Why Our Team Doesn’t Build Pretty Websites

Often my team gets asked by business owners from every niche if we can build them a “beautiful”, yet “affordable” website. Our answer almost always is, “Our team has definitely built visually stunning websites for many clients, but we actually believe that there is more to a website than how it looks.” They usually ask us to tell them more.

Over the years our team has seen countless beautiful websites that were even somewhat functional, but after talking with the business owners we discovered that these website rarely ever produced an increase in revenue for them nor did the websites communicate clearly to their intended audience. 

BUT WHY YOU ASK?

Let me tell you a quick story as to how we discovered the truth behind beautiful, yet ineffective websites.

Six years ago my boss, now business partner, Brad McKoy began offering an onboarding tool to all clients that would do a web project with us. The tool would help them map out a business plan for the next 18 months. Included in that tool were questions that would help our client discover who their core audience is and how to communicate to them in ways that would invoke a response.  Around that same time we began to invest in a course by Donald Miller called Storybrand.

We began to recognize that the majority of the business owners that we had spoken with had no clear business plan or even any written goals. Not only that, but they wanted to grow their business and present themselves in a way that genuinely resonated with their audience in their marketing and on their website. They didn’t need a beautiful website. They needed a website that matched the business plan we were helping them develop. They needed a website that spoke to their audience in a clear, effective manner.

As an author, Brad loves and always has loved telling stories that have meaning and are engaging. As someone who loved studying counseling and psychology, I always enjoyed connecting with people in a way that makes them feel heard and understood.

It hit us. Donald Miller had a framework that visually presented his tools to his clients. We had been using our tool, the Flipside Map, for years, but it lacked a visual component that would help our clients really SEE where their company was heading and how to connect with their audience as they grew their business to the next level. 

The things that naturally drew client after client to us without ever advertising was the very thing we needed to visualize to serve our clients better. They want to connect with their audience in a way that their audience knows HOW TO RESPOND which in turn will grow their business. So we turned our attention to developing our tools into visual reports for our clients. Not only that, but we went to every website we were currently developing and made sure they had CLEAR call-to -actions. (I’ll explain more what these are down below).

When building your website stop JUST asking questions like:

•  What’s my budget?
•  What other sites do I like?
•  What do I want my visitor experience to be like?
•  What functionality do I want my website to have?

These questions aren’t bad, but they don’t connect with where your company wants to go, nor what your audience is searching for.

Start asking questions like:

•  What group of people would be most interested in my product/service?
•  What age/demographic are these most ideal buyers?
•  Who is currently buying my product/services?
•  Who is someone I personally know that is genuinely interested in my business? (Write that person’s name down). Let’s call them Lucy.
•  How would I communicate with Lucy if I called her to invite her to buy from me?

The big AHA moment that could literally change your business overnight is that your website and your marketing is NOT about you. What does your customer ultimately want from your product/service that can help them solve one of their problems? This is where you need to position yourself – a solution provider.

These questions and ways of thinking was INTRINSIC to our team and over the years has helped us build a set of four tools that quickly took our small 3 person company to over $200,000 in sales in just a few short months.

So, our team doesn’t build JUST pretty websites, but engaging websites and platforms that help our clients grow their business by connecting with their audience in a way that gets real responses.

BUT we shouldn’t be the only ones to understand how life-changing connection and resonance are. If you’d like to learn more about specific ways to connect with your audience, click the button below.