Blog

The Internet is a strange place when it comes to investment.  No one seems to quite know how much money to pour into a Web project to achieve his or her objectives.  The real world seems to have most things quantified quite clearly.  Sure costs can blow out, but in general, the pricing of commodities and services is within established boundaries, as is the scope of most projects.  A building, no matter how big or small, is just a building.  It rarely needs to become twice as large as soon as it opens, or change its structure mid-construction.  Web projects can and do morph very quickly.

So people, armed with much uncertainty, misinformation or even delusion, begin Web projects thinking they will spend nothing, then see how it goes.  And if it takes off, they will invest more money into the project.  The ground they build their plans on is so shaky that it is almost certainly doomed to fail.  Somehow some reality and measure must be brought in.  It makes it hard when we hear stories about start-ups who spent 3 months in a garage and then sold to Google for a billion dollars.  The reality factor is almost non-existent in these kinds of stories.

Websites really are projects just like any other.  They in fact do have parameters, scope and limitations, measurable and quantifiable factors, costs, benefits, investment and returns.

Rather than invest and wait for a return, many people expect Websites to bring in a return and then use that money to invest into the project.

While that sounds like a sensible idea, it ignores the fact that you have to start with something and that something is going to take time and money.  Somehow we have been led to believe that the first version of a Website should be free.  If you are a programmer and designer, this may well be the case, because you will do it all yourself.  But if you are an ordinary business person with little or no design and coding skills, you are going to have to pay someone to do the work… and you may not even know what work needs to be done, so you probably have to pay someone to help you work that out, too.

If your idea really is worth pursuing, it must be worth investing in.  No business is risk-free, so why not take the risk on your own idea?  If it pays off, you will be very happy indeed and if it doesn’t, you will have paid for some very valuable lessons, to take with you to your next project.

Think of how you use Google.  My guess is that when you search for something, you look at many different Websites and maybe even try a number of different search terms to get what you are looking for.  Google is so fast now, that it is possible to conduct 4 or 5 searches in a minute, including the time it takes to click on a few results, check out the sites, assess them, hit your back button, check out some more sites and try another search.

We are all ‘just looking’ and not necessarily going to buy from almost every Website we visit.  This translates to a lot of traffic for each site leading to very few sales.

It’s like a mall full of people rushing around madly, poking their heads into shops for a few seconds, then backing out and moving on to poke their heads into the next shop.  They may come back to a shop they liked, but only after much investigation of everything that is on offer in this giant virtual mall we call the Internet.

Understanding this is critical to how you deal with your Website.  You must realise that a sale is made not just in one visit, but maybe after someone has checked you out, left, checked others out, returned, checked you out some more, left again, checked out even more others, then maybe returned to do business with you.  So, you must be able to captivate their interest and give them a reason to remember you and return.

You also need to try to make sure that every other site they might look at will seem to them to be a lesser choice – less professional, less friendly, less trustworthy and less value for money.

Otherwise, you risk losing a large chunk of potential business to your competitors.  Every factor must be taken into account – from the very basic ‘getting found in Google’ element to the design and layout, imagery, messaging, signs of credibility and success, positioning of your business to indicate the type of people you service (to filter out or pre-qualify leads) and ease of use, so the visitor will find as little resistance as possible going from finding your site to making contact.

Your Website home page is a shop front without a shopkeeper.  It is critical to lure in those window shoppers and get them to stick around long enough to engage with you.

Cyrius Media Group has been attracting customers to our clients for over a decade, bringing in millions of dollars worth of new business.  Find out how we can apply our insights and knowledge to your Website today.  Contact Us.