Here's a little tip that savvy Internet Marketing agencies have figured out: A lot of the time, all you need to satisfy clients needing a new design are some good HubSpot website templates.
There's a natural inclination in new website owners to want a totally brand-new design, and that's quite understandable. Young business owners are dreaming of the enterprise their business is going to grow into, and want to start getting their branding going as soon as possible.
However, the truth is that in most cases, there's little to any real benefit to launching with a custom design right from the beginning, specially if the objective of the new website is lead generation and you don't have a website currently. The best website templates will do the job while the website gets off the ground.
Why HubSpot Website Templates Make Sense For New Websites
Just for starters, the costs. If you go onto the HubSpot template marketplace or onto private design sites, you can pick up a pack of quality templates for $300-$500. A custom design will likely be at least ten times that amount, unless you happen to have a freelancer for a friend. Further, custom designs also take a few weeks to produce, whereas templates are ready to go immediately.
That's a lot of cost and a lot of delay. And for what?
When a site has recently launched, it simply doesn't get much traffic. There's no one around to be wowed. What visitors do trickle in are going to be looking for content, and not specifically at how pretty your website is.
So, we recommend newer ventures stick to simpler designs that allow them to focus specifically on what matters: Putting up content that their visitors want to see, and working on your copy. A competent HubSpot template will accomplish this just as well as a custom design, and many of them look great to boot! Besides, it's pretty much expected that a website will have a major revision within a year or two if your traffic growth is going well.
Basically, you don't need a custom web design for the same reason a new small business doesn't need a million-dollar designer logo right off the bat.
When You Should Go Custom
Obviously, there are still times that a custom web design will make more sense – but it shouldn't solely be about decoration. Websites today need to be stylish and functional. If the design is too baroque, or it in any way interferes with navigation, it's just getting in the way.
Basically, as a rule of thumb, every design element should have a purpose. Like an employee, if that design element is only there to look pretty, it either needs a purpose or it needs to be cut.
So, when should you consider using a custom website designer?
If the customer steadfastly insists. Hey, we've all been there. At some point, you gotta give them what they're asking for, or respectfully tell them you can't help them (a whole other conversation).
You're dealing with an established company that needs a kick to get a new business
Branding is important to the customer. Templates can only work with custom branding schemes so well before a custom solution is in order. Make sure the client realizes that unless they have a very good reason for being particular, such as extensive market research or significant understanding of their target customer behavior, they're probably not going to see much return on the added expense.
The site needs fine-tuning. There's a limit to what can be done with a single set of templates. At some point, to squeeze more leads out of a site, you'll need to go back to the drawing board.
Don't let your clients get talked into expensive web design commitments that will be risky for everyone involved. Much of the time, all you need are some quality HubSpot website templates to get them through their initial site launch.