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Alex Winter

By Alex Winter

Apr 24, 2024

Topics:

Web Design Endless Customers Podcast
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Web Design  |   Endless Customers Podcast

Website ROI: Is a New Website Worth the Cost? [Endless Customers Podcast S.1 Ep.26]

Alex Winter

By Alex Winter

Apr 24, 2024

View the full transcription of this episode.

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00:00:00:00 - 00:00:12:21
Vin
Alex websites are a giant investment businesses made and frankly most of them don't actually report on what the return on that initial investment is in a way that's clear to all their business owners. It's a problem. We have to start saying.

00:00:12:23 - 00:00:14:02
Alex
Absolutely, let's talk about.

00:00:14:02 - 00:00:14:11
Vin
It

00:00:14:11 - 00:00:22:04
Vin
You're listening to the Endless Customers podcast, where we help you earn trust and win customers in the age of A.I..

00:00:22:04 - 00:00:23:07
Vin
Welcome back to the show. This

00:00:23:07 - 00:00:31:14
Vin
is and this customer is my name's Alex Winter. And today I am joined by Vin Gaeta our head of Web strategy and also Spider-Man. Is that true? We're down to street Spider.

00:00:31:14 - 00:00:33:21
Alex
I mean compatibility and it's kind of same.

00:00:33:21 - 00:00:38:08
Vin
Thing. Same different Peter Parker What up now? Hey, thanks for being on the show. Really happy to have you in it.

00:00:38:10 - 00:00:42:02
Alex
It's it's a wonder to be that excited to chat through our topic.

00:00:42:02 - 00:00:58:09
Vin
For today, ExxonMobil. We have a good topic today. We're talking about our why when it comes to websites. And I think this is a big topic for business owners and for even just like entrepreneurs and people that are starting out that are trying to build a website and they don't really know what it should cost, what type of return they should get on their investment.

00:00:58:09 - 00:01:19:06
Vin
I don't think some people realize that their website should be returning an investment and use it as a tool and that in that sense. So I think we need to keep it high level to start just because if we get into the weeds in the specifics, there's so many different variables, right? Yeah. So let's just talk generally speaking, what type of are y or what is the R, what people should be looking for when they're they're starting out on their website.

00:01:19:06 - 00:01:19:15
Vin
Yeah.

00:01:19:17 - 00:01:41:09
Alex
Yeah. It, it looks at a couple of buckets, right. So if you look at your website, you obviously if you're going to invest in revamping your website, you want to see increasing its that's what everyone looks at is the the traffic those are the two metrics most companies start talking about. We redesigned the website but if you're actually putting the right things in place, here are why you should be more than that.

00:01:41:10 - 00:02:03:02
Alex
you should be seeing a considered drop in your your time to close. If we're building websites in the right way, we're educating our users, we're creating the right website. And that that goes into what you're going to see for return on investment. If you're always going to see that return, the right website is can help you with your sales cycle, can help increase your revenue faster.

00:02:03:04 - 00:02:05:04
Alex
And it's not just about traffic and leads.

00:02:05:09 - 00:02:21:22
Vin
Yeah, I like that about those together. Yeah, that all sounds good and I think that's what people want. I think the stigma with websites for most business owners is like, I just keep throwing money at it. It costs a lot of money. It's expensive to get get developers and to set it up correctly. I don't really think of it as a as an income stream necessarily.

00:02:21:22 - 00:02:31:12
Vin
So how do you shift that perception with business owners and get them to see the value in gaining track of leads and sales and turning your site into something that can actually produce revenue?

00:02:31:14 - 00:02:54:20
Alex
It comes down to where has our website did is it what we usually see? Right? Many companies do either website is no more, their brochure is there. We've got a presence. We have what they call a point. People. We did it. We did it like we put the thing out there, whether it gets updated or not. Yeah. And you spend between a couple hundred couple thousand tens of thousands of dollars on the website and you did it.

00:02:54:24 - 00:03:15:23
Alex
We had confetti fall from the sky, we celebrated and then we went on our other stuff. And since then, three or four or five years later, we realized it's not doing what we wanted it to do, what we thought it was going to do, redo it once again. But if you're looking at it in a way that it's the next step in your evolution, we talk about the website being one of your best salespeople.

00:03:16:04 - 00:03:32:04
Alex
It is likely one of the first impressions that you can put in front of your prospect. I'm going to look for a solution. My problem, I'm probably going to land on the website at some point, or I'm going to ask a robot and the robot to guide me to a business that I will likely like on website right?

00:03:32:06 - 00:03:45:15
Alex
All roads lead to websites nowadays, and that's part of our way as well. That brand recognition, that ability to build trust better than your competition, that's part of the return you see from a properly strategized website.

00:03:45:17 - 00:03:49:10
Vin
Yeah that's that's really important. Search is everything nowadays, and

00:03:49:10 - 00:04:03:19
Vin
especially with artificial intelligence. And in general, by the way, things are going like search and having a website to be found is more important than ever. But it's also seems like the more you invest, the better chance you have to have success with your website.

00:04:03:19 - 00:04:17:14
Vin
Is that correct in saying that or not? Can you kind of lay out because I feel like in my head I'm hearing if I invest a lot of money and I do this correctly, it will eventually return doing really well for me versus if I set it up incorrectly and I got to fix it and spend more money and it's not going to work.

00:04:17:14 - 00:04:20:04
Vin
So is that is that true that I'm saying my correct.

00:04:20:06 - 00:04:46:20
Alex
Websites can be edited for dead type of tool? And that's what this tool it's it's an engine. And that engine needs to be maintained. It needs loyal, it needs gasoline. It needs stuff to make the thing run. Yeah, gasoline. The website is a content and the maintenance is conversion rate optimization. It's looking at what you created that initial investment and making sure you're getting the most out of it over the long haul, right?

00:04:47:01 - 00:05:16:06
Alex
Yeah, Every website, no matter how much strategy a company puts into it, is based off fundamental assumptions of what we know to be true. What we're seeing in the data, what we believe is the right journey for our users. But you know, who knows the right journey for our users, our user, the users. And that's where it seems like you'll hear terms like conversion rate optimization, user journey optimization, looking at the behavioral data, what our users are actually telling us in recordings and heatmaps, things like that.

00:05:16:08 - 00:05:38:06
Alex
That's where the long term comes in because you're not just building a website and letting it do its thing. You are looking at what users are interacting with, what walls they might run into. Every website has a dead end somewhere that if you fix optimize, you are going to see more leads, more traction in your sales process and better revenue from that.

00:05:38:08 - 00:06:00:20
Alex
But that is to your point, helps. That's an investment to make. And what that looks like. That investment is different for various companies. I was why is Apple does a lot of reporting and every year they to different marketing videos and sell it and one of the recent stats they crafted was something like 48% of companies don't have a machine around it on their website.

00:06:00:22 - 00:06:05:24
Alex
42 companies just build it. So go do your thing and never look at the data.

00:06:05:24 - 00:06:08:21
Vin
So literally half of businesses out there in the world, right?

00:06:09:01 - 00:06:31:24
Alex
Com competitors are not doing this. The only they're happy with status quo of their websites. So if you look at your websites that things are changing, it's the same website you've seen for two years. You're leaving money on the table. You made an initial investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars and you took that vehicle and just didn't for a while, did a good guess at what it said.

00:06:31:24 - 00:06:45:01
Alex
Do learned about what was actually the right way to drive that engine? Yeah, that's where the long term comes in for your website. It's keeping it alive and reading through it very seriously.

00:06:45:03 - 00:07:01:10
Vin
Now that makes total sense when you say it out loud. And I don't know if a lot of people think that way. And, you know, we've been in this world long enough that that's almost second nature to us. But for a lot of people out there, I don't I don't think they go through the thought process of like, this is for our users, this is for our potential customers.

00:07:01:10 - 00:07:18:07
Vin
They go like, this is what I want my site to like, and this is what I think our rating should be. And it's all maybe two of them. And the end user, which is when you think about a very they ask managers to stop thinking about us and we don't know about that, right? So you had mentioned heat mapping and different tools.

00:07:18:09 - 00:07:27:05
Vin
I'm sure those cost money and or extra, but those sound like a sound investment to me because it really allows you to have that visibility. So are there some tools like that that you would recommend for people?

00:07:27:07 - 00:07:34:01
Alex
There's a bunch of they start proofreading, to your point, go to money, right? Yeah. Looking around, it's one that we use day in and day out.

00:07:34:02 - 00:07:34:10
Vin
Yes.

00:07:34:11 - 00:07:48:05
Alex
And Microsoft released Clarity. That's another free tool that might put onto your website, Hotjar. And another great one that we've used in the past. There's a hundred of them out there. Those are some of the ones that we go to here all the time. Crazy.

00:07:48:07 - 00:07:49:11
Vin
Crazy data a.

00:07:49:11 - 00:08:10:19
Alex
Lot. So it's a great little tool of choice or choice, whatever you want to go with. At the end of the day, if we're not looking at what data is telling us, they're not actually looking up power. It is performing kind of a tool that we created is actually functional. You're never going to actualize what you're all like.

00:08:10:19 - 00:08:30:18
Alex
Could be. You might see it on tape, you might not. And that goes for any agency, right? You're making fundamental assumptions and strategy that's founded on things that you've seen be successful in the past of what you know to be true, that the data is right. But until you put that in practice, you know, if it's actually going to work, you don't know what the user will actually do.

00:08:30:22 - 00:08:46:23
Alex
If they get stuck at a certain point in a page, the heat map, the actual data will show you that and you can say what happens if it does that, drive them to the page and actually get them to talk to our team in a better way. Without that insight, you're not going to.

00:08:47:00 - 00:09:11:11
Vin
See now we're talking, right, because those insights are critical and directly affect your return on your investment from your site. So let me talk a little bit about that's one facet of it, looking at some of these mapping tools. But overall, why is data so important when it comes to measuring success and how can you leverage like a CRM or different data points to not just guesstimate like, it's usually traffic is up, it seems like we're doing good.

00:09:11:11 - 00:09:16:13
Vin
Like you could say that all day, but like, how do you actually quantify it in a real way?

00:09:16:15 - 00:09:35:05
Alex
With the right reporting, you should be able to close the entire loop and look at a user journey from Alex joining my website later on this blog about websites, read three articles and then converted on this offer. After that offer, he did X, Y and Z and ultimately turn into a customer that year. This amount for the year.

00:09:35:08 - 00:10:04:03
Alex
Right, Right. You should be able to have a dashboard that says that piece of content generated through attribution. This amount for 2024. That's the bold statement. That's what we want to see, because now you can actually see we put content into this website engine and look at what it is actually returning for us. That effort of building, maintaining and cranking stuff through our tool, our sales tool of a website, that one article generated 200 $342,000 over this year.

00:10:04:07 - 00:10:33:00
Alex
One piece of content that is crazy powerful. Look at that. And then you double down and say, Well, what happens if we test some different calls to action? Can a two, three, four, five, six, 700 next year with the right testing and that data can really increase that over time and make it so that you never have to deal with a lull because you have the insight into your users to make improvements based on what may change.

00:10:33:04 - 00:10:57:12
Vin
Image Yeah, that's fascinating to me. And it it really it almost sounds Big Brother to me. It's like because you're basically watching and monitoring every step that a person takes, but it's for the good of giving them what they need, giving them what they're searching for. So it may feel a little like you're you're monitoring people, but really that data is crucial to help you either gain conversions or disqualify people and make sure that they have a good experience either way.

00:10:57:12 - 00:10:59:03
Vin
Right. When interacting with your brand.

00:10:59:05 - 00:11:21:04
Alex
I mean, let's be honest, it's creepy. You're watching recordings of people using websites and you're looking at where they're clicking. But to your point, it's it's not with malicious intent, right? It's to help them have less friction. And that's there is so much power that can be given that through asking quick surveys. Right. You're using something and the survey slides in.

00:11:21:06 - 00:11:42:10
Alex
Did you find would you need thumbs up, thumbs down that quick it tell someone whether or not you're doing the right thing. Right. But users won't do that. But the sample size that you get, it's valuable insight. Yeah. Every person listening to this goes to the website today and there is a slide in thing that jumps up and says, Will you accept or reject all cookies?

00:11:42:12 - 00:12:00:02
Alex
We're used to getting these these prompts to allow companies to get that data and gather it to improve our user experience. It's not like it's that moment where every website within reason has that and users are so trained now. I mean, I accepted in my life at this point, like I think.

00:12:00:04 - 00:12:12:20
Vin
Everybody does it right and everyone knows like that's, that's the modern world they're living in. And that's when people are like, I don't understand if we're looking at a mattress and now I'm at a different place and it's retargeting me, it's like, that's your cookie setting the ground. That's how they know, that's how they there's.

00:12:12:20 - 00:12:41:08
Alex
Optimization that goes into those cookie acceptances as well, right? That's where that long term benefit comes in. Building the website is step one actualizing the online initiative. It's making sure that you're getting the right things from that investment and putting it back into the website. That's where step two, three, four, five comes into play, right? Yeah. Looking at where we need to target are, we see the results now, what can you do to improve?

00:12:41:10 - 00:13:15:05
Alex
And that can be something where you have a program that helps you with that for the short term. For the long term, that is something that companies can staff and true and some of it actually owns that part of the user journey. Individuals with different folks. At the end of the day, if we're talking about a website, we have to look at the short term, what we're hoping to get out of from that initial move and the long term are we're going to be turning this website into a sales tool that should help us not only better educate our prospects, but shorter sales cycle, which only leads to increases.

00:13:15:07 - 00:13:43:08
Vin
Absolutely. Yeah. And those are crucial and crucial questions. And you work with our website, your impact your the time of development experience here in Wizard in my opinion. But you interface with a lot of clients and a lot of different clients and B2C, B2B and everything in between. Right? Do you have a story or something you can share with us where maybe a company wasn't doing this and you did a website redesign with them and really have these conversations about what our ally needs, how to turn your website into a sales to them, like where to them from, like A-to-b.

00:13:43:13 - 00:14:06:17
Alex
Yeah, yeah. We've got a bunch of clients that come in for just that and you would say, You need to do this, We need to get refreshed. And I mean I've seen a lot of bad websites over the years and various degrees, right? So yes, step one is the refresh. It's getting that foundation of trust that we can start applying and then looking at do we get a client that we we relaunch the website fundamentals, right?

00:14:06:19 - 00:14:28:09
Alex
We're looking at data for their blog articles, what their high traffic conversion rate wasn't. Actually. We looked at the quick maps and their team with us helping look through the data so that they were getting a ton of clicks on an image that wasn't clickable. Why? Yeah, exactly what's going on. People want to click it because people not online to click it, it has no factor what we want.

00:14:28:09 - 00:14:29:18
Alex
People wanted to click that image.

00:14:29:19 - 00:14:33:24
Vin
And that's frustrating to the end user, right? I'd be like, like I was right.

00:14:34:01 - 00:14:58:07
Alex
It's a term called bracelet. You get five clicks right in a row. It's ridiculous. Yeah. So we said, let's try, let's experiment. What if we made that go to an offer? That's tangent because there was something there was intended for the user. Sure. So we link that image in, in kind of contrast what's going around. It drove them to this offer and I think they sold like a 40 to 50% increase in leads to.

00:14:58:07 - 00:15:00:20
Vin
That and 40 to 50% for making.

00:15:00:22 - 00:15:01:15
Alex
An image.

00:15:01:17 - 00:15:05:19
Vin
They never did it early. Did here that 40 to 50% increase in just from.

00:15:05:19 - 00:15:32:19
Alex
One the lead conversions to that right over matter of days because they were getting good traffic to that article and it followed through. Yeah. Now then off the top of my head, I don't know where that letter from sales. Right. But that's one example of we didn't just stick with what we wanted. If we started looking at what users are doing and you may not find that done the rest of the time, but if you're not looking, you're never going to find the data, right?

00:15:32:21 - 00:15:46:15
Vin
It's going to be on your radar. Otherwise you're never and I like you said to earlier about AB testing where you get like you made a change that click through to a form that didn't work and then you can switch up that for me and try to change the experience so you can do different tests to see what it yields.

00:15:46:15 - 00:16:01:19
Vin
And I think that's really a fascinating piece. So for business owners, right, What where do you draw the line or like how do you measure budgets when it comes to like keeping costs down or trying to stay efficient? Because not everyone can spend 20, 30, $40,000 on a website redesign, right?

00:16:01:20 - 00:16:24:21
Alex
Yeah, it it goes into what are you willing to invest to see what you're hoping to get out of it right. And depending on the text and depending on what you built, you may need to add into this for the long term. You may have to build that. That's the reasons why I did those things. On HubSpot. With HubSpot CRM as pro, you have all the tools that you have easy testing.

00:16:24:23 - 00:16:50:08
Alex
You can get that from among those things like that. But as you're looking at what you need to ask, it's a goes into what your team makeup is, where you need to drive the results from this website. Then you don't have people that can help keep it alive after your audit. Looking at having an agency too, which can be a bridge as you progress or your website is going to be your business.

00:16:50:10 - 00:17:14:11
Alex
So as you look at what you're about to invest, it's how fast do I need results? Right? Websites are not instant gratification things, even if you revamped it tomorrow, there's time for SEO things, right? Search engines have to recall it's going to be a longer play, but then investment can be tripled for starters, depending on where you need to go.

00:17:14:13 - 00:17:34:20
Alex
And one of our key studies group, after we talk about them a lot like their website started generating I think it was $290,000 in leads a month or something like that. Yeah, they're testing, they're looking at the feedback that the initial investment small compared to that. Right. That's a lot of revenue per user and optimize one site. Yeah.

00:17:34:22 - 00:17:40:14
Alex
And it depends on the size of the company. It depends on what you're looking at, how complex your site actually needs to be.

00:17:40:14 - 00:17:55:09
Vin
So I mean those are really good points. I have another question for for our listeners, for our audience out there, especially for business leaders and owners that are thinking about redesigning their websites, how can they keep costs down or people that have budget in mind that are very like, you know, have to be mindful of their budgets?

00:17:55:11 - 00:18:04:19
Vin
You know, websites can cost a lot of money. So what are things that you definitely should spend money on versus things that maybe you can add over time or just to keep costs? Yeah, Yeah.

00:18:04:21 - 00:18:21:16
Alex
There's a lot of things that come to mind when you talk about controlling costs, right? So functionality is something that's going to drive costs up over design. And I say over design because a lot of companies want flash, they want glitter reading from the front page of their website and everything.

00:18:21:16 - 00:18:24:02
Vin
Flying right and innovations and all.

00:18:24:02 - 00:18:42:22
Alex
Of that is functionality of things that can add to cost or add to what a team needs to optimize around. But I'm not saying that you should not have a well design esthetic on your website. It needs to look moderate, it needs to feel good for the user totally. But there's a line where you remember the worst design website you've ever seen.

00:18:42:22 - 00:18:59:14
Alex
You've likely see one in the last three days, but I'm going to challenge everyone listening to tell me the best examples that they've seen in the last couple of weeks, because you don't remember that. It's something that you notice when the designs that you don't notice. That's good. And that is something that can for a lot of companies.

00:18:59:14 - 00:19:19:10
Alex
They want to spend a lot of time on design because it's something that you can see, right? It's the visuals of the website. It's one of the first impressions. Yeah, but that is also one place we control cost efficient in your design process and focus on what actually gives the best return on that initial investment content and strategy, mapping out what that needs to be.

00:19:19:12 - 00:19:37:21
Alex
So as you look at what you're about to go through with the website, who you're talking to needs to explain where those levers can be increased or decreased. Right? If we need to go through logo redesigns, your design budgets tend to go up a little bit if we need to build out crazy custom calculators because you have them, they're integral.

00:19:37:23 - 00:20:03:03
Alex
Your budget will likely go up a little bit. Now with building that in a new way, you should have more benefits to those types of tools that there should be ways to automate, follow and better segment your users from that. But those are all factors that need to be brought into what that initial budget looks like. My opinion and my plan is always what does it need to look like if we really are budget conscious?

00:20:03:05 - 00:20:20:16
Alex
What is that first step? Not an MVP, because an MVP immediately makes it look it's not a fully fleshed out website. You just duct it. But what does a full first step need to be? And then what is face to face? Three as you're looking at what the data tells you and what you can add in to improve things?

00:20:20:18 - 00:20:39:23
Vin
Yeah, I like that. And building off of it like different stages, different phases, as you're saying, because I think all too often we see I need to redesign my site because it needs to look better in a new logos and you spend a lot of money on design and a lot of money on those pieces. And then the CRM becomes an of thought and then it's like, we're not tracking data, but it's okay.

00:20:39:23 - 00:20:54:17
Vin
Is our logos really great, right? That doesn't always give you the results that you want. So those are things to keep in mind and really thinking strategically about like, Hey, actually you're Sierra as the most important piece to be able to track and manage this data so we can report on it correctly and then phase two or three.

00:20:54:17 - 00:20:57:24
Vin
Then we can worry about redesigning your logo or whatever those.

00:20:57:24 - 00:21:15:07
Alex
Those other pieces are. It's nice to have the esthetics. The esthetics should fall secondary to the right concept, to the right messaging into the right user during the strategy on the website. And so often companies will focus on esthetics and not because strategy around content.

00:21:15:07 - 00:21:32:09
Vin
They're not so true. Yeah, and ideally in a perfect world we want both. But it cost is a is a factor, which it usually is. I would highly recommend and it sounds like you're saying the same thing that data is king and that all of the other stuff is just really fluff and it can be sorted out later.

00:21:32:11 - 00:21:56:18
Alex
At that point, if budget is the biggest thing, there's a lot of foundational optimized themes that you can use to build a website fairly quickly, and that's one of the recommendations that I sometimes give because on the content strategy, we don't need to do something super duper custom designed for you. Let's create a better website with stronger content and a plan, and then we can always build on top of that stable foundation, right?

00:21:56:19 - 00:21:57:10
Alex
Absolutely.

00:21:57:15 - 00:22:16:06
Vin
Yeah, absolutely. So is another question that I have. This is a big one that's like kind of a loaded question. So I'm going to vanguard you by saying, get ready when you're redoing your website as a business owner. The decision, the decision that is always on the table is like, what agency do I take this design agency? Do I pick this web company?

00:22:16:10 - 00:22:34:24
Vin
Do I take it in-house and hire a web developer to do it? For me, that's a big decision to me. So it sounds like there's a lot of decisions in this process, but especially for this one, what do you typically recommend and what can people expect dealing with an agency or design company versus in-house? And like the pros and cons of all that.

00:22:35:01 - 00:23:02:08
Alex
It's a very, very, very big expense. Yeah, it depends on what your current team structure looks like. It depends on what you plan to bring your team structure to be. But it does come down to one kind of question in mind, right, is do we want to be able to own this website in-house long term, or do we want to have an agency that's going to do all things for us if we can't make changes or post content or do the things that we want to?

00:23:02:10 - 00:23:20:08
Alex
Yeah, that's that is the question I start with, because you can go to some agencies that will build it in a way that is easy for the end market or for the end clients to actually take, and they are the ones that will keep taking money month over month to make updates and companies see the results of that.

00:23:20:08 - 00:23:41:05
Alex
Some companies see great results. With that, you could also go the route of To your point, I want to set a developer. I want someone that's going to build this thing full cycle in-house and be able to meet an IT. That's a route you could go. But then what happens if a developer says, I'm done here now, no one can control your website?

00:23:41:05 - 00:24:00:18
Alex
Those are some of the conversations we have around homegrown websites connected to a homegrown CNS, and there is a technical debt that can be attributed to some of that. But it is about some companies go because they do have crazy complex custom stuff. One of the routes that we are that we would recommend right, is work with someone.

00:24:00:18 - 00:24:15:05
Alex
They can build a website that will set you up for the law, that foundation you set up in the right way, but it's built in strategize with the end user in mind. But the marketing that's going to go up, the content creator content optimizer you.

00:24:15:05 - 00:24:16:22
Vin
user journey around

00:24:16:22 - 00:24:42:16
Vin
Content and attachments that to users that change things. That is one of the questions that I would ask as you go through that initial process. What is phase two and three of this? What is the long term part of the website and how do you all factor it? Am I going to be paying you month over month for maintenance and ongoing support and monitoring, or am I going to pay you for training and conversion rate optimization?

00:24:42:16 - 00:24:50:06
Vin
Looking at the data? What is it? Go in between there because there's all different packages that companies are put together.

00:24:50:08 - 00:24:57:05
Alex
And all companies aren't the same. There's different industries and businesses and all that. So this I know it's again a loaded, very loaded question here.

00:24:57:07 - 00:25:21:16
Vin
Those are some of the questions to ask. So what what is the long term plan for the website and how do you factor into that? What is your and I get this question a lot. What's your maintenance and support packages look like? If you've ever been on the call with me, you've heard this. I don't like meetings to support packages because that is just you having a lifeline at a crunch.

00:25:21:18 - 00:25:30:24
Vin
Instead of being able to do it yourself. Now, if something technical happens, we're here to support. But taking a couple hundred bucks a month just to be there, it's not a big value.

00:25:31:01 - 00:25:48:05
Alex
Right? And a lot of times it's almost like I just I call it my fat tax on Planet Fitness, but I don't go to the gym. I stop at the ten bucks a month. Right. It's almost the same idea where like, yeah, you're paying this money to an agency that you're not leveraging, you're using. So you're basically just throw it away for them to be ready if you need them.

00:25:48:05 - 00:26:06:09
Vin
Right? And that is one of the questions to ask. What is that ongoing piece look like? If something goes wrong, how do you factor it if we're not going to be on an ongoing retainer, What is that project to project basis? What happens if I need to do this in the future? Yeah, those are conversations that need to happen.

00:26:06:11 - 00:26:24:14
Vin
So you understand what that initial investment looks like with some of the potential long term costs look like and making sure that you have your hand wrapped around what you're about to create for your company. So you don't give a lot of that technical debt stuff that was just created over the long haul that needs to be fixed.

00:26:24:16 - 00:26:25:11
Vin
Yeah.

00:26:25:13 - 00:26:45:17
Alex
Yeah. So key takeaways for me, it really sounds like if you're getting into redesigning your website, you should really be thinking about it as a sales tool to help drive more leads in traffic to your sales team so that they have a pocket full of potential opportunities. Right? But then also thinking about the fact that it's not just to set it and forget it, it's a living, breathing.

00:26:45:17 - 00:27:00:07
Alex
Part of your organization is a sales tool that needs to be updated and changed as your service and your business, as you said. So those are things that people really ask, keep in mind. But before we go, is there anything else, any other major takeaways that we should say about. All right, before we wrap up here today.

00:27:00:09 - 00:27:04:13
Vin
Make sure you're reporting on it. Otherwise you will never see that one

00:27:04:13 - 00:27:17:09
Vin
Folks are closing that reporting loop and make sure that you can actually see what you're getting out of your investment. So often companies don't put the time into that reporting and then it's just a giant question mark I want to rely on.

00:27:17:09 - 00:27:19:04
Vin
That website plan was.

00:27:19:06 - 00:27:30:13
Alex
Absolutely going to bring more been great insights. Thank you for your time. It's great having you on the show always to people to follow questions. I want to talk more about web design redesigns, anything that has to do with development, How can they get.

00:27:30:15 - 00:27:33:19
Vin
Rich unlimited or give you a coach? Edit That was.

00:27:33:19 - 00:27:58:03
Vin
All right. And that's our show. So thank you for tuning in to the Endless Customers podcast. We really appreciate you listening. And we will see you on the next episode. And hey, don't forget that we have episodes every Monday and Wednesday releasing on all major platforms, so be sure to go subscribe. That way you won't miss out on how you can earn trust and win customers in the age of AI.

About this Episode

At its best, a website is your best salesperson — one who never sleeps or takes a vacation. Day after day, month after month, your website is out there attracting leads and turning them into customers. 

But at its worst, a website is a money pit. An endless liability that’s a buggy, outdated, poor reflection of your business.

The reality is that most business sites are somewhere in between. But because they can be an enormous expense, each business should evaluate the ROI of its website investment. 

To do so, says Vin Gaeta, head of web strategy here at IMPACT, they must first shift their perception of what a website can be. Most businesses, according to Vin, think of their website as purely a marketing venture. A necessary expense they need to dump money into every few years.  

But a website can actually be a tool that drives revenue.

"If you're actually putting the right things in place,” Vin says, “your ROI should be more than leads and traffic. You should be seeing a considerable drop in your time to close."

So, how do you improve the ROI of your website redesign? According to Vin, you must keep the following in mind.

  • Keep your costs down. You’ll pay for design, development, and strategy — as well as ongoing maintenance and upkeep. Go into the whole process having done as much research as possible. Be skeptical of agencies making too-good-to-be-true claims and be clear about what happens after the launch.
  • Turn your website into an educational tool. The primary purpose of your website should be to provide potential buyers with the information they need to become actual customers. Create unbiased, informative content that’s easy to filter and search. This way, your site is more than a digital billboard. It’s an actual sales tool that can help prospects become qualified. 
  • Improve your conversion paths. A convoluted website will cause frustration. Make sure your messaging is tight, your CTAs are clear, and your lead capture tools are appropriate. Make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for on your site. 
  • Learn to manage it yourself. Websites are never complete. Just as your business changes (new products, new people), your website needs updating and improvements. If you have to call up your agency (or a freelancer) every time you need something changed, your long-term costs could be staggering
  • Remember, user data is a goldmine. The best insight into how your site works doesn’t come from theory or guesswork. It comes from actual user data: clicks, heatmaps, form fills and more. "That's where the ROI long-term comes in for your website,” says Vin. “learning from what it's telling you."

If you’re ready to enter into a website project, start by updating your mindset. Instead of seeing your site as a bottomless marketing expense, think of it as a soon-to-be essential sales tool. This will change the way you speak to your designers and developers.  

With the right approach, your website can be an investment that can actually yield a return. 

Connect with Vin

Vin Gaeta is IMPACT’s head of web strategy. He leads a team of designers, developers, and strategists to provide full-scale website redesigns for our clients. 

Get to know Vin

Connect with Vin on LinkedIn

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Endless Customers is a podcast produced and distributed by IMPACT, a sales and marketing training organization.

We coach businesses to implement our They Ask, You Answer framework to build trust and fill their pipeline. 

For inquiries about sponsorship opportunities or to be considered as a guest, email awinter@impactplus.com.

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