Money means nothing if it isn’t connected to a client you actually helped, and once that doesn’t happen, you can kiss the credibility of your brand goodbye!
Champagne Taste And Mauby Money
With unemployment numbers on the rise locally, two things are happening: Many professionals are waking up to the challenge of owning their own business but also, becoming more frugal with their spending. At this stage, those falling in the bracket of investing in a website are attempting to accomplish three main things. They want to make it easier for clients to work with them and, earn money and put their business online. What they don’t want, is an excess of more spending before they’ve had a chance to actually make a profit.
Squarespace charges 3% USD to transact a sale with their business plan. And while the option to upgrade to their commerce plan removes that fee, it’s replaced with costly hosting, ranging from $26-$30 USD or $40–46 USD yearly or monthly, respectively. In other words, considering Trinidad and Tobago’s exchange rates, you stand to leak too much money upfront, and this is a huge deal for clients without big budgets at their disposal.
On the other hand, these prices are great, if you live in the US and operate a US-based business or you’re an established local business making money on a consistent basis, in which case, shelling out approximately 3-4 thousand TTD’s a year on hosting wouldn’t be an issue. But I’m going to go out on a limb here and presume that those this message will resonate with, are neither of the aforementioned.
So, what do you do when you want to invest in “the best product”?
I’ll let you in on a little secret. Honestly, a product is only the best if it’s in alignment with your needs. Peter Drucker said, “the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him or her and sells itself.”
WIX is perfect for local small business owners focused on putting the best foot they have now, forward online. There are no transactional fees and hosting starts as low as $4.50 USD and goes all the way up to $24.50 USD (take a look). The platform is versatile enough to achieve the only level of functionality you’ll need from a service-based website, which is to schedule meetings or calls and accept payments. Anything remotely additional isn’t a prerequisite for success. In fact, that road revolves around the conversation you create that leads to a call or a payment; not how many font styles are available to you or the varying levels of complexities in your design.
Local designers constantly miss this point because they’re too busy playing ‘dress up’ with words that they don’t truly stand by. Uhh, are you consumed by the idea of understanding and meeting the needs of a specific group of people you work with?… Probably not.
When you really understand what your clients’ goals are, you’re better equipped to choose tools to work with, that will undoubtedly benefit them.
These platforms were all designed for a specific user with very specific needs. Choosing the right one for the clients you work with, is about the view from the other side, your client’s perspective and truthfully isolating what that looks like. Maybe those you serve can afford a platform like Squarespace or perhaps special functionality is what your clients are after, in which case, Wordpress might be the better option. Whatever your reasons might be, the objective is to make it about the customer as much as possible. That way, when you share said reasons, you come across more thoughtful and insightful to those who need you instead of self-centered and lacking discernment.
So what, Wix codes aren’t open source, but neither is Squarespace. That’s a qualitative strategy the company employs that ensures your site is always in proper working condition. The strategy is no different from what Apple did with their products. Where are the voices who complain about that? I guess the continued success of Apple’s sales drowned them out. End users are already allergic to complicated websites, much more glitches, and broken links. Focus on the bigger picture.
If you work mainly with service-businesses, help your clients create relationships around the credibility of their voice online that will lead to business. Use tools that reflect what you truly understand about them, instead of making it more about your preference.
This is why I use WIX, so my clients can realize and ALSO sustain their investment. Why do you use what you use?
I am the Founder and Visual Brand Strategist at The BrandTUB **Get online in one day with The One-Page™ **Schedule a call a call to see if you're a good fit **Sign up to receive these weekly articles in your inbox if you’re not quite ready to work with me yet.
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