At least once a week we will hear someone say a version of the following: “I would love to have a better website, and I know it would help my business grow. Unfortunately, I just don’t have the time or money.”

That brings us to the final myth in this series. Essentially, it’s the one that says good web design has to be expensive, and that working with a creative team will be a long and exhausting process. We can understand why some business professionals and marketing executives think that way, but the reality is you don’t have to spend a fortune or burn every day for months to get a new web presence.

To help you understand why – and hopefully, to nudge you toward the next step you know you should take – let’s get into the facts.

Getting Started with Web Design Is Easy

Somewhere along the line business professionals developed a misconception that stepping into the offices of a creative team will oblige them to write a huge deposit check and create a 10-year business plan. That’s NOT how the best firms in our industry work.

For example, we don’t want the people who meet with us to make quick choices or commitments. It’s more important for us to have clients who are a good match for our talents and philosophies. And, we want them to buy in to the process to come. So, we encourage them to ask lots of questions and evaluate other options before doing anything.

Even then, once we do start working together, we will spend time on the discovery phase. That means finding out where they are in their business, what they’ll need from their new website, and the types of growth or improvement that matters most to them in the future.

At no point in this process is the client required to answer questions that would require advanced degrees in marketing or finance. If anything, most of our new clients find that they are sharing thoughts that were already on their minds.

We suspect this would be the case if you were to work with any reputable creative services firm. While it might be normal to fear the unknown, you truly don’t have to worry that you will be put in a position where you’re going to lose control of your budget and schedule.

You Don’t Have to Build Your Website All at Once

We explained the process of building and launching a website in stages in an earlier article, so we won’t go into great detail here. However, it’s important to remember that the website you have built today doesn’t have to be the one you’re going to use years from now. You can always build and grow over time.

By thinking in terms of versions, rather than one huge project, you can spread out the cost and effort associated with the design and development of your new web presence. Plus, you’ll get the added benefit of being able to see how buyers react to certain layouts, messages, etc., over time.

In some cases, it might make sense for you to make a huge investment and update lots of things all at once. That’s particularly true if you’ve put off your web design project for a while and have fallen behind your competitors in terms of available features. It’s far more likely, though, that you would benefit from getting an updated web presence that you can grow and expand along with your company.

We have noticed that explaining this possibility to business owners has helped them relax and move forward with projects they knew should have been undertaken long before. If getting a new website seems like an overwhelming process to you, then just focus on getting started with what you need to take the next step. You can always keep adding later.

A Great Business Website Will Pay for Itself

Not only can you start your web design project with a smaller-scale immediate goal, but you can do so knowing that you should expect to earn a positive return on your investment sooner rather than later. That’s because a great business website will pay for itself.

Although we’ve covered many of the reasons why in earlier articles, let’s spell a few of them out again now:

• A good website makes you more credible to potential customers and clients.
• Your website might generate ecommerce revenue.
• You could use search engines and other online marketing channels to generate leads.
• Your new website could automate customer service tasks and save you money.
• It’s possible you’ll recruit better employees with your new website.
• You could use content to become an authority in your business or industry.
• Better data security could keep you safe from hackers and thieves.

Any one of these benefits would make your new website an incredibly valuable business tool. Put several of them together and it’s likely that you’ll see a stronger bottom line as a result.

We often tell my new clients that a great website can be the most valuable part of a business. That probably sounds self-serving, but it also happens to be true. You and your employees could never interact with as many customers as your website does. It can be your chief salesperson, public relations officer, marketing contact, and customer service agent all in one. Often, buyers will meet you online, through your site, long before they ever connect with you via phone or meet face-to-face.

Get those details right and it’s hard for your business not to take the step forward.

What Are You Waiting For?

If you’ve reached the end of these articles, then two things should happen. The first is that you should be immune to the ridiculous web design myths that are still floating around out there in the business community. And second, you should know that the time to act on what you’ve learned is now.

With that in mind, we want to extend a personal invitation to you. Contact our company today and mention that you read each of these dozen articles. Do so and we’ll extend a free consultation to you. That’s free of charge and with no obligation.

If it turns out our company can help you with the challenges you’re facing, then we’ll send a proposal and see if we can work together. If not, then I’ll have learned a little bit about your business and will have more material for the next series of online marketing articles. Either way it should be a win-win situation for both of us.

If that sounds good to you, then we hope we will hear from you soon!