It has finally happened. Technology is actually making website development easy.
For years, companies relied on high-priced web technology firms to build websites from scratch and then paid for every change, from a new word in a sentence to adding an e-commerce area.
Custom development and expensive, difficult-to-use content management systems were the only way to get the functions needed to successfully run and market a business. This usually ran tens of thousands of dollars in set up and maintenance fees, and made the smallest redesign a
major undertaking.
It’s a different virtual world now. Website builders like Squarespace 6 and HubSpot COS give businesses the tools to manage their own websites and integrate them into an overall marketing strategy.
With these tools in hand, companies can hire marketing firms to help guide development of a high quality website, without the fees of a full custom design.
Choose the Right Tools for You
When it comes to selecting a website builder, realize the companies out there today are a lot like pizza restaurants. As a busy person often on the road, I consider pizza a major food group and know not all pizza is created equal.
On the upper end you have places like Peppy’s in New Haven, Conn. This pizza is made with hand-tossed dough and cooked in a lightening hot oven to get that crispy on the outside, soft on the inside crust. It leaves you in disbelief that pizza could be so good and for only a few dollars more than the ubiquitous national chains.
At the low end we have the low-cost national chains. Yes, they’re fine late Saturday night, but you might end up with heartburn and Sunday morning regret.
The same goes for cheap website builders. Some corporate operations offer customers the chance to design their own website at bargain basement prices, but like bad pizza, these website builders will give you a bad case of indigestion.
Take Go Daddy, a nationally known website service that made a name for itself offering a $1 website builder. It was criticized in a September 2012 piece on Forbes.com for buying domain names users searched for and then inflating the prices when people wanted to buy them. That same month, technical problems caused almost all of its hosted websites to go offline, along with most email. Wix and 1&1 also have many technical issues.
The low-cost allure of these websites has drawn millions of customers, but it has also had the unfortunate effect of scaring some businesses away from good website builder platforms.
WordPress has earned a reputation as the go to do-it-yourself web builder, but there are issues with it to consider. Wordpress is a genius idea because its open source coding allows it to continually evolve and allows customers to make their sites anything they want using plug ins. However, the open source and plug in approach means the site needs constant updating and protection from hackers and spam bots.
Squarespace
Squarespace, which provides a low cost, no maintenance solution for building a website, is ranked 45th on Forbes’ 2013 list of America’s most promising companies.
Squarespace has earned accolades from tech reviewers for design, a variety of business options, and customer service. Squarespace initially built its company by targeting creative companies and entrepreneurs, such as photographers, writers, and restaurants, but its comprehensive marketing features, seamless mobile conversions, and e-commerce capabilities are drawing new clients from a variety of businesses.
It has a blogging platform built into the content management system (CMS) that allows full integration with social media for sharing pages and following your company, search engine optimization, and analytics dashboards showing who is looking at your site.
Unlike budget builders, no credit card is required for a 14-day test of their product. For $24 a month you get a top-of-the-line product with unlimited bandwidth and storage, plus online retail tools.
Squarespace is the best option for start- ups, businesses seeking a local clientele (like restaurants and law firms), small retail organizations looking for an easy and secure e-commerce solution, and generally speaking, organizations whose gross earnings are under $5 million.
A Squarespace-built website is just that, a simple, intuitive website that provides nearly all of the functions you could ever want, including hosting and the best CMS on the market for the monthly cost of $8 and top price of $24 for the e-commerce solution.
HubSpot COS
If your company needs more than a brochure-style website and requires greater emphasis on automated marketing, lead generation, and sales efficiency, HubSpot is the tool for you. It’s a solution for businesses that have a marketing staff person, or the budget to hire an external marketing company.
HubSpot contains almost all the functionality within Squarespace but also has the added marketing tools that ensure your website provides a return on your investment. Hubspot’s inbound marketing software costs more than Squarespace but is far less than many professional content management systems. A basic subscription starts at $200 a month and increases with added functionality and the quantity of leads generated.
HubSpot’s Custom Optimization System (COS) is an integrated website marketing system with an advanced marketing toolset, combined website and email analytics, and auto-generated personalized content so your site adapts based on a visitor’s IP address. An annual subscription includes the following features:
• Blogging software that makes search engine optimization recommendations and includes built-in call to action and landing page tools.
• Social media share options to promote your blog posts, website landing pages, and articles with the press of a button.
• Detailed marketing analytics that show what sources were used to find your website, which landing pages are converting visitors to leads, and even competitor reporting.
• Automated marketing tools that send personalized emails when a visitor provides an email address.
It can seem overwhelming to take on a massive web project without the guidance of a boutique web design firm, but marketing companies these days offer consultation services to guide you through setup and point out features that will boost your business for a fraction of the cost of custom built websites.
Michael Conway is the founding member of Means-of-Production, a marketing agency in Webster. He can be reached at mc@means-of-production.com or 603-289-6616. For more information, visit means-of-production.com.