Websites seem complicated, and we get it, but much like going to the dentist it’s something businesses today have to consider as part of their strategy. Websites can be a big enabler for your business and its objectives, and picking the right type of website (or scope) is key to success.
Start with what you’re trying to achieve
Deciding on the type of website you need all starts with one simple question: What is it you are trying to achieve? Aligning your business objectives with your website is critical to its success. It can further help you make decisions around your budget, what sort of marketing you need, and more.
Websites or pages can fulfil many goals:
- Facilitate new business either in the form of a lead or an online sale
- Expose your brand to potential customers
- Become a landing zone for your marketing
- Allow visitors to book with you online
- Be a space where you can share your thoughts with your audience
These are only some examples of how a website can facilitate your needs, but there are many more.
Landing pages versus brochureware websites
A landing page is simply a single website page built to facilitate an objective. A brochureware website on the other hand usually fulfills multiple objectives.
Landing pages are great for when you are on a tight budget with a singular focus. A good example might be to sell a single product, or to market a service like plumbing. Landing pages also generally have a very defined structure due to this focus which means there’s often less design work required. You can read more here if you’re interested in learning more about them.
A brochureware website tends to contain content that’s meant to build the brand or tell people who you are. These websites usually include sections like About us. Services or products are also often listed with very basic information as you usually just want your existing clients or customers to see what you do, rather than trying hard to convince them to work with you.
Both of these website approaches have pros and cons and it also doesn’t mean that you can’t use them in combination. This website (heliodigital.co.za) uses a combination of brochureware content to explain who we are, and individual landing pages for our various services. This ensures we cover our business objectives end-to-end.
Objectives over features
In website language, a feature is simply a bit of functionality that enables an objective for you. Often when considering investing in a website we tend to start our thinking process with the features we think we might need, rather than what we’re needing the website to do.
This can often cause website budgets to go over quickly as these bells and whistles might come with a price tag, so it’s important that you take a pragmatic approach and let experts help you make those decisions.
To conclude
Think carefully about what it is you are trying to achieve as a business and make your website do the hard work for you. It also goes without saying that there are many, many more types of websites (like eCommerce) and we only covered the ones relevant to our service offering here.
