In 2023, you need a website that allows you to move quickly
The digital landscape has been rapidly evolving with the emergence of new technologies like AI tools. This has had profound impacts on the way businesses operate and communicate with their customers. Today, more than ever, businesses must have a website that allows them to move quickly and iterate often in order to stay ahead of the competition.
With popular AI-enabled tools, businesses can automate processes and make informed decisions that drive growth. To stay ahead of the curve, businesses should prioritize building a website that is agile, scalable, and optimized for the digital age. By doing so, they can leverage the power of AI and other emerging technologies and keep up with the constantly evolving digital landscape.
Your website structure should provide a foundation that supports your goals
A good web designer should not only create a visually appealing website for your business but also build a solid structure that can help you grow and nurture your business over time. Using no-code website building tools can give you the flexibility to make adjustments and iterate without relying on a developer.
This puts you in control of your own website and allows you to respond quickly to changing business needs. Integrations that help automate processes and keep them moving forward are also key to success.
With new advancements emerging all the time, it's increasingly important for companies to be able to modify their approach and embrace new opportunities as they arise. One key element in enabling this flexibility is a well-designed website that provides the architecture for continual growth.
From adding new products and services to experimenting with different marketing channels, having a website that can scale and adapt quickly can make all the difference in staying ahead of the curve.
Squarespace is an excellent option for growing your business online
While there are a lot of great choices out there, Squarespace comes with a suite of benefits and powerful tools that make it an excellent choice for your web design project. The following will outline Squarespace features, and the recent changes they have made that make Squarespace the tool to beat for many small businesses and lean marketing teams.
1. Squarespace is easy to manage, edit and make updates
This first point is a huge advantage of Squarespace over other platforms. So often clients will say to me “I need to be able to update it” and this is a completely understandable request. With Squarespace, unlike other tools, people don’t need to worry that they will accidentally break their website.
Squarespace provides easy-to-use tools that allow users update their sites without having to deal with complicated software programs or coding knowledge.
Ten years ago, a website that was only manageable by an agency might have been ok. However, with the advances in digital marketing, people need to be able to use their website as a marketing tool. From updating product listings, creating events, or writing blog articles, Squarespace makes website managment a breeze. For that reason, this is my number one advantage of using Squarespace - it puts the power in the clients hands.
Squarespace’s drag and drop editor
2. Squarespace allows you to design and launch unique and beautiful websites tailored to your business goals and design aesthetics
Until recently Squarespace was based around templates, and while this worked for some people, it left others wanting a lot more flexibility and customization of the platform. Recently, Squarespace launched a game changer called Fluid Engine. Fluid Engine allows you to bypass the templates all together and build a site completely from scratch or use a template and customize it to your liking.
Squarespace refers to Fluid Engine as the “next generation of website design” and I completely agree. Fluid engine allows for unique and stand out designs without resorting to using css. With that said, another feature that I love about Squarespace is the ability to add custom code if there is a certain look you are trying to achieve. You can see an example of this on my own site, where I’ve added a subtle colour changing background gradient. Having the option to use drag and drop features, while also access coding tools makes Squarespace an excellent option. In summary, the platform allows for beautiful designs.
3. Squarespace has powerful e-commerce, membership, and scheduling features
Web design has become much less about coding and more about understanding business needs and marketing strategy to build a tool that enables organizations to grow, and thrive. With the launch of Fluid Engine, Squarespace not only offers a platform that allows for one of a kind designs, but also offers powerful e-commerce, membership, and scheduling features. Moreover, Squarespace integrates with a host of tools such as printful, apple pay, and stripe, turning your website into a powerhouse for your business. Very quickly, Squarespace is becoming the tool to beat.
Here’s a quick overview of the features listed above:
Squarespace e-commerce
Squarespace is an excellent option for e-commerce. With Squarespace you are able to run an online store for tangible goods and have access to features such as email confirmation, stripe payment, product variation, notifications, subscriptions, and shipping. You can use a template, start from scratch, or customize a template to create a one of a kind website.
Another huge perk of Squarespace e-commerce is the ability to sell services. This is a very exciting option because it allows professional firms to add service based packages like consultation.
The ability to sell subscriptions, digital content, and access to membership gated content is a huge advantage offered by Squarespace. The ability to add e-commece functionality at a later date is an option I absolutely love. Having the option to upgrade your functionality to sell courses, subscriptions and digital downloads once you learn more about your audience needs, is a game changing feature that I have used myself. It is this flexibility seen throughout the plat form that makes Squarespace such a winning choice.
Squarespace also makes it easy to add ecommerce functionality when it makes sense for your business, making it an excellent option for businesses that intend to grow and trial different verticals over time. For example a business may start offering individual services, and as those services pick up, they may want to add an ebook or workbook for purchase. In my opinion, this flexibility makes Squarespace a stand out.
Squarespace scheduling
Everyone is looking for ways to automate business processes. Allowing for scheduling is an excellent way to do just that. Squarespace provides access to scheduling services that allow potential clients to book based on your availability, and schedule services.
Adding scheduling is a necessity for many businesses like fitness studios, but it is also an excellent option for professional service firms. From physiotherapists to accountants, providing scheduling for consultation and client intake is not only time saving but also shows you are a modern business adept at using the latest tools and providing an excellent client experience.
Memberships
Squarespace released "Member Areas" - over the pandemic, and it is the solution many people have been waiting on.
Simply put, this new feature allows you to create premium content, whether it be one on one coaching, videos, workshops, downloadable PDFs, or newsletters, and keep them protected by a payment wall.
People can choose to become a member of your community on a one time, monthly, or yearly basis and access your content.
Knowledge is power. Whether you are a business coach teaching people how to grow a start-up, a fitness instructor looking to monetize weekly or monthly workout releases, or a passionate chef offering tutorials and recipes, the member -area feature could be a winning solution for you. Much like ecommere, Squarespace provides some pretty slick templates to get started, but also allows for customization to achieve the look and feel you’re after.
Another bonus, you don’t need to start fresh with a membership site. If your current services could be adapted to a membership model, you simply need to activate membership tools within your current site and start selling.
4. Using a platform like Squarespace is cost saving
Using a platform like Squarespace can be a cost-saving measure for businesses that want to have a professional online presence, but don't have the budget to hire an agency to continually make adjustments for them. With Squarespace, non-technical users can easily make updates and changes to their website without needing to hire outside help. This means that small businesses, start-ups, and individuals can focus on creating content and growing their audience without worrying about extra expenses.
Want to start blogging regularly? Great. With a Squarespace website, monthly retainers and consultation are an option, not a necessity. This means you can take on as much or as little as you want, making Squarespace a clear choice for savvy businesses who want a great website experience without the expensive overhead of monthly maintenance fees.
5. Squarespace is constantly updating tools
Squarespace has launched a lot of new and exciting features over the years allowing it to meet several business needs under one roof. With the release of Fluid Engine businesses can achieve the look and feel of a website that was once only achievable hiring an expensive developers. Because of the drag and drop nature of Fluid Engine designers can create and implement designs much more quickly, and provide a beautiful website at a much better price point.
Moreover, because Squarespace has a host of out of the box add on features to help grow your business. The Squarespace team is constantly receiving feedback and rolling out tools that not only improve the website editor but also take care of a lot of the heavy lifting around marketing and site promotion.
I’ve spent years learning the ins and outs of Squarespace, and that is why I feel confident continuing to invest my time, energy, and money into the platform. Squarespace has been around for twenty years now. It is a stable and trusted business that has made a huge name for itself. And yes, new and upcoming competitors are launched everyday. I’m always eager to try out new tools and some of those tools are fantastic. For some companies, Squarespace won’t be the superior choice, and using a tool like Shopify may better meet their needs.
That said, Squarespace offers huge breadth of range in its product and is an amazing solution for a lot of businesses. The thing I appreciate most about Squarespace is their continual commitment to providing a best in class platform and their release new features and tools that allow you to continue to grow on the platform.
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