Is Your Website Rightsized?
Launching a website in one day requires being crystal clear on what really needs to be on your new website.
One of the pre-work questions in my Launch In A Day intake process asks clients what features and functionalities they want or need on their website.
Features like a blog, appointment booking, events, multiple languages, payment processing, announcement banners, and a newsletter sign up.
Almost without fail clients select everything. And they may need all these things…eventually.
For example, in our kick-off call when we talk about setting up the blog section of a website, I’ll ask the client if she’s got blog content ready. The answer is often not yet or one or two posts.
This really isn’t enough to get started.
I recommend having at least three solid (600+ words) posts ready to post and/or schedule at launch time.
Better yet, if you want to have a blog, you need to commit to regular posting and have a strategy for doing so.
Scheduling is another example. Having a way for clients to schedule (and pay) for your offerings is absolutely a key feature of any website for a business.
A prerequisite for appointment booking is having clearly defined services and packages. People won’t schedule or pay for something if it’s not clearly defined.
The same things goes for Email. No one is going to tell me you need to have an Email sign-up more than me.
However, if you are going to collect Email addresses, you’ll need an Email marketing service, a welcome sequence, and a basic Email marketing strategy. If you don’t have any of these things, get them figured out, and only then start collecting addresses.
A recent client, a coach just getting started with her practice, wanted appointment booking services. She wasn’t super comfortable with technology, and she didn’t have clearly defined offers yet.
She was right to get her website launched; she needed to hang out her digital shingle and get going. Engagement brings clarity. But she wasn’t ready for appointment booking software.
What I suggested: Let’s just start by doing everything over E-mail.
While this is hardly a sophisticated solution, it was something she was comfortable with and it would help her better understand what she would need in the future. In time she would get clarity around how to structure and price her services.
It’s easier to get started and get clarity on undefined parts of your business without a bunch of tech that you’re not ready for.
The feature my client needed - appointment booking, will make a lot more sense when she grows out of setting up appointments via Email and manually sending PayPal invoices.
This is what I mean by having a website that’s ‘rightsized’. It does what you need it to do in a way that you’re comfortable with and can manage yourself…for now.
It’s important to add, though, that the website needs to be able to grow with you. All of the features I mention above can (and most likely should) be added later. What I’m really talking about here is launching an MVP website, getting set-up with the basics to get started.
This is just one example. Other clients are really comfortable with tech, already have subscriptions to services that we can plug right into their sites and they’re off to the races. That is rightsized too.
The trick is understanding the sweet-spot between what you need on your website now and what you’ll need in the future.
Feel ready to get started with your website project?