Embracing A World of Ever-Changing Websites

There once was a time where websites were developed and published every few years with only minor adjustments in the meantime. Websites were blocks of static information, pushing the user to a call-to-action that would create an “interaction” with the actual company through email or phone. From there, the real business happened. That’s where new information was dispelled, and services were explained.

From the tone of the previous paragraph, I’m sure you can tell that world does not exist anymore. It’s long gone, and today’s digital, no-interaction kind of business is evolving quickly. Let’s consider today’s website.

• Great, responsive design
• Modern features that make browsing easy
• Consistent content adjustments to services, page and more
• Blog articles detailing more information or new things happening in the industry
• Call-to-action (contact forms, newsletter sign-ups, phone or chat feature)
• Linking to external sites such as social media accounts, partners, and more.

We could go much farther, but those few bullet points describe the scope of the modern website. Some of those things existed before in a different manner, and some are brand new for the modern age (such as chat functionality). What does all of this mean for you, the small business owner? It primarily reflects two things: (1) a great marketing agency is vital because it’s more of a partnership than a transaction, and (2) the work is continuous, not static.

That can sound daunting.

And it can be for most businesses. In today’s world, we don’t have more time to focus on our digital marketing. Most small business owners have less time than ever; they’re so focused on running the business that their marketing falls to the wayside. Here are three ways to bolster your marketing when you don’t have enough time to handle it yourself.

• Hire an agency
  • A creative agency like Studio490 is helpful for two reasons: (1) we know the digital marketing industry intimately and (2) we can lighten the load significantly for you, but still let you have a say.
• Automate some marketing
  • This will require some work from you, but you can automate some things with services like IFTTT, Facebook messaging, Hootsuite, and more. Those will primarily help you on social media, but can still help make the process quicker.
• Hire someone internally
  • This option significantly lightens the average small business owner’s load, but is by far the most costly. High rewards, high cost.

The crux of the matter is this; however: If you skip over marketing and decide not to invest, your business will falter, and there will be a time where you wished you had spent more on your website, social media, etc.

Finally, here are some ideas to add to your website to fit the bill of an “ever-changing website.”

• Blog articles
• Testimonials
• New Services
• Case Studies / Portfolio Work
• Podcasts
• Partners
• Social media feeds