Yes, we do.
But not as you know them.
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As many of you know, when we started the business that became Moment over a year ago, we didn't "do websites".
We said it wasn't our background and it wasn't something we wanted to employ people to do. We said we were "communications" specialists, not "development" specialists.
Fundamentally, that position hasn't changed. We don't "develop" or "build" websites from the ground up. But the fact is that for many businesses (not all) these days...that's simply not necessary.
To understand why, first you have to ask the right questions.
What is a website?
Asking, "do you do websites?" this year is akin to asking, "do you do social media?"
Yes, we offer content, community management and creative advertising solutions for social media, but we didn't "develop" or "build" the platforms you know and love. We leave the "development" to Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. We do the "communications".
Like your social media channels, your website is an "owned" communication platform. It's a space on the web for you to present what you do to your past, present and potential customers. And like social media channels, nowadays, you don't have to "develop" them yourself.
Platforms now exist that simply didn't 5, 10 or 15 years ago. You'll have likely heard of Wix, Shopify, Weebly and our personal favourite: Squarespace. These allow you (or your communications partner) to create your website with minimal fuss. One that looks great, works on every device and focuses on what matters most to your business right now: the content that will engage and convert your consumers.
Why Squarespace?
So, why have we decided to partner with Squarespace in order to create websites for our clients? Largely, it's due to the (and we’re no longer afraid to say this) appalling nature of website design and development in the farther reaches of the UK (outside of major conurbations).
This is not absolute. We know superb website companies all around the country: specialists in specific platforms, features or functionality. Big companies, who need their websites to perform very specific tasks, such as "apps" for e.g. customer management, order tracking, specialised resource management, etc.; will need to work with a partner who offers such a customised solution. And we're more than happy to recommend and refer them.
However, before we do, we analyse what a business truly needs from their website and then recommend the best way to move forward. We do this neither by what we think we can get away with selling them, nor by what they may think they want. We look to their fundamental requirements. We also understand that needs change and that what works for you today, won't work forever and what worked 10 years ago, almost certainly won't be optimal now.
Your current and next target audience, the size of your business and growth ambitions, your products and services; all determine what solution is most advisable for you to adopt in the present moment and how long it's likely to be relevant for. If you'll outgrow the platform tomorrow, it's likely not right for now. But, if you won't need advanced technical capabilities for a year or more, you probably don't need to spend mutiple thousands today.
Ultimately, we have encountered far too many times, businesses who were sadly sold a solution some time ago, that simply isn't fit for purpose anymore. At best, it might be very capable in some ways, but too hard to update with regular content (imperative to win online this year). At worst, it will have hardly been updated at all for a number of years and will be unsecured (without an SSL certificate) meaning amongst other things that Google will be increasingly less likely to rank the site well.
Squarespace helps us to solve all of these challenges for our clients, ensuring that sites we make work across devices “out-of'-the-box”, perform from a “search engine optimisation” (SEO) perspective from launch and are easy to update with fresh content to increase your visibility and convert your customers moving forward.
Made By Moment
So, what do we do differently? What kind of website can you expect a modern marketing agency to deliver?
We follow three simple steps:
Mix
We'll work with you to choose a platform and layout mix that best fits your current needs and will serve you well for the period ahead. We will focus on the features and functionality you need, at a cost that's appropriate for you right now.
Manipulate
We know Squarespace inside and out, allowing us to optimise your current content to work on a platform that's responsive and mobile-optimised by default. We can audit your existing content, transfer what's good and will work to create new content as required. Manipulating images, graphics and words to communicate your offering most effectively is our bread and butter.
Maximise
A successful website project doesn't finish at the launch. In addition to being focused on the content that matters most to your customers, every website we create is maximised for search engines like Google and Bing by default and we can recommend modern marketing solutions to ensure they remain effective on an ongoing basis.
And what does it cost for us to create your website? Well first off, if you're a "retained" client of ours (meaning you engage us to provide modern marketing services to you each month) then depending on the size of your retainer, we may offer to "re-platform" your existing website free-of-charge.
For "one-off" projects or "single-service" clients, we charge only £1,500 for re-platforming an existing website or creating a new website from scratch, where all content (e.g. images and text) are provided.
Additional costs include:
Annual domain name registration fee (dependant upon registrar)
Monthly technology fee (includes both the platform and hosting costs, approx. £15 per month)
Additional content as required (e.g. images and text, quoted in advance)
Additional modern marketing services as required (e.g. social media and advertising, quoted separately)
"Yeah yeah but, do you do websites?"
We don't hard sell websites. Most of the sites we create are to replace outdated solutions that have been built on antiquated platforms with methods not suitable for the purposes of modern marketing.
However, why would you have a website if you aren't using it to sell? And, if you can't easily update it, it won't be as effective as possible at increasing your sales this year and beyond.
You can ask us to see examples of websites "Made By Moment" and if there's anything at all you'd like to discuss, please just message the team for a chat: modernmarketing@momentagencies.com.
Here's to a great year and a better website experience for you and your customers, now and in the future.
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