Peddling Template Websites Ain’t Good for Business!

Yet again, cookie-cutter themes seem to be poking their worthless heads through tiny little holes in the web world. These templates, do it yourself websites are all the rage right now. But in actuality, they reveal a very lazy way of doing business that will ultimately do more harm than good. Lately, I’ve been coming across more and more ads for do it yourself website services. They’re on the TV, in our favorite magazines and even in banner ads popping up on the sites we visit the most. Thank you, Google Re-marketing! Nearly all of them promise some cheap and dead simple web builder. That will give you a “totally custom” website inside of a few minutes. All without having to know any web development or computer skills at all.

I’ve written about this very subject on a number of different occasions. But feel I need to continue my quest. To make consumers appreciate that their websites. Have to be aligned to a strategy. I’ve been getting more calls than ever with the conversations going something like this:

Customer: Hey, I need Help!
Me: Sure thing, what’s up?
Customer: I signed up for a do it yourself website tool and it’s a mess, it can’t do this, that, the other and oh yes, looks like sh*t and I’m ashamed to be associated to it.

Well, what I typically tell them is that while pretty unicorns and pink polka dots are great. But don’t work for every business. Now I know that we are all smart and savvy business owners looking to maximize leverage in any way that we can. But how this passes some of our “smell test” I’ll never know. I think deep down we all understand that there is no possible way that we could get a totally custom web development solution from a box. But the dream and desire are there so these companies flourish.

But what are these simple and often very ugly websites saying about your business to your marketplace?

Ask yourself these questions:

• How does this template convey a message?
• In what way are these pre-defined templates aligned with your business and the objectives you’ve laid out?
• How does the template set the mood for a trigger to have the consumer take an action like purchasing a product, filling in a form, or signing up for your service?
• Is there analytics data being tracked to better understand how my website is being used?
• Is goal conversion being monitored?

There is a fantastic chance that your website will be the first (and sometimes only) point of contact that you will have with your marketplace

Is this the kind of significant role you want to trust to some out of box web solution?

The truth of the matter is that these simple and do it yourself kind of websites often have a terribly negative impact on a business. And even worse when not only is the business impacted but then blaming the web for the failure. It should be obvious to all business owners that you get what you pay for, and there is obviously going to be a difference between the point and click solutions being peddled and the kind of world-class strategic selling machine built by a custom design agency or nvision 😉

The most important thing you can do.

When you are serious about building an online web presence is to look for the right agency to leverage that will give you the edge you need in an overly competitive online world.

You would never trust a doctor or mechanic that was relying on a point and click kind of system, and you shouldn’t trust an online company looking to sell you the same. Make sure the web strategy you get is tight and put together by an industry titan. And look to leverage as many of the services as you can from them.

If you’d like to chat more, don’t hesitate to give me a shout. 905.943.2985 x101