Lately we’ve all received trillions of emails asking us to ‘opt in’.  An issue of concern for me that arises time and time again is clients marketing spend or budget. How much is being paid for a website? Are you selling much online? How many companies review return on their investment of their website?

If you are selling online and rely on engaging with clients through emails, have your clients opted in? In this digital age, it is important to stay at the forefront of customers minds so perhaps a new strategy is required for the immediate short term.

I see large and small spends on websites. How one website developer described his service was ‘I see myself creating the shop front for the client’. I love his passion for what he does, once I get over some of the tech-ie language 🙂

Having someone who understands your business, your ethos and values, creating your website (or updating it) is vital.

Unfortunately, your website can look out of date pretty quickly.  It may not reflect what you actually do or it may be a little old (considering how much SMEs can change from year to year).

Spending money without doing ‘ideal client’ work for me is a serious no-no. Unless you know who you are attracting and what your ideal client / customer looks like and where they come from, then it’s not wise to spend time and energy (as well as money) on creating or updating your website.

I’ve written about knowing your Ideal Client before and selling to your ideal client (or talking to them online).

If you are looking at any marketing spend or website development, ask yourself the following :

• Who am I attracting ?
• Am I speaking to my ideal client ? (If unsure, do ‘ideal client’ work first)
• What am I growing / promoting ?
• Is this a true representation of me and my business, as we are today ?
• Am I taking my business in the direction of my ultimate financial freedom goals ?

If your website is not used to actively gain more clients (but used as a reference online), again, check how up-to-date it is and if a little work is needed, ensure you get a price upfront and the person doing the updating knows exactly what you are trying to achieve.

There are grants available – I’ll do a short post on this later in the week. Stay tuned.

If you are unsure about your business development strategy or considering a large spend but feeling unsure, consider taking further advice or answering the questions above before committing the business to additional outgoings.

For more information, feel free to talk to Wendy – wendy@williamsmerrigan.ie