Your website has the potential to drive a huge percentage of your brand awareness and new business, but only if it’s designed and built effectively. A quality custom website is worth investing in, allowing you to express your brand’s narrative and convert users into leads.
If you know your website is dated or underperforming, make sure you factor a new one into your 2021 marketing budget. Determine if it’s time to invest in a new site, and learn how to create your custom website budget.
Do I Need a New Website?
An outdated site isn’t an effective, impactful representation of your brand. If you’re wondering if it’s time for a refresh, look for these indicators.
- Your site is 3-5 years old or older.
- It has performance issues, like slow speeds or it isn’t mobile-friendly.
- If it no longer serves your marketing purposes or reflects your brand accurately.
If you answered yes to any of the above, it’s time to think about overhauling your website with a custom solution that suits your company better.
How Much Should I Spend on a Custom Website?
The best way to set a realistic budget for your site is to reach out to your web design company to get a better understanding of what it will take to build out a site with the features you need. Sharing what you’re looking for, and getting their recommendations based on your goals, will help you determine how much of your marketing budget you should be dedicating to a new site.
What’s Your Annual Marketing Budget?
While marketing spend varies wildly from industry to industry and by business size, in general the US Small Business Administration recommends that small companies dedicate 7 - 8% of their gross revenue to marketing. The exact number you determine is realistic for your company depends on your brand’s goals for the year, but outlining an overall marketing budget will help you determine what percentage of that budget you can allocate to a new website.
What Are Your Goals for Your Site?
What are you looking for in a new website? Defining your goals can help you gain a better understanding of the brand experience your custom website should create. Do you need your site to capture leads, drive online sales, bring in new traffic from search engines, or integrate with a certain software such as employee training?
What Features Are You Looking for?
Based on what you know about your organization’s goals for your new site, you can get a better feel for the features you’ll need. Making a list of must-have features will help you get a better idea of what kind of budget you’ll need for your new site. Consider options such as:
- Does your site need ecommerce functionality?
- Do you need your site to include a learning management system for training?
- Should it integrate with a client portal?
These features can enrich your customer experience, so make sure you know what you’re looking for and work with a team that can implement them effectively.
Are you looking to improve your marketing with a new website in 2021? Take a moment to dive into some of our previous work to get a feel for the features and design elements that can help your website shine. Learn more.
