{"id":28614,"date":"2014-11-02T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/old.futurelab.digital\/blog\/failure-to-launch-why-so-many-businesses-struggle-to-put-new-websites-live\/"},"modified":"2014-11-02T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-02T11:00:00","slug":"failure-to-launch-why-so-many-businesses-struggle-to-put-new-websites-live","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.futurelab.digital\/nz\/failure-to-launch-why-so-many-businesses-struggle-to-put-new-websites-live\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure to launch: why so many businesses struggle to put new websites live"},"content":{"rendered":"

Working with clients on their web design can be a diverse experience. Some clients need everything done YESTERDAY and really pile the pressure on, especially if they have outsourced their work to us. Other clients seem to have no discernible timeframe, happily waiting months to review the website that is otherwise ready to launch. Either way is fine by us, but we sometimes wonder if clients have really thought about the returns from their website and whether they are maximising on their investment.<\/p>\n

However, far and away the worst cases are those customers who already have a website developed \u2013 but not yet launched. Take the following scenario. While discussing web development options with a client, who has a very outdated site, we\u2019ve been surprised to learn that they have already invested in new web design. That new website is almost ready, but it\u2019s lacking content, or someone to upload the products, or the company owner to spend time reviewing everything. Meanwhile, that website sits there, a significant investment, perhaps also a slow money drain \u2013 and NOT bringing the increased website traffic, brand awareness, and sales that it was designed to do. This is a crazy situation! And sadly, one we have seen a few times just in our local area of Takapuna and the wider North Shore.<\/p>\n

Four reasons why delaying your website launch spells bad news<\/h2>\n

[ordered_list]<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. You\u2019re losing out on opportunity every, single, day. The business owners with a new website sitting in the pipeline often seem to be the same ones with the oldest, least useable websites! It\u2019s a good idea to make your website mobile-responsive, which your old one probably isn\u2019t. Consumers prefer more and more to search and shop from their mobile phones, and they sure won\u2019t be sticking around on a website that doesn\u2019t offer them a prime user experience.<\/li>\n
  2. You\u2019re not putting your marketing strategy into action. Presumably when you made that decision to get a new website, months or even years ago, you had some kind of plan in mind. Increase sales! Improve customer experience! Gain more market share! Even if you didn\u2019t have a specific marketing plan, it clearly made sense at the time to make that investment. So why isn\u2019t it important anymore?<\/li>\n
  3. Your hard-earned, well-spent money is going to waste. Do you expect to pay for a fridge, a TV, or a car, only to be told that you can only start enjoying that item in 6 or 12 months? No! When we put down our money, we expect the rewards to follow straight after. So it seems odd that business people would adopt a totally different ideology when it comes to their website investment.<\/li>\n
  4. Your window for return on investment (ROI) is diminishing. We believe this is the number one aspect that website owners don\u2019t take into account. Websites are not diamond rings. They do not last forever. No one, not even those in the industry, can possibly predict what innovations or changes might occur in the next 5 years \u2013 not even in the next 2 years to be honest. Technology wiggles and jumps at the snap of your fingers. Did you even know what a mobile-responsive website was last year, or two years ago? So it\u2019s foreseeable that you may want to change your website again in the future. That means the return on investment from your current website also exists in a timeframe. Hanging around for a year because you haven\u2019t got the time might be cutting your possible ROI window by 20%-40%!<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [\/ordered_list]<\/p>\n

    We\u2019re frustrated on behalf of these business owners, who have invested a significant amount of time and money in the past, and are still not seeing any return on their investment. In fact, some could be losing money, paying their monthly fees while their brand new website slowly languishes, unseen and useless to the business.<\/p>\n

    So what on earth is delaying the launch of these websites? Anecdotally, it seems to be one or a combination of the following factors:<\/p>\n

    One part of the website requires a specialist<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    In this situation, everything is ready to go on the new website. Everything except<\/em> that one small thing that really, no one in the office knows much about, or that you need a professional for. This could be anything from the content, high-quality images, or adding a really important new page that you forgot about at the time of development.<\/p>\n

    Everyone is too busy<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    The reason why countless tasks are left sitting on the to-do list for eternity! To the boss\u2019s eyes, the daily running of the business is just far more important than a task which won\u2019t help with the sales backlog, or customer satisfaction, or meeting deadlines. Unfortunately, the internal jobs often get shuffled to the bottom of the priority list in a customer-facing company. Above all, jobs which aren\u2019t going to give an immediate return will be the lowest of the low. Day-to-day business organisation and management often has no place for the longer-term investment. Therefore if it is staff who are responsible for overseeing the website, perhaps they have not been allocated enough time to properly see this job out the door.<\/p>\n

    Waiting for the business owner\u2019s approval<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    If the staff are too busy to work on finishing the new website, the business owner will usually be ten times busier! This is especially true in a small business where nothing is really delegated and the business owner may have numerous projects on their plate. If the CEO wants to review every part of the website or is even responsible for its completion, that\u2019s going to take time that often company owners just don\u2019t have. This job might be relegated to \u2018weekend work\u2019 but it\u2019s unlikely to get done if it\u2019s not properly scheduled.<\/p>\n

    Bottom of the priority list<\/strong><\/h3>\n

    No time is allocated to finishing the website, no work is done trying to find the right people to finish off the job, and no extra money is sunk into this project that company owners may start wishing they never undertook. And we could hardly blame them if they became a little bitter. The downpayment all those months ago and the ongoing costs haven\u2019t produced any results worth speaking of. The current website is working just fine and there may be vague plans to launch the new one but no real deadlines set.<\/p>\n

    \"No
    No time to complete your unfinished website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    <\/h2>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Why complete your unfinished website ASAP?<\/h2>\n

    It doesn’t have to be this way. <\/strong>These situations occur when a company decides to complete a portion of the work at a later date. This isn\u2019t the experience you deserved to have when setting out to build a new website. Playing it differently next time might land you different results, which we\u2019ll look at later on. For now, you\u2019ll need to brace yourself and properly allocate extra resources to launch this website once and for all, and soon. Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

    Yes, you\u2019ve already invested,<\/strong> perhaps thousands of dollars, who knows. But a relatively modest amount would actually start that investment return rolling. There\u2019s nothing you can do about a sunk cost; what you can do is spend say $1000 now in resources to get back many times that in return. Since the website is mainly done, the smaller amount of money you put in now would give you a return on the entire website \u2013 in other words, a rather smart investment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Tick something off your to-do list<\/strong>. Your website\u2019s been in beta for however many months. It\u2019s been hanging around at the back of your mind and constantly seems like too big a task to take on. But it\u2019s really just down to a handful of small steps. Wouldn’t it be great to finally tick the project off the list?<\/p>\n

    As we already said, the sooner you can get the website project launched, the sooner you\u2019ll start seeing a return on your investment \u2013 and those returns won\u2019t continue indefinitely since technology is always progressing. Follow the points below for a practical guide to launching your website in the next month.<\/p>\n

    How to finish and launch your website<\/h2>\n

    [vc_text_separator title=’Start today’ title_align=’separator_align_center’ border=’no’ border_color=” background_color=’rgba(148,148,148,1)’ text_color=”]
    \nTake the project and break it down into smaller steps. No, you can\u2019t finish off the website this week. But you can do any of the following:<\/p>\n

    [unordered_list style=’circle’ number_type=’transparent’ animate=’no’ font_weight=’normal’]<\/p>\n