I recently was ask by a prospect, “Why can’t I just use Wix.com to create my own web site?”.
I thought and replied, “Good question”. If this prospect has that question, then it is safe to say that others are thinking the same. I also thought, “That would make a great blog post”.
First, let us look under the hood of Wix.com and see what you get with a, “free”, online content management system or web-builder.
With the help from my friend and E-business marketing major at the Haworth School of Business at WMU, Joe Williams, we address the subject of inexpensive content management systems as they apply to industrial marketing.
Wix, Squarespace, and many other content management systems have recently been developed to make website building easier than ever. You may have come across advertisements for these types of CMS, asking, “Why not build a website myself?” From Joe’s experience, Wix is a very user-friendly platform that can be used to develop a clean, professional website with no programming experience.
The main benefit of Wix and others is that the platform is “drag and drop”. This means, if you can add an attachment to an email you can manage content on your Wix website.
With a wide variety of customizable options, you have the opportunity to select features that will fit your business. Interactive gridlines built into Wix will help you create a website that is balanced and professional. The site has hundreds of templates. Depending on your experience, you can select graphic concepts from available templates or develop your own using blank templates. Either way, your website can look as professional as if you paid a world-class web developer.
Once you select your design, Wix has several applications that can be dragged onto your web page. There are plenty of free apps provided by Wix. There are also paid apps that can improve the functionality of your website. Applications for social media as well as e-commerce are available, all with no programming knowledge.
With the growth of mobile use, it is critical to have a website that is functional on a phone or tablet. Wix’s platform automatically builds your website using “responsive design” so your customer’s can easily view it on mobile devices.
Another important aspect was PCI compliance. If you intend to build your website with a shopping cart, you will be happy to hear that Wix is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards.
When it comes to pricing and storage, Wix has a variety of different options. You can choose between five price tiers spanning from $4 to $25/month. Wix also has storage options from of 500MB- 20GB. In addition, many of the plans come with a free domain and many vouchers for social ads and other marketing resources.
All things considered, Wix is a very interactive and easy to use option for a personal webpage and even for a business planning to expand to e-commerce. The variety of options enables the user to develop a great website with a lot of up-to-date designs and usable features.
That being said, I think more aggressive industrial companies would benefit from more robust content management systems such as Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, etc. If your industrial company believes the web is a future channel to market, then using Wix, Foursquare and others will leave you wanting more almost immediately.
For the moment, forget about the software and all the cool features that Wix or even WordPress have.
Forget about the fact that products such as Wix lack many SEO features that Drupal, WordPress have, lack ability to customize, etc….the more important question is, “What IS your industrial marketing strategy?”
That fact is, your buyer has changed. So your website… AND your web strategy must change as well.
Stay with me on this.
Your customer, increasingly, no longer wants to read your ads, see your salesperson or go to your trade show. He simply wants to find his answers about pricing, problems, competitors, reviews, etc. on his own by going to Google.
Your buyers are doing all their front-end research and not meeting your sales group until they have traveled down the buyer’s road…70% closer to a purchase decision.
Your website and web marketing strategy should consider how your website is going to answer your prospects’ questions and provide industry expertise. Don’t be so concerned about the look, feel and features of your web site.
Bottomline.
If your company needs an additional website for a smaller division, a specific or unique product brand or staff that might be doing some outside consulting, Wix and others are perfect.
However, if you are building your Mothership website using products such as Wix, then you are missing the point.
Build your internet marketing strategy around your customer’s needs. Build your internet marketing strategy around building your company’s brand and top-of-mind expertise. Build your internet marketing strategy around gaining more leads and closing more deals.
Typically, if your are using products such as Wix, you are taking shortcuts and have not thought about opportunities that await your industrial company on the web.
Maybe you are ready to raise your hand and say “Help”. Click the graphic below for a COMPLIMENTARY 30 minute consultation.
