I've been doing marketing for long enough to know the typical answer when I ask people: "Hey, how's your marketing going?" is usually, it's "yeah, good, we're waiting on the new website".
Besides the whole "a website isn't marketing" part of things, I have two points to make.
Point 1) For 99% of people, a website builder is all you need.
- Bespoke works created by web developers and design teams aren't necessary because a large scale website builder will build something that provides the same result.
- Bespoke builds become quickly outdated because of the associated cost and time hassles.
When you go to buy something, a website, a business system, a big truck. Someone will be around that says, "this won't do what we need" or "our business is special"... And argue the point out of loneliness. Today, I'm not saying you should listen to Greg. I mean, you should; there's clearly something going on. But to his suggestion of "we are so special that we need to spend this way-bigger bag of money to make this way more complicated thing"... Say no to that.
Because I'm sure you're business or idea or organization is special. You do great work. You care about things and people and customers. But guess what, it's not special enough to warrant spending five (or more) figures on a website that serves the same function as what I can make on Squarespace in just a few hours.
Strikingly, Squarespace, Square, Wix (though Wix is garbage), using any of these "out of the box" solutions is like buying a car instead of engineering one from scratch. And all, with minimal experience or expertise, will build you a website that shows someone all of your key points, those being:
• Your name.
• What you do.
• Who you are.
• Any offers you have at the time.
• Case studies and evidence of you doing the thing your claim to do.
• Customer reviews and star ratings (if applicable).
• A way to get in touch.
The alternative is to spend lots of money on a web developer and the aforementioned team. If someone wants to spend crazy money, it's likely down to the aesthetic, form, and visual appeal. Which is a valid and good reason to spend. But what's true for both approaches is that even if you make the most fantastic site ever, if nobody knows about it, did you really make a website at all? Very few businesses are so popular and prominent and renowned that they have volumes of organic traffic by default. Most websites aren't seen. So - depending on your strategy - you need to show them.
This brings me to Point 2) Very few problems - let alone solutions - stay the same over time. So your site needs to be relevant, and that's why you're better off having something that can be kept consistently updated.
Having a website that says "congratulations for surviving Y2K" is like having a fancy watch that doesn't tell time. It's useless and outdated, and people don't trust it, nor will they share it and drive more traffic to your site (assuming that's what you need).
What does bring traffic is being relevant and telling stories. What project did you do? What new video did you make? Who did the job, and why should we care? Using a builder gives you the power to share answers to these questions and more. Without having to go back to your developer every time. Plus... You know, it'll also cost you money.
Scroll-to-Summary.
1. For 99% of people, a website builder is all you need.
2. Not jumping through so many hurdles (i.e. it's easy to do) means you can keep your content consistent and your details relevant.
Spend the money you save on web design and spend it instead on getting a decent set of graphics done because a lot of these are garbage or writing a story people care about... But these are both topics for a different rant.