Why It’s Essential to Get a Good Website in Place before Embarking on Your Marketing Campaign

Many new entrepreneurs are absolutely chomping at the bit when it comes to marketing their businesses, and pursuing the pinnacles of success that they might well have been dreaming about for years by the time they finally come to embarking on their own business ventures.

One way in which this enthusiasm sometimes manifests itself, is through a certain kind of haste, which results in a website being set up in only the most barebones form, before the cold emails start flying forth and the great hunt for clients and customers gets fully underway.

It’s good to be action-oriented in business, of course. This ensures that you are always in the process of testing and refining your strategies, and maintaining positive momentum.

At the same time, though, your website is a really big deal, and there are plenty of reasons why you should get it set up to a high standard before doing anything else – whether that means putting it together yourself, or paying an expert service such as NetSearch Digital to do it for you.

Here are a few reasons why it’s essential to get a good website in place before embarking on your marketing campaign.

Your website signals your level of professionalism and trustworthiness to your prospects

For better or for worse, your website plays a major role in signalling your level of professionalism and trustworthiness to all your prospective clients. As more and more businesses exist solely online these days – and as it’s easier and easier for people to set up websites for any number of purposes – a well-designed website, with the right content, is something that people will look for as a way of determining whether or not you are the “real deal.”

If your website looks shoddy, piecemeal, or amateurish, prospects will naturally tend to take that as a red flag that you are someone best avoided.

There are various things you can do to help your website to project a sense of professionalism and trustworthiness, including featuring well-written and concise copy on your site, displaying properly-attributed testimonials from satisfied past clients and customers, and so on.

Just be mindful that you don’t want to look too much like an amateur, or a “new kid on the block,” even if you are one.

Regardless of what kind of ad people discover you through, they will check out your website before taking things further

People might “discover” your business through any number of different marketing materials you might put out there, ranging from banner ads on other websites, to cold emails.

Nonetheless, it will only be a very small proportion of people – if any at all – who will be fully convinced by your initial ad, and then rush off to throw their money at you without further investigation.

In essentially all cases, what will actually happen is that people will check out your website in significant detail, before taking things further. It is therefore necessary to have a website that can actually “close the deal” and provide enough information to answer any relevant questions, and put any lingering doubts to bed.

Treat your website as the kind of resource that is there to properly clarify the role of your business, and act as the elaboration to your other marketing materials and resources.

In many cases, your website is really your pitch and introduction rolled into one

In the old days (pre-Internet) there were various different ways in which businesses had to conduct themselves in order to make a good impression on prospective clients and customers.

It was common, for one thing, for an initial “pitch” to be made by an in-person marketer of some description or another, followed by a real “introduction” as the would-be customer or client visited your actual store or office location.

Of course, this dynamic still exists for a huge number of businesses – but, if you run a solely web-based business (as an increasing number of entrepreneurs now do, at least in the early days of their careers) the rules of the game are somewhat different.

For one thing, your website will tend to fill the role of your “initial pitch” and “introduction” all rolled into one. People may be enticed to find out more about your business, and what you do, through a creative ad, or a reference from a friend. But it’s in the moment they actually visit your site that the “meeting” really begins.

In the digital age, a sloppily-constructed website is a bit like a rundown store or an office where half the lights don’t work.

Try to create as warm a reception as you can, instead.