Think of your website as an employee and you’ll get a better profit for your business.
Think of your website as an employee and you’ll get a better profit for your business. You’ll ensure it makes you money by bringing in sales and/or enquiries. You’ll ensure it saves you money by completing tasks, which would otherwise need humans to do. You’ll ensure your website is saying the right messages, in the right way, to potential customers and existing customers. You’ll ensure your website changes and improves – as your business changes and improves. And you’ll change and improve your interactions with your website on a regular basis too. It’s a win win!
As a business owner, when you get a new employee, do you sit them behind a desk in the office … and then ignore them for three years? No, you don’t! You interact with them - making sure they know what to do, and what not to do. You make sure they have the tools and resources to do their job. And you regularly check they’re doing that job properly – training them and tweaking expectations – to ensure everything works out positively, for them and for your business.
So, why do so many business owners spend a whole load of money on a website … and then ignore it for several years?
Can they be sure their website is doing what it should be doing?
Do they know it’s got the tools and resources needed to do its job – and those tools and resources are working properly, every day?
How do they know the website is working well and the business is benefitting … or even IF it is benefitting?
If you think of your website as an employee, you will check up on what it’s doing. Regularly.
Are your messages up to date?
The messages which were written on the website when it was built, probably won’t be the right messages three or four years later. The business will have moved on, progressing in whatever direction. The world will have moved on – both physically and digitally. Your competitors will have moved on – becoming bigger and more of a threat to your business (or going bust, hopefully). And your customers and potential customers will have moved on too – changing their likes and dislikes, their wishes and wants.
So, the messages on your website – the content on its pages and posts – need to be updated regularly. Keeping the content moving in line with your business, ensures your website says the right things – in the same way that you have changed what you say about your business from month to month and year to year. You react to changing circumstances and your website needs to react and say your new words too.
Are the tools and resources up to date?
Human employees need tools and resources to do their jobs. You provide computers, phones, desks, tools, safety equipment, transport, refreshments, light and heat, education, and a myriad of other things specific to your business sector. The list of ‘stuff’ is almost endless … and it’s in constant need of repair, renewal and upgrading.
Websites are much the same. They may not need tea or coffee, but they do need the electronic equivalent of all the other stuff. Software programmes need regular updates. Safety needs constant checking – protecting your website from hackers and other bad guys out there in cyberland – alongside protection of your business data and the personal data of your customers and human employees.
And physical equipment needs repair, renewal and upgrading too – as the world of websites and computers changes almost faster than we can keep up with it.
Is your website bringing in enquiries and sales?
Not every website brings in money in the form of online sales. However, every website should be bringing enquiries from potential customers – alongside helping your existing customers to pay for your goods or services.
Google Analytics and similar services, allow you to understand exactly what your website is doing in this regard and exactly what your website visitors are looking at and how they are behaving. Regularly reviewing this data helps you to know what’s working in your processes - and what’s not working. Reacting proactively enables you to fix what’s not working and boost what is. That makes a tangible difference to your business bank balance – in an equivalent way to your best human salesman.
Is your website completing tasks correctly?
There are many tasks your website can be doing, which save a human having to do them. Booking appointments, collecting information, sending invoices and/or payment links, taking messages, answering frequently asked questions … a myriad of boring repetitive tasks which humans dislike or don’t have enough time for.
What’s more, unlike humans, your website completes these tasks efficiently, and accurately, twenty-four hours a day, every day. Websites don’t need to sleep at night – they don’t need holidays – they are far more reliable than human beings.
Think about your business ...
What tasks are your employees doing, which could be done electronically by your website or “an App”?
Are all of your current services and products displayed correctly?
One of the common problems caused by ignoring your website, is information becoming out of date. And it is amazing how quickly that happens.
Your business is moving forward, reacting to the changing world around you. Your business adds news, services and/or products on a regular basis – often without really noticing, as those changes are often small little tweaks. Your human employees adapt to those tweaks quickly and easily - because they’re told about them and shown what those tweaks mean.
But if you ignore your website and don’t tell it about new services, price changes, discontinued products and the like – your customers and potential customers may well be paying the old price … or trying to buy a product you no longer stock … or not buying a new service because they have no way of knowing about it from your website.
Updating your website as part of the same process which updates your human staff – ensures you get paid the right price, for the right goods and services, all the time. Efficiently updating your website alongside updating your staff, puts more money in your bank account … which is why you’re in business, ultimately.
Are you complying with the law?
Laws exist to ensure we fit into society nicely. Health and safety laws, employment laws, data protection laws, and oodles of other laws are there to ensure business owners run their businesses in the right way – for the good of all. Those laws protect humans.
That protection extends to your website too. As a business owner, you need to ensure you comply with all the laws which apply to the electronic world. Data protection ... privacy … cookies … and several other boring bits of ‘stuff’ need to be in place, up to date, and accessible to your website’s visitors. Just look at the footer of this page to see a few examples.
And remember – ignorance of the law, is no excuse. Keep up to date with compliance, to ensure you don’t get a visit from the cyber police.
Do you complete regular employment reviews?
Human employees have regular employment reviews – it’s the law. Checking you’ve been doing the right things – and they’ve been doing the right things – checking you’re both happy with things – and agreeing a plan for the future … are just some of the useful outcomes from an employment review.
But when did you last complete an employment review for your ‘electronic employee’ … your website?
If you haven’t completed a website review recently, it would be a good idea to do one now.
Fortunately, HoneyBee provides a Business Website Audit … an employment review for your website. Just click here > https://honeybee-business.com/honeybee-websites/website-audit/ > and fill out the form. You’ll be able to see the technical results on screen in a few moments – and we’ll send you an email with some additional thoughts and information shortly afterwards.
No charge. No obligation.
Just useful information you can utilise immediately … or ignore.
In summary
Think of your website as an employee and you’ll start to interact with it more regularly.
Start to interact with it more regularly and you’ll become more proactive in ensuring your website moves forward as your business moves forward.
Regular interaction with your website will ensure it brings new enquiries from potential customers … income from online payments … cost savings from online completion of tasks … and the reassurance of knowing the right messages are being broadcast far and wide.
And if you’d like help with your website employee – HoneyBee is here to help. Click here if you’d like to discuss possibilities.