Now, most businesses, a lot of organizations, and a whole stack of hobbies these days have websites. However, I have had so many conversations with website designers who just take me to death. I've got go idea what they're talking about. And then I go, but I'm not sure like that blue and I go, well, what's the blue that you wanted? It's just such a frustrating conversation. But today, I have met, possibly one of the best most sensible approaching with people ever. His name is Peter Butler. And he has a business called smarter websites.
Transcript or Blog Post
00:11 |
Welcome to district 32. Radio. I'm your host, Jackie Campbell. And it's my absolute pleasure to interview each of our members. So you can get to know that just that little bit better. Now, most businesses, a lot of organizations, and a whole stack of hobbies these days have websites. However, I have had so many conversations with website designers who just take me to death. I've got go idea what they're talking about. And then I go, but I'm not sure like that blue and I go, well, what's the blue that you wanted? It's just such a frustrating conversation. But today, I have met, possibly one of the best most sensible approaching with people ever. His name is Peter Butler. And he has a business called smarter websites. Peter, welcome. |
01:00 | Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here. |
01:02 | Now, why smarter websites that don't think for themselves? |
01:04 | Look, that was actually an epiphany, epiphany. It was it was seriously because out of smarter websites was also born smart email, smart mortgage marketing, smarter hosting a whole different series of niche websites and business friends. So it's absolutely brilliant and smarter websites will be smarter than your average website. |
01:28 | Right? Okay. So tell me about smart websites, what makes them smarter than your average websites. |
01:33 | Our whole philosophy is to help business owners stage and scale business growth, it's really that simple. In business, we need an approach or way or methodology, if you like to be able to grow a business. So depending on your budget for your cash flow, and you need to consider that. So when people come to me they like first question I often ask is how much as a website? So I respond with how much as a house? Most people can relate to that? Sorry? Oh, okay. House, you know, they understand the practicalities, that there's a three bed, one bath and so forth. |
02:06 | And how it was to the beach and the train station and and is it on the hill? Can I see the city? |
02:10 | Yeah, exactly. And do you want the rooms finished? Do you want carpeting? Do you want treatments and conditioning? Yeah, all of that. So and it's the same with a website. And websites are not static either they are dynamic? They should be continually evolving. But we'll come back to that. |
02:27 | I just have a page and it goes, Well, this is what I do. |
02:30 | Yes, you can. But you've got to consider who's coming to your website? What journey? Do you want to take them on? How are you going to establish trust and credibility? And what's the best methodology for that? |
02:43 | You can do it from a website. |
02:44 | Yeah. True story. And credibility is massive. But the point being that what you do today might be different to what's required in six months. And that's why I say it's dynamic, not static. Yes, we build a website, based on the questions we asked you who's come to your website, what journey, you're going to take them on all of those things, we build a website, but your business might evolve, your thinking might evolve, who you're a great client is might change. And so you've got to be able to further develop your website. And the other thing is that you make all those decisions. But then your thinking might change. And so we have a dynamic platform, so it can evolve. |
03:24 | So I don't just have to tell you exactly what I want. And then you build it. And I'm done. |
03:30 | No, yes or no, yes, we do that. But then we like to work with business owners to make sure they're getting results. |
03:36 | Do I have to know exactly what I'm doing to have a conversation with you? |
03:38 | Absolutely not, we taught normal human. |
3:46 | Just just be you, our tech guy. Come on, |
3:48 | Exactly. But I think I rely it quite well the technical information about domains, hosting, and so forth. So the point is that we do what you can't do. And we help you to do what you can do. And that's with not just building the website, creating the website, we help with marketing strategies, being strategic with getting a higher great client, because quite often business owners will take any client to start with, but we really want to ascend to get out perfect client, those clients who really appreciate us cherish us and you know, will basically do what they're told, because we're the go to people for our industry. We're the experts, and we help people to position themselves in that manner. |
4:29 | So if I'm looking for someone who does beekeeping, the multiverse will then direct everybody through to that beekeeping website because I am the predominant was the bank wire, who will it all the background stuffs working? And they find me Is that what you mean? |
4:44 | Exactly. This, again, sets us apart from everybody else. So we've got websites at different levels. And if somebody pushes the point on pricing, I'll tell them, there's no problems. Premium website start at 5500. And we've got three startup models 1100 2200 3300. So depending on how much money you have in your bank, as to what level you start at, however, we also |
5:08 | get you started run, we also have a unique upgrade model. So let's say that your budgets 1100 bucks, or say 22. And you start and that's great in six months time you want to get more results, we have an upgrade model. So you can upgrade from the 22 to 3300. And you only pay the difference. So you'll only pay 1100 to upgrade. So you're |
5:28 | Adding the features I didn't get the first time because I was on a start up by strapping at the beginning. |
5:33 | Absolutely right. And then getting back to your be keeper expert example. We've also broken down all of the other aspects of being online into what we call modules. So SEO search engine optimization, which is getting your business on page one in Google is a module. And within that module, we have different levels. Again, depending on what the business side |
5:55 | Is page, five page four page three page two page one. |
6:00 | What's actually how many pages we SEO. So this is where most people don't realize, Google don't even rank websites, they rank web pages, each page has its own standalone identity. So your homepage should be known for beekeepers, your other sub page would be known for the honey harvesting and other page and so forth. So each page has its own identity. And so that's where the different levels of SEO come in. So again, that's based on budget, as well as how quickly you want results. So my recommendation is invest more to get more, but it depends on your budget. And again, we've got an upgrade model. So if you start at the base that you want to upgrade to the intermediate level, you only ever pay the difference. Our whole ethos is helping business owners to stage and scale the business grows. That's it, keep it that simple, then we're focused on the outcomes of the business owner growing the business rather than just selling them a website. Yeah. |
7:06 | Okay. That makes complete sense. I think for the first time ever, a web guy, right. So why did you come up with this model as the model for smarter websites? |
7:17 | Uh, well, yeah, I know, again, it was one of those early epiphany. So it's like, because I actually haven't |
7:24 | And here's the thing with you my previous business which go and I've been doing this 12 years, so well versed and experience, my previous business, landscaping garden maintenance, clearly, you can see the segue. |
7:35 | Yeah, creation, you said to me, too much sun needed to come in? |
7:39 | Well, there's that as well and the flies. But not only that, in that business, I tried several times to build a website. And I was never able to complete it. Because nobody had systems. Nobody had onboarding. Nobody had ways to make it easy for a website to be built. And I was so frustrated. I just gave up. |
7:55 | You clearly. Were looking at the white advertising. Yeah. Because the all you need to do is just type whatever modeling go click click Swift, Swift. And then you had this magical website. |
8:03 | Yeah, apparently. But it didn't work. So when I sold the previous business, I wanted my new business model to be scalable, duplicatable, and replicable. And so this business is scalable, because I could keep it small, just me and maybe a tech, duplicatable, I could replicate it in other models, which I've done already unscalable that what I've done now is I've got a team of eight people, from a project manager, to tech people, to marketers, to social media managers, and so on. So the point is, I'm actually not a web designer, I'm a marketer, that's what I do. I help people to market their business, and grow their business in a stage scale environment. So it makes it safe for business owners. They know what they're getting for their money. We've built literally hundreds and hundreds of websites. We've also got clients that have now got us on a retainer on this dynamic monthly program. Where will we further developing not just a website, but other digital assets? You know, it seems like I'm getting back to the modules. And you know, I mentioned we've got SEO Well, we've also got social media marketing, we've got integration, we've got optimization in social media, social media is a big traffic driver, because great, you got this website. And if you're not getting any traffic, it's not really adding any value to your business. It's just not. So the point is we use social media in a strategic way to drive traffic to your website. Lots of people are doing social media. It's so funny. We see social media posts, and it might be a really riveting post. And then somebody is interested in doing business for that business owner. And they go great, and I can't find them online. So there's a real disconnect between the social media the website, what that's seriously crazy. And we said all the time, so we We help business owners to connect the dots. |
9:51 | It sounds like you're actually into marketing. His website is simply one tool in the toolbox to get your business. I |
9:58 | couldn't have said it better myself. Yes. Yeah, that's exactly right. So the website is just a vehicle. It's the medium to use to get people to qualify people. Because we all want a great clients. If we don't have a strategic marketing plan, we're having to tolerate DC, possibly be willing to pay the bills? Exactly. Yeah, we want great clients. |
10:19 | It's always nice to have someone comes in context as you you'd be able to go back go, yep. Cool. And then you've got an immediate match. Because exactly what you're offering is exactly what there are. It's just a case of connecting the two things to get. |
10:28 | Absolutely, yeah. |
10:29 | But if your website doesn't tell you actually what you do, then how people gonna find you. |
10:34 | Exactly, yeah. So you so people got to find your number one. But then by qualifying when they do come to you, they're predisposed to do business with you. So they've read your reviews, they're already condition. So there are a lot easier to deal with. I mean, look, the simplest clients in the world to get are always referrals. Why is that? Because the person that referred them to you, they trusted you, the credibility, or they've done business with my friends, be trustworthy. |
11:01 | And I guess they're independent from what you would expect to be a marketing hype from the business. |
11:05 | Exactly, right. But we try and duplicate that on the website, you know, there's different methodologies, reviews, and a whole heap of, you know, elements that we factor in, so that when people do contact you, they're already confident the trust level is higher, the credibility is there. So they're easier to to deal with and become a great client. |
11:24 | So once you've got all this organized, so you've got to make this program, you've got a whole stack of things which can go supposed to support people's I should say, this just scale businesses as well. So scaling the website, it's a case of them, assisting them and supporting them to scale that business into something they really want it to be. |
11:42 | Yeah, absolutely. So we look at a whole heap of factors. And we work with some very high level businesses in Perth, we've helped and I can't give numbers because that wouldn't be appropriate, but five times daily trading, so you know, big factors in growth. Now, those clients were on a retainer. And we helped to scale that business to a much higher level. Because the world of online is ever evolving, it's just changing so quickly, so much, and it becomes a little bit of an overwhelm. At the moment, we're working with clients on what we call evergreen social media campaigns. The thing is, with social media posts is that a lot of the time, there's no expiry date, there's no index as valid today as it was three months ago, and will be in three months. So we're working with business owners, and we have two programs are DIY and have done for you. And I've only just launched mine last Monday. And already in just over a week, I've had five expressions of interest, and three qualified leads through that. And these are social media posts that I haven't actually posted. So they're all automated. So I've got, I've actually created a bank of 379, social media posts, evergreen social media posts, those posts, then there's three going after that. Sure, that's 21 posts going up every week. Now, this is not just 21, post, go to Facebook, who's going to Facebook business pages, going to my LinkedIn profile, going to my LinkedIn company page, it's going to Twitter, which you know, whatever. But |
13:14 | it was energy to Twitter. So definitely |
13:20 | the Twitter to me and look, some people use it excessively and good on them. |
13:23 | Here's what I'm doing every minute of it. No, |
13:26 | but we'll see. Twitter for me is like everybody going to a big networking event. everybody walks in at the same time. Everybody talks at the same time, and they all leave. |
13:34 | got its name from Exactly. So. |
13:37 | But anyway, that's another story. But Google My Business, Google, my business is absolutely massive. You know, we've got to catch cry playing the game with Google and Google will play the game with you. And it's a true story. You know, you've got being you got these other search engines, but which is the biggest one, Google, not rocket science. Now, play the game with Google and Google will play the game with you anyway. So these social media posts go out. So 379 post created 21 days posted to seven different platforms. That's a lot of marketing. And so that is a 18 week cycle. So what happens on day, week number nine, doing the same post, get repost it, because guess what social media moves. so damn quick, people are not going to recall that posting adding weeks. And if they do, they might smile. And if they didn't see it the first time, or it didn't resonate the first time because it's a matter of resonating with people. That's the key, you've got to understand that your marketing is dynamic. So people will read it. And it's like, they're too busy, they smile or whatever. And but next time, it's like, oh, my god that is so potent in my life at this point in time. And so the engagement, the likes, the shares, and the lead inquiries that I'm getting is really powerful. And the thing is, this campaign will run, hang on forever, not 18 weeks, because it gets recycled. And so it goes on. So it's a really powerful platform. We're getting massive, massive results. Right. So pretty exciting stuff. |
14:56 | Absolutely. So it sounds like if you wanted you could add into that you can update one or miss about with it. But as a general bass player, it's definitely got that engagement. |
15:05 | Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Now, that's a really good point. I'm glad you mentioned that. Because there was a post that I did. And when I approved this post to be loaded, it was fine. But my explanation of that needed updated, I logged into the software at the back end, and to the quick update. So that will be now be updated for the next time it gets posted. And the crucial point here is web traffic. Because all of the social media posts have links back to my website. No, no go. Because and that's where people get caught up in playing with social media. Social media is a traffic driver. Yes, it's a credibility tool. It's a positioning tool. Yes, it's a branding tool. But the whole purpose of anything that you're doing in a social space, or marketing space is to drive traffic back to your website, the thing is, platforms evolve, they change. And if you are totally dependent, I've had business on the side of me, this just blows me away that I don't really need a website, because I get a lot of business from a Facebook page. Well, that means you don't control. If they change the rules of engagement, your business can crash and burn. |
16:14 | I've got friends whose businesses have gone from hero to zero, literally almost over a weekend to where you've had an algorithm change. Yeah, or something's changed. And I got awesome. Let's look I just realized, I don't have my content. What do you mean, you don't have your content? It's like, you have a YouTube channel. But you don't have any backups of YouTube? |
16:34 | No, no, no, it's scary stuff. When I say business owners. And I think this is another danger for business owners too. And I'm going to be doing a blog post on this. So this is the information age, right? It's the Information Age era. And that's great. You've got all this information, you can google anything, you can watch a YouTube on anything how to do social media. However, it doesn't mean to say you should know |
16:58 | it, just because you can doesn't mean you should exactly |
17:01 | You know, it's scary stuff. And it's great that business owners are being proactive as we all should be, |
17:07 | it has been so most time doing something which will take you three minutes, it'll take me a year and a half. Plus, I'll procrastinate over it. And then I won't get it right to start with. And then it's a complete waste of time. |
17:17 | Yeah, and look, Case in point is, is the Evergreen social media campaign. And that's why we did the done for you model because some business owners don't have the time don't want to know about it, they've got the money, they can invest on it. And that's great. But my passion is helping business owners to do what they can do, but do it better. Its attention to detail. And that's a really important thing. What I had a conversation recently with with a business owner who ran a Facebook ad campaign, he ran that campaign, he spent X amount of dollars, whatever, he generated some inquiries, so so there was some expressions of interest, but he didn't convert into sales. And he's actually got two businesses. And his overarching statement was Facebook advertising doesn't work for me, well wrong, because it didn't work for that business model, your head of expressions of interest and no takers. But what happens if there was just one facet in there, that you change that one sentence, that one link, that one, one image, that one, whatever, that will actually give you an outcome. And so he didn't test and measure. He just ran one test. And that was it. And he made an overarching bank statement. Now this guy actually runs a million dollar business selling a product online. And then one of the following statements, and I'll never get over this was that people don't go to Facebook to buy my X product, whatever that product is. Well, you know what, you don't run a Facebook head. To do that. The point is, people are on Facebook, so you run an ad to present that product to them. It's really not rocket science. So I couldn't believe that this business owner was jaded by that one campaign that didn't give him the result that he wanted. So that's where the experts come in. And you test to measure we've identified on a recent Facebook ad campaign, we did the same in the same text, yet, we use three different images. Right, and we trialed it. And one of those images stood out as giving a much higher click through rate than the other two images. |
19:16 | So we've got the analytics behind us. Yes. So when you've got your evergreen content going out, I guess the other way of tweaking it to use your example is you can see the analytics, what's getting traction, what's not. So keep the stuff that's working, switch out the stuff that's not in retry. And that's that tests are things that you guys can can do, which I never have the time to do. Yes, yes. Because I go, why does it matter if it's green, or it's orange? And I don't care. It's done tick move on? Yeah, as opposed to actually revisiting and revisiting here. |
19:46 | There's a whole methodology and psychology behind it. And so we, you know, we evolved into Facebook heads from evergreen social media there. But the point being that because of the information age, so many business owners are getting jaded, because they've done it themselves. And they probably should have gotten expert advice on how to do that, and have dealt more effectively and better and get better results and be able to test to measure |
20:09 | you was so wasted landscaping. |
20:13 | You know, Funny thing is right, I didn't realize that I actually had a, an innate understanding of marketing. And I didn't actually articulate that at all. But when I did that, I actually specialized in hedging and topiary, and I focused on all the rich people in town, because they a lot of them had hedges, and topiary, and I figured my foundation was that whatever credit went down in the world, they were going to be the last ones affected. So if I was working for them, I would be the last one affected with me in really good stead. But seriously rich people, and I learned and gleaned a lot from them over those years as well. So I did that for 12 years, thoroughly enjoyed. It |
20:50 | just goes to show. It's the conversations that you have with people. Really, really change a few. So if people want to actually have a sensible conversation with someone who understands the it, but doesn't speak geek, yep. Or just speak, it doesn't speak to me. How did I get hold of your head? |
21:09 | Right. So it's either through smarterwebsites.com.au, I do offer an audit to as well. So I can do an audit on your website. And if you choose not to use me to make the corrections, that's fine. But the point is, you need to know what you don't know. Because quite often, there's only one or two or three simple things on your website that can be changed, that will make a massive difference. It's just some of the things that people miss are just crucial. |
21:40 | I don't know how many times I get emails from some person rather who's been looking at my website and would like to offer me a free audit report. Look, we're not talking about the same thing. Yeah, no, no, |
21:50 | no. So and the funny thing is ironically, I get an SEO audits done on my website so people read the website have a look at it, see what we do. |
21:59 | It's amazing know that often that happens. |
22:02 | And the other way to get hold of me is to send me an email direct. So that's ua.moc.setisbewretrams@retep or for the office on (08) 9439 2820And the other way to get hold of me is to send me an email direct. So that's ua.moc.setisbewretrams@retep or for the office on (08) 9439 2820And the other way to get hold of me is to send me an email direct. So that's ua.moc.setisbewretrams@retep or for the office on (08) 9439 2820And the other way to get hold of me is to send me an email direct. So that's ua.moc.setisbewretrams@retep or for the office on (08) 9439 2820 |
22:19 | Fantastic, have a conversation with you, you can give them an idea of what isn't working for them. How you can you can help them to stage and scalp. |
22:28 | Absolutely |
22:29 | Fantastic. Thank you Peter. |
22:30 | Got to work smarter. |
22:39 | Thanks for joining us on district 32 radio. If you'd like to know more, please head across to our website, district32.com.au |