Does Your Website Need to Evolve With Your Business?
When we think about our marketing, we tend to think about what we’re selling and when. And then from there, do we need a webinar/workshop? Add automation to our email sequences? What about getting out in front of people’s audiences? While I could write a whole post about strategy vs. tactics (and I will one day), we don’t often revisit our core messaging and strategy very often, if ever. We start up our business, write up our core values, do some exercises on developing our customer persona/avatar, choose a few brand adjectives, and craft a vision statement that fills us with energy and determination.
But let’s get a little honest. You probably haven’t put that much thought into your website recently. When you first started, you probably put up a website that you could point people to when you needed to, but you relied mainly on your network for your first clients. It was the digital version of a business card. It held a portfolio of previous work. Your testimonials. Even included content that gave people a sense of what it’s like to work with you. This is nothing to be ashamed of, this is what we all do at first as we validate our idea and refine the process we take clients through.
Client Work is Both the Key and the Obstacle
The more we work with clients, the more clear we become on what they struggle with and what they need. But the more knee-deep we are in our client work, the harder it is to take a breath and look around at the big picture. It’s not that we have strayed from our earlier mission, but our understanding of it evolves. Our service, our being, and how we show up is not a product or a final iteration. This is true for all of us, including me. This website/business is the second iteration of a marketing business I had back in 2018/2019. We’re all charting our ways forward and refining as we go.
Another crucial thing tends to happen as our service-based business continues to grow. We discover what sets us apart from other service providers like us. We unravel the multiple ways our product/service changes lives. We find a new way to weave our beliefs and values through everything we do. I’m not like other copywriters. And even if there are people doing similar things to you, they don’t have the same stories. They don’t share the exact same values. And while they might be similar, they’re not going to give the exact same results as you either.
Here’s the good news. These are the things that people need and want to know before they make a decision to work with you. It’s also what you should keep in mind when you’re developing both your website and your overarching marketing strategy.
The not-so-good news is that as you solidify your process and evolve and grow your offerings, your website and other marketing materials end up playing catch up. And arguably, refreshing your website is a pretty intense project to just decide to take on. We have to make so many choices every day as entrepreneurs and business owners. Not just in our daily work, but in our strategies, who we decide to connect with, where we invest our energy, even when we turn off for the day. So to help you evaluate if this is worthwhile, consider if the below signs hit close to home.
Signs Your Website Might Need to Be Updated
Your clients primarily come from referrals
You do incredible work. Your clients rave about the service you provide and the results and transformations that you facilitated and made possible. Awesome, right? This is why you do what you do. But you may not be on track to grow your business if this is the sole way you sign new clients.
The issue is that you are primarily getting your clients from referrals or through your own networking efforts. This means that you can’t predict when your referrals will come in and you only have so much time to go to events or schedule coffee chats. While it may seem like a marketing issue where more visibility, longer content, or social posting is the solution. But the issue is often deeper than that. If they land on your website after seeing a social post or something else, you’ve done half of the work. Once the get to your website, they need very specific information delivered very quickly, typically within 15-30 seconds (this is something we’ll discuss more in a following post). If your website doesn’t do that or give people a next step to take, your efforts have been potentially wasted.
The issue is that you are primarily getting your clients from referrals or through your own networking efforts. This means that you can’t predict when your referrals will come in and you only have so much time to go to events or schedule coffee chats. While it may seem like a marketing issue where more visibility, longer content, or social posting is the solution. But the issue is often deeper than that. If they land on your website after seeing a social post or something else, you’ve done half of the work. Once they get to your website, they need very specific information delivered very quickly, typically within 15-30 seconds (this is something we’ll discuss more in a following post). If your website doesn’t do that or give people a next step to take, your efforts have been potentially wasted.
Before you try to switch gears on your marketing strategies and the supporting tactics, looks at some basic aspects of your messaging: your elevator pitch, your value proposition, and your website. Do these all line up? Or does your website not reflect what you’ve learned through your client work? What ends up happening is that our website no longer feels like a good fit. What this can mean for your business is that visitors can end up being confused, which is the last thing you want. Which leads us to the second point:
People don’t understand or see the value of what you do
It’s not easy talking about what you do. And as a copywriter, this rings true for me too (I find it far easier to talk about others do). You are a master in your field, or at least have plenty of experience in it. If you’re a designer, you’re a visual person and this comes easy to you. But potential clients are coming to you because it’s overwhelming or difficult for them. So what I end up seeing a lot is that what’s obvious or comes easy to them is not the case for their audience. And as we talked about earlier in the article, you’ve validated your business ideas, refined how you best solve clients’ problems, and better understand their before and after.
While you may know all of this in your head, is it written down anywhere in a form your ideal clients or audience is able to find it? If this is missing or unclear in your website copy, it results in that confusion and misunderstanding of what your services can do for them or their organization. That confusion leads to potential clients either ghosting you or trying to bargain with you on the cost of your services. Even if you can explain it in person, it should be present on your website if people want to refer back when making a purchase decision so they can make it with confidence that you’re able to help them.
You’re looking to shift how you deliver your service
When you’re looking to launch a new service or revenue stream in your business, there’s often a lot of copy that needs to be written. Emails, sales page, webinar and other promotional content comes to mind. But this is just the start, especially if you’re looking to promote one way of working together over another. If your website’s homepage talks exclusively about your one-on-one services but you’re fully booked for five months, this disconnect can leave a bad impression on visitors or confuse them if they can’t find a way to book a call with you.
I’m planning to take this advice for myself as I look to be a website copywriting specialist who also does content marketing strategy. Right now admittedly my website looks more like I’m a content specialist who also writes websites. As we all are, I’m also gaining a better understand of my strengths and what I most enjoy doing. I love using the many pages of a website to provide a cohesive and holistic view of a brand and business and telling their overall story.
Conclusion/Next Steps
These signs aren’t meant to shame or blame you. Our businesses changing and evolving with our needs and expertise is a good thing. It should be celebrated. You’re not doing anything wrong by not tweaking your website every week or month. People, including me, don’t have the capacity for that. The shifts in our business are often subtle, which is why thinking through the signs listed above can help you to understand if it makes sense to refresh your website before intensifying your marketing efforts. As we’ll talk about in the next post in the series, your website is an essential and often neglected part of your overall marketing strategy.
Max Sheffield-Baird is a Narrative-Focused Copywriter + Content Strategist. Max helps thought leaders, service providers, and impact-driven organizations connect and grow their audience and confidence with clear and emotionally resonant copy with a holistic marketing strategy rooted in justice and empathy. You can find them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter (rarely)
