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Too often in Marketing, pie charts and circles are used to describe how a budget breaks out or how to increase profits. But the reality is that the only way you can build up, is by using blocks (squares).
The Marketing Square is your tool for building your business and reaching your goals. In any Square there is always a base, two sides and a top. In Marketing, there is a foundation (supply), two sides (consumers & demand) and a top (profit). Building your business upward depends on what blocks and squares you use to get to the top. Taking your business online, (digital business) is part of that build. But with any building, there had better be a tremendously strong foundation (website build) to survive. This is where you hire the right architect who will assure the building will stand strong, endure storms, the elements and long-term wear and tear. The right materials will keep the building standing for decades. |
This is an open letter to all those industrious, hard-working entrepreneurs and big businesses who love their homemade websites.
Besides cookies, name one great homemade item you’d put in front of a client.
1. Really?
So, you went to YouTube and watched a how-to video. Now, you have all the information you need to build that revenue-driving, No. 1 point of contact with the world.
Good for you!
2. Do you make your own clothes?
You do realize that clients look at your website and instantly decide whether to do business with you based on:
- Appearance
- Content
- Usability
- Reliability
- Professionalism
It’s like wearing a homemade suit with a big stain on the lapel into your first client meeting. You’re telling the world how much you care about what you’ll do with their business.
3. Home Repairs
You fix your own sink, change your own oil, clean your home, mow your lawn. That’s industrious. But no one checks your work there, do they?
One broken link. One non-functioning tab. One empty page and you’ve lost a client who will never trust you again.
4. Self-maintenance
If your car makes a funny sound you take it to the mechanic. When your website breaks down who will fix it? More importantly, do you trust that they have the skill and training to fix it?
Websites are not like any item you’ve owned before. But it will be, correction, should be the most carefully monitored possession you own.
5. Viruses
Coughing, fevers, nausea, dizziness are all signs you have a virus. Do you know when you have a computer virus?
You will when your system crashes and all your information is lost.
6. Emergency service
After dinner, your child falls from a tree and breaks a limb. You rush to an emergency room doctor right down the street, or at worst, an hour away.
Who do you call when you’ve outsourced everything to a company in another country?
7. Freebies
Everyone loves a good freebie: T-shirts, hats, soap. Did you notice that companies give invaluable things away? Do you provide freebies of your top products to people you don’t know?
If you’re relying on a company that offers free websites to run your dream business, think first about why it’s being given to you for free.
To all the website do-it-yourselfers out there: Best Wishes and Good Luck. You’re going to need it.
Sincerely,
The Marketing Square
