It’s said that building a digital presence is one of the smartest things you can do for your business. I agree with that 100%. But I’m not totally on board with the idea that getting online has to be costly.
You see, over the past few years especially, I’ve been hearing over and over again how important it is to invest heavily in digital. And for some organisations, this makes perfect sense. But for others, it’s simply not needed. In fact, if you’re building your first website, I think this can be really poor advice.
Presence v perfection
When you’re thinking about creating your business’s very first website, you want it to be perfect, right? Of course you do! The problem with striving for perfection at this early stage is that you may not be completely sure what ‘perfection’ looks like to you. Will your brand message be the same tomorrow as it is today? As a mid-sized organisation, will you communicate with your audience in the same way you do as a small startup? Basically, is ‘this’, right now, your business’s final form?
If not, then why invest so much in it?
Not everyone agrees, but I believe that presence is better than perfection for young businesses. It’s much more important to have a basic digital presence, and the resources to grow and develop, than it is to throw everything into building a ‘perfect’ digital presence that may not stay perfect for long.
Any online presence is better than no online presence at all. Eventually, you become more established, more confident in who you are and what you do, and more in tune with your customers and their needs. It’s then that you should start to tailor and enhance your website for maximum impact.
An affordable alternative
You may have heard some bad things about DIY web builders like WordPress, Elementor, and Wix. And the truth is that they’re never going to be as powerful or as beneficial as working with an experienced developer and designer. But honestly, for getting your business out there on the web, especially for the first time, they’re fantastic. They’re affordable, they’re easy to use and they’re flexible, so you can keep adjusting and amending your approach to digital to see what really works.
Then, as you’re ready to start using your presence for more than just awareness – when you’re ready to start using it to engage more closely and squeeze more value out of your site – you can take the next step. And that’s where I come in. Alongside my team, I specialise in transforming basic business websites, built for presence, into powerful digital assets that help you achieve even more.
It might sound strange for a digital agency to be saying ‘don’t pay out for a website!’, but it’s true.
And when you’re ready to take the next step, you can get in touch or book a free call to discuss how we can help.
