The good news is you are thinking about a webmaster. That means you are thinking about how to keep your website updated on a regular basis.
If your staff is not super web savvy, it makes a lot of sense to hire a professional webmaster. Especially to help you work through the early days of your company website. For a site that only needs updates on a weekly or monthly basis, outsourcing will be more cost effective.
But there are many more benefits from having a professional webmaster. Consistent improvements and updates to your website will improve performance. You are far more likely to get a return on the investment in your website. That makes your webmaster contract pay for itself.
Online Marketing When You Are Busy
Your company website is the center of your marketing plan. One of the major benefits of having a webmaster resource is to keep things going when you get swamped.
Does this sound familiar?
You finally look-up from your desk after a very busy quarter. , that bled into the second quarter. Now that I have a chance to breath, you check on your to make sure everything is running smoothly. You notice that your website traffic had taken a dip.
You realize that you have missed a lot of the deadlines on the marketing calendar. Right before the busy period hit, you started to make some changes to the website and still had stuff to finish. But you had more projects than you could handle. You worried about pushing the website in front of people with things unfinished.
As soon as you got back to a regular communication schedule, the traffic numbers came right back. Don’t count on this happening every time. It seems a little dangerous to let your marketing go dark and expect the leads to be there when you need them.
What if you had a Webmaster focused on the company website? Someone who could keep the center of your marketing strategy solid when things get crazy?
Outsourcing to a Professional Webmaster
If you have not had a dedicated webmaster before, you may have to make the case to get one. Starting out, the cost of using a service will be less then hiring an internal resource. That’s an easy argument. Here are more operational benefits of professional webmaster services.
- Define the Need. A pro can help you figure out what it takes to keep your website going before you commit to an employee. Working with a professional can help you define the job, before you have to on-board a new hire. Especially if you are responsible for managing a webmaster and this is not your skill set.
- Website updates on-time. A webmaster’s main function is maintaining your website. You will have someone who focuses on website updates and no more waiting for you to make time.
- Solve problems faster. Websites have issues every once in a while. Usually the timing is bad. With a webmaster on call, you can delegate problem solving. They won’t have to research the issue. They will have seen if before and can get the website running smooth again faster.
- See Trouble Coming. Your website is having regular problems. Should it be? What are your missing? Are their security issues I don’t know about? A professional webmaster can add a level of technical expertise that your team is missing.
- Best practices in action. They will have the benefit of experience with many websites. Ideas and advice you can tap into to grow your own website.
- Many Resources Available. When you hire a webmaster service, they will have a team of people available for your website. You even have the option to add more website resources when things get busy. You are not relying on one person.
- Staff Continuity. At Cybervise, we have often stepped up to help when marketing team turnover happens. Or we cover vacations or employee leave. Often when the primary website contact is out, someone has to cover that is not as familiar with the website.
How can you maximize use of your webmaster?
A website given regular attention will get lots of attention. Now that you have a professional webmaster signed on, take advantage of the resource. Here are some ideas on how to make your webmaster relationship a good one.
- Decide what to delegate. To get things started, have a meeting with your webmaster. Go over any website tasks you do now or have been struggling to do. What items would be easy for the webmaster to take over instead? Create a schedule and get the info the webmaster needs to follow through each week or month.
- Know your critical list. What online activities always generate website traffic? Or content items that are key to updating your homepage or key areas of your website? Make sure to discuss these items with your webmaster. If you have a monthly retainer, make sure to focus resources for these items. Also, have a plan for your webmaster to jump in on these tasks if you are not available. Could they recycle a past blog post to keep your feed up updated or share to a social media account? Could they feature an existing product or white paper to update your homepage? Have a plan for alternatives if you need help.
- Setup a short check-in meeting. Does not take a lot of time, but will ensure that you are not letting a month go by and nothing is happening. Request a reoccurring appointment. That way no one forgets to check in.
- Set a list of deliverables. Set a list with deadlines at the beginning of the month so everyone knows what needs to get done. When they can expect new website content to help schedule a resource?
- Put your webmaster in the loop on company communications. Get in the habit of copying your webmaster contact. Share emails about things happening at the company. This gives the webmaster an opportunity to make suggestion. How could the website better contribute to company initiatives?
- Ask for a monthly report. This will give you a talking point when you meet with your webmasters. Take the time to get familiar with your website statistics. As stats improve, it will reinforce your decision to hire a webmaster. The best way to know if your website dollars are being spent correctly is to the see the numbers. The reports can be emailed to you automatically each month. Even if you just glance at the report, you can a better idea how things are going.
Professional webmasters have a variety of skills to help support your digital marketing efforts. Writing html code that can help get email newsletter out faster. Photo editing skills to help with social media campaigns. Suggestions for how to bulk add product data to your website. Webmasters can help you complete a larger variety of tasks on your website. And help support your digital marketing efforts too.
Don’t waste your webmaster budget!
Why do business owners hire a webmaster and then disappear?
One of my biggest frustrations is when we have a client that won’t communicate with us. We are working to move their website forward, but they aren’t responding to emails, or voicemails. The worst offenders cancel scheduled check-in meetings.
I am a business owner too and I know how busy things get. But when I decide to hire a contractor for whatever function, I am making an investment. I don’t walk away and let things move on auto-pilot. There seems to be this attitude
If you hire someone for their expertise, you expect them to do what they know how to do. But when webmaster and client are working together that’s the best. We are communicating what’s happening and sharing information back and forth. Our expertise shines and the client gets the most for their money.
About Cybervise
Cybervise Limited offers professional webmaster services with flexible pricing options. Our Per-Request Service offers access to webmasters without a contract. We can provide as little or as much help as you need. Start by signing up for a Free Consultation and we can find a service plan that works for you.
