Hi Reader,

Field of Dreams has a lot to answer for. "If you build it, they will come" worked for a baseball diamond in a cornfield. It's much less reliable for websites.

I talked with a client recently about something I think a few of you will recognize. She felt her website wasn't doing all the things she wanted it to do. Inquiries were slow, and her instinct was that she needed to supercharge her technology. Maybe some new features like the ability to take online payments, having more popups, adding some email lead funnels. All great things to have, but an added expense if you get them before your business is ready.

When we looked at the numbers, the site was doing its job. The people who visited were reading, clicking through, and some were getting in touch. There just weren't many of them. Adding bells and whistles would have given that same small group a better experience, but it wasn't enough to affect the business's bottom line. There simply weren't enough visitors to warrant the investment.

Before you change anything on your website, find out how many people are reaching it. If the answer is "not many," the fix sits outside the site, and I'd rather tell you that than sell you tech you don't yet need. Add the new tech later, once the first problem is solved. If your business isn't able to sustain the investment in automation, online payments, lead nurturing funnels, and whatever other shiny tech you've been told you need, I give you permission to let it go for a bit. Sometimes you need someone to let you know you don't have to have all the things for your business to succeed.

It's OK to keep it low-tech until your business is tech-ready.

One easy win: short videos

For this client, the answer wasn't blog posts. Writing isn't her thing, and a content plan you dread won't survive a month. She is comfortable talking about her work, though. So I suggested short videos: one question her clients always ask, answered in a minute or two, filmed on her phone. Nothing polished, just her, in her studio, talking real with the key points that her prospects and clients want to hear.

Put them on YouTube. It's the search engine people forget they use. Someone types "how do I…" into YouTube the same way they do into Google, and Google shows YouTube videos in its own results. A video that answers a real question keeps getting found for years. An Instagram story is gone in a day.

You can then embed the same video on a page of your site and link to it in your emails, so one recording does a few jobs.

The catch is that it's slow. Most new videos get a handful of views for the first few months, and the payoff builds over a year rather than a week. If you need inquiries next month, this isn't the lever to pull. It's an easy one to insert into your marketing plan, though, and will gradually bring in meaningful returns for very little effort.

Your homework this month: write down the five questions clients ask you most often. That's your first five videos (or blog posts, if writing is your thing). You don't need to film anything yet. Just make the list.

If you're not sure whether your website or your traffic is the problem, bring it to your monthly call and we'll look at the numbers together. Sometimes it's a website fix. Often it's something you can do with your phone.

Maintenance update:

PHP, the language WordPress runs on, released an urgent security fix on October 22 that was so big it remained a top news story for a few days. I sent a separate email about it, but the short version is that your site is covered and your care plan made the fix fast and easy. Here's what happened: What the PHP2Shell vulnerability means for your small business website.

Over October 18 and 19, attackers went after a remote management feature in UpdraftPlus, a popular WordPress backup plugin, used on many of your websites. Wordify (our website host) blocked it at their firewall on October 19 and switched the feature off on every site they host, so your site is protected. If your site uses UpdraftPlus for backups, this was blocked right away, and nothing changes for you.

Any questions?

Your Clever Care plan includes a monthly call, so if something's on your mind, book one in. I'd love to hear what's been happening on your end; October chats with you all were fun, everyone seems to have new ideas on the boil, and I'm excited for you!

Keep being clever,

Nic
Studio Clvr