lay out "how to decide on why you should have a website and what it should do", but let me show you how to define the problem so your website is an effective solution:
Why do you want this website? - this is the fundamental question and the answer is made up of the answers you find below.
- What is the pain? - if there is no 'pain' then no one will need what you sell. A solution only has value when there is a problem that people seek a solution for.
- Will people pay? - Be aware that some problems are not something that people really want a solution for; e.g. world peace - be nice and share - easy! Oh wait, they are still shooting each other aren't they. A great solution but no one is buying it so there is no market.
- How is my solution different? - To gain buyers your solution has to be special and different in some way or people will simply stay with the solutions they already have. Sometimes that difference can be as small as a color but generally you need to offer something more powerful. You should rarely use price as a point of difference. Service (if you really offer it) can be a great point of difference. Knowledge and expertise are good points of difference. Features can be a decent point of difference but style is a real winner (if you have it that is). Exclusivity is the bomb.
- What am I selling? - this one is a trap. When I ask it people look at me and say "Hats (dummy)". But hats are a dime a dozen, you can get 'em at Target, Myer and the chemist shop so why would anyone buy yours? Once you have your "difference" from the point above you need to be selling that. If you sell 'stylish fascinators for the Melbourne Cup starting from $75,000' (someone does) then what you really sell is - exclusivity, style and bit of lace with a feather & bobby pin.
- What is the next step in your sales process? - another trap. Too often people think websites exist solely to support a Buy Now button. Some products sell well online but many don't. You may offer online sales (e-commerce) but in reality most websites need to sell the idea of sending an email, picking up the phone or hopping in the car. The existence of a buy now button can actually become an impediment to getting an in-person response. If someone does not feel comfortable to purchase online then making the online purchase too dominant will cause them to say no to the transaction altogether (yes even in person). Get to know your customers and whether they will really buy online or use the web to research and then buy in person. You can always put your products on e-bay where you are sure users are happy to buy.
- What is your budget? - this is a 3 part question really:
- What is your level of passion? - is is easy to get excited at the start but will your passion last when the baby screams in the night and the website needs updating? Will you be seeing this website as a key part of your sales process or an annoying add-on? Passion is what breathes life into anything or kills it stone dead.
- How much time do you have? - this is closely related to passion but needs to be separated out as if you want the website to have no impact on your time then you either need to rethink or allow more cash for someone to run the project. Either way the website will need your time to set it up well. No one can build a cash printing machine if they don't have a good set of plans - a staff member is only as good as their boss. The other side of this is that good things take time. Your website will not launch and make a million in its first month. Stories to the contrary often have big asterisks. Create realistic time budgets from the start.
- How much money will you spend? - websites cost money. They cost for time and they cost for expertise. If you are on a tight budget then make the sacrifices in the areas of time but never in the areas of expertise as an ugly website with passion will sell but a pretty website with no soul will die. You can of course save money by taking some of the tasks on yourself but be aware that takes time and expertise you must have the passion to give, not just this week but in the foreseeable future. You may also need to learn the expertise for yourself as we are not all born knowing how to build effective web sales processes.
Once you have these questions really well answered - and this is harder than it initially seems - then you are ready to start on the next steps of choosing your technology platform and building your website.
If you want me to work with your business then please visit BRM Web Consulting
