The Importance of Getting It Up

“You only get one chance to make a first impression!” That’s a comment we hear repeatedly when discussing project scope and timeliness with our clients. However, our experience shows that popular consensus may be misplaced, at least as it refers to the interactive space. Instead, we are finding success more closely related to persistent effort and refinement after launch rather than laborious planning and elaborate launch planning. (Note: we’re talking websites here, not launching rockets with toxic payloads.)

In crafting a good internet presence, a sense of the client’s personality and character come to life. So its understandable that passionate clients (and designers) want to spend much back and forth in perfecting the myriad details. However, the realities of online business don’t always look favorably on those who take their time. For this marketplace, the importance of Getting It Up trumps the desire of Getting It Just So.

It is tempting to treat the internet experience like a banquet fit for a king. You want all the bells and whistles, and you want every detail to be perfect. After all, you can never accurately predict who will visit the site, and it could very well be the royalty of your industry, or a dream customer. It is tempting to game the site — to tweak it and look at more options. Perhaps this is a redesign and you’ve got an existing website that’s still out there, so the luxury of time to get it precisely right gives you the chance to optimize every feature and adjust every graphic…right?

We at Juicy Results tend to favor a different approach. Get it up quickly, and then make strategic enhancements based on real-time results. Why not? The world isn’t sitting still, and speed to market is more important than ever in today’s economy. Heck, in some cases, speed to market may be one’s only real advantage over the competition. We’ll talk more in-depth about the technical benefits of rapid prototyping in an upcoming post, but here, we are focusing on the general benefits like public perception and participation.

Among the many advantages of getting it up quickly, you may find that rather than of weeks of back and forth over logo size and background color, that you are instead getting an early start on building/attracting an actual audience. And if that’s not enough to inspire you to action, then know that a few months—even a few weeks—of having your site “live” and available to search engines and web bots means that you have THAT much more time to build your search ranking, increase your link-backs and establish a presence.

One of the best cases for our argument, is the REAL feedback you’ll receive from REAL customers. As marketers, business owners and designers, we all have to concede that markets are unpredictable. So why not get the line in the water?

The idea here, the hope, is that it won’t be long until the site leads to a referral, a contact, or some other potential opportunity. If you continue to delay launch so that you can focus on the minutiae, with no web presence at all, that opportunity will surely go to someone else.

“But,” some may argue, “I don’t want the public to see our brand half-dressed”. Look, the fact is that consumers are more savvy, more actively engaged and attentive than ever before. With these ever increasing levels of engagement, consumers are used to seeing brands evolve. And as long as that evolution is steady, positive and forward-thinking, then you can bet they are going to appreciate being a part of the evolution. And imagine how loyalty might be increased if you take some of their real-time feedback into consideration for the next rounds of improvements. Think about how FaceBook responds when their users speak up…while some may be put off by attempts to improve the product/service, its safe to assume that loyalty is strengthened among users when they realize that their voices are actually heard. At the very least, improvements over time will give you one more reason to reach out to your audience, make special announcements and give them something to get excited about.

Whatever you do with your planned web presence, don’t delay. Get It Up!