Everyone wants to save time and money. And when you’re busy, time is money! Spend less time on repetitive tasks, and open your schedule for more productive work. Websites can often save you more money than they cost, here are some ideas for websites that will pay off in the long run.
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Digital Marketing Websites
This is usually what first comes to mind when people think of a ‘website’.
This is a website that is a brochure or advertisement for your business. It allows people to find your business using search engines and usually offers basic details and contact information. These often start with a classic 5 pages: Home, About, Contact, Services, and a news/blog page intended to be regularly updated.
In order to be effective in getting visitors through search results, this kind of website should be formatted in a way that allows search engines to understand your services. Additional landing pages geared towards popular relevant search terms may be added. Search Engines continuously update their algorithms and how they prioritise results. The aim of the search engine is to deliver useful websites to their users. Search engine optimisation should be balanced to ensure it doesn’t negatively affect the user experience on your website. Content marketing, is a way of promoting your website by providing useful or interesting content (articles or blog posts) to potential customers.
A digital marketing website is a form of advertising, and is often supported with a digital marketing campaign including paid ads on social media and google ads. This can be more affordable than advertising in traditional media. It can also allow you to tailor your advertising carefully so you are not wasting time advertising to people who do not need your product or service.
A digital marketing website is often just a starting point, and may also include any of the following.
Ecommerce Websites
Ecommerce websites allow you to sell products or services online.
Ecommerce Websites allow you to save time by accepting orders and processing payments automatically. In the case of digital products, they can also deliver the product.
Quote or Estimate Generation Websites
Save time by having an automated quote or estimate generated. You could have this integrated with your accounting software. You can have quotes sent out automatically, or keep the human touch. To save time while maintaining a personal touch, the website can generate a draft quote based on details received from potential customers. The draft is then reviewed by a staff member who also arranges a phone call or meeting with your potential customer to discuss the work.
Customer Support and F.A.Q. Websites
Save time on customer support, by making the answers to Frequently Asked Questions easily accessible. This could include an extensive FAQ list, a technical documentation library, online user manuals, forums where questions can be asked and answers made public to help others. Customer Support could also include integrating contact forms, pop-up chat windows, and chat bots.
Technical Documentation Websites
Make technical documentation and user manuals easy to search and navigate online. Many customers will check online for answers before contacting support. It can be helpful to include basic information in an easy to understand format, as well as more technical information for advanced users of your product or service.
Learning Management System (LMS) Websites
Save time on staff and customer education, by using online courses to deliver important information in an easily digestible manner.
Speed up your staff onboarding and ensure they have the technical knowledge required, by providing online courses that can be completed anywhere at any time.
You could also provide relevant learning to your customers, either for free to support your products and reduce customer support calls, or charge a fee for certification, to generate additional revenue and cover the cost of course development.
Event Ticketing Websites
An initial investment can set you up with an ecommerce website where you can sell tickets directly to your customers, with options to scan a QR code on the attendees entry to the event.
You will still pay your payment provider a small amount for processing the payment, but in most cases, this is significantly less than the per-ticket cost charged by third-party ticketing providers.
Having your own event ticketing through your website is a great option if you will be running events year after year.
QR code Websites
Websites designed to only be accessed via a QR code, usually from specific locations.
QR Code Reporting
In this example, a reporting website is used with onsite QR code posters, in a large area such as a warehouse or orchard.
QR codes are displayed in prominent places encouraging staff or contractors to report issues when noticed. Each QR code is associated with a location so the issue can be easily found by maintenance teams later.
When staff or contractors scan the QR code with their phone camera, a form comes up in the browser of their phone. This allows maintenance or health and safety issues to be quickly and easily logged without excessive interruption to workflow. An email can be generated to relevant teams, or the problems can be logged in a database, or both.
A QR code accessible site can be a simpler solution than using an app, in cases where short-term contractors or temp staff are often working. It reduces the time and effort in making a report. (eg. with some popular apps temp staff or contractors are having to download a different app for different locations, sign up for accounts, verify email addresses, and register to a location, all before a simple report can be submitted.)
Additional interactivity at an exhibit
Another example for a QR code accessible website is using a QR code next to features at an exhibit or event, providing additional information to attendees who are interested in learning more. This can save on sign printing costs, as QR code posters can be reused and the linked webpage adjusted to the occasion. The web page can also display a larger amount of information than is practical to print and can include video and audio media.
Requesting Donations
A frequently seen example is requesting and processing donations on entry at some art galleries, museums, and even hiking trails. This is because it is more affordable to set up a QR code poster linking to an ecommerce website, than it is to provide payment processing hardware or staff to process payments, at the location. Obviously, if entry payment is compulsory this isn’t a good option. But for collecting optional donations in an increasingly cashless society, it’s the perfect solution.
Online Booking Websites
Online booking saves a lot of time for people who use bookings when providing services. Spend less time on the phone, and have less back and forth over email. Link it up to your calendar so you don’t get double-booked.
You often see online booking websites for hairdressers, car servicing, vets and pet groomers, customer support services, and accomodation providers, pretty much if your business ever uses appointments, you can benefit from an online booking system.
Community or Social Websites, and Blogs
This includes classic online forums, social media, and blogs that allow discussion and comments.
These may require dedicated community managers to avoid spam and unsavoury content making it online.
However, in some cases community interaction can be invaluable for providing support and solutions to customers with technical problems.
Software as a Service (S.a.a.S.)
Software As A Service, is software provided over the internet, usually via a cloud-based service. It may look like a website and may involve a website, but behind the scenes, it often involves complex infrastructure and functionality beyond what the previously mentioned websites offer.
Another difference is that SaaS is intended to be your service product, and earn revenue. The previous websites I’ve mentioned are intended to support a core business (though of course, the core business could still be SaaS!)
Software as a Service usually uses subscription-based models. This supports the creators to continuously improve their product, (and replace it with something better at the end of the products lifecycle).
Examples of SaaS include Xero, Netflix, Salesforce, Microsoft 365, Zoom, and many many more.
SaaS products are also often integrated into other websites. Examples include booking systems like Calendly and payment processors like Stripe.
Use a Website to solve a Problem
The line between a ‘website’ and ‘software’ has blurred more and more over time. The benefit of technology moving online is that it can be accessed from anywhere, from any modern internet-capable device. You can automate things, or deal with work on the go, spending less time tied to an office.
Think about your repetitive tasks. Whether it’s picking up the phone to answer the same question 20 times a day, or manually creating 20 similar quotes.
Talk to us today about your ideas. We can help you put together a plan, and figure out a way to save you time and money in your business.
