Imagine if a store did not refresh its front window for two years! Most likely the merchandise would be out of date. The people passing by the store would not take a second look because they have seen the same merchandise so many times and the merchandise would probably look worn out. You would question if this company even cared. A store could not stay in business if they counted on their window to attract customers to their store if they did not refresh their window for two years!

The other day, I had a client look at me like I had two heads when I suggested they consider developing a new home page. “Are you kidding? Our website is only two years old,” he said. There are many more important things we need to do… like coming up with ways to bring in new clients… That’s much more important than a new home page”.

I am sure this client thought I was crazy . In fact, it is my guess he was second guessing if our agency was “right” for his business since we were recommending something he thought had no merit. By the way, his business is a highly consumer-focused, “first impressions count”, style of business and they see over 30,000 visitors to their website per month.

What we really wanted to recommend was starting to talk about a new website to launch in a year. By that time, three years would have passed and so much changes now in such a short period of time. Having a reasonably fresh website is part of the cost of doing business in today’s marketplace. With 30,000 visitors to their site monthly, I cannot think of any better way to help bring in more clients than a fresh and up to date home page and well coded website with strong SEO.

I often use the following analogy when talking to clients about whether a new website is really “worth” the time and investment.

Imagine if you wanted a red dress and you were told that there were two stores in town that carried red dresses. It was easy to get the address of the first store but you were having trouble finding the exact address of the other store.

You start walking down the street. You see on one side of the street the first store. Yes, it is the same store you had found the directions for.

The sign is newly painted and it is easy to read the store name. The colors are vibrant and inviting. You see there is a great dress in the window. It looks like the one you just saw recently in the fashion magazine as the “right” look for today.

You glance across the street and see the second store you had heard about but couldn’t find the directions for. You can make out the name of the store on the front but it looks like the sign could use a coat of paint. It is faded and there is some peeling. You also notice some vines growing on the store front. You look in the window and see that they do sell dresses but the dresses don’t look like the style you are looking for. The dresses they have in the windows look like the dresses you wore a couple of years ago. You look in the store and there is a lot of merchandise, but it does not look very organized.

You look over to the first store again and you can see the merchandise is all organized inside. It looks like they pay a lot of attention to how the store looks. In fact, the owner is right in the doorway inviting you into the store.

So which store are you going to look in first for your new red dress?
The answer is obvious.

Your website is your front door. It is the face of your company and the first interaction/impression anyone has with you. One of the most important marketing tools you have is an up to date website. What you look like and the ease that someone can find you and understand your unique proposition, is one of your most important marketing tools today.

We all know which store the woman shopping for the red dress went into first. I am quite confident that you want to be the first place your potential customers stop when looking for your type of goods or services. Take a look at your website. When was the last time you had a professional give you some feedback on your website?

From our experience over and over again, clients who commit to being the best they can be with their website, keeping it up to date and looking fresh, see up to five times the traffic to their site, increased time spent on the site and ultimately a more engaged and stronger lead or sale from these visitors.

If you would like to sit down and meet regarding how your website stacks up, give us a call at 781-729-7229. Learning about where you are in comparison to your competition is the first step to achieving your goals.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 3:22 pm and is filed under Cindy's Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.