Who Should Use Wordpress?

Monica Pitts 0:00 Hello again and welcome back to marketing with purpose. I am your co host today. My name is Monica Pitts and with me I have Stacey brockmeyer, my chief wear of many hats. And today we're going to tackle the question Who should use WordPress? Like should you use WordPress? Is it the right system to build your site in? Now, okay, so full disclaimer. We love WordPress, Stacy, we love WordPress, Stacy Brockmeier 0:25 we love WordPress. Monica Pitts 0:27 We love it. Like as we like as in we want to marry it. Stacy Brockmeier 0:32 So many heart emojis for WordPress, so many, Monica Pitts 0:35 we actually did marry it. I feel like we did. I think we have like a long term relationship with WordPress, we go to WordPress, like camps, where like, like conferences where we learn more about WordPress, we stinking, we love it. We don't build websites on anything else. And every so often a new client will come in. And we have to deal with their non WordPress site for a little while while we're building their new WordPress site. And so we put on rubber gloves, and masks and we go out and we like II in their old site to keep it running, but we don't like it. Yeah, so anyway, Stacy Brockmeier 1:16 I think after you've been with something for like seven years, it's like a common law marriage or something like that. I think we have a common law marriage with WordPress. That's Monica Pitts 1:25 probably a really good way to describe it. Because WordPress didn't marry us. It didn't like there's no vows that WordPress is said to make create design, right. So we, we we married it, and it man that makes it really sound like a one way relationship. But here's the deal. I don't think it's a one way relationship. I think WordPress helps us build our business. It helps us serve our clients. And it helps us make websites that make businesses grow. So that's a pretty powerful thing. But here's the deal. There are a lot of choices out there. Like so many choices, I'm not even going to name them all because I don't even know them all. And and we do not always advise people to use WordPress, we really don't. So how do you know if WordPress is right for you? That's what we're going to tackle in this episode. And the reason Stacy's with us is because that is one of the biggest parts of her job is helping people understand which way to build their site. So that way they get the website that really helps them grow their business or organization. So we may do a checklist to help you decide and Stacy is going to guide us through the questions that she asks incoming prospects at may create to help them decide if WordPress is the right system for them. All right. So should you use WordPress? Let's find out. Let's get to business. You're on mission and you just need more people to know about it. And whether you're brand new to marketing or a seasoned pro. We are all looking for answers to make marketing decisions with purpose. I'm Monica Pitts, a techie crafty business owner, mom and aerial dancer who solves communication challenges through technology. This podcast is all about digging in and going digital. I'll share my marketing know how and business experience from almost 20 years of misadventures. I'll be your backup dancer. So you can stop doubting and get moving towards marketing with purpose. Okay, so, Stacy, let's start at the top. First and foremost, if somebody's listening to this episode, they are questioning, right? They're questioning if this is the right system for them, or maybe they've heard of it, and they want to learn more. So are they alone? Like when you talk to people at first about their websites? Do they know how they want to build their website to start to they know they should be using WordPress or not? I Stacy Brockmeier 3:45 would say we have a handful of people who know but for the most part, people don't know. They don't know how their website is going to be built. They just know that what outcomes they want from it. But we do have a handful of people who know that they definitely want to use WordPress, it's usually people who have either used WordPress before, or they have some kind of experience with WordPress already. Because Monica Pitts 4:09 when you get used to using something and it's working for you, oftentimes what you want to do is just have that same system but soup it up or or make it more what you want it to be right now, because even if you built a WordPress site 10 years ago, it doesn't mean that it's the right site for you today, right? I mean, no Stacy Brockmeier 4:29 WordPress has changed tremendously over even the last five years. The WordPress has changed a ton. So Monica Pitts 4:36 we actually started not building websites on WordPress, we had custom coded admin sections where people could go in and update their stuff. And we had like add, like we allowed that privilege that feature to clients long before everybody else did. And it was really interesting because we would build out These custom features for them, but they didn't always know what they wanted years or even months from now, or minutes from now. And so we would build it out to specifications. But then it, it was really interesting to try to extend it. Because you don't always know what you want when you get started because you, you haven't done it. And so then we tried to move on to different systems that were pre built. Because when you work with a prebuilt system, you're using something that somebody has done a lot of thinking and adjusting in already. So you're kind of starting further along in the process, you can get stuff done faster. So we tried Joomla we tried Drupal, we tried Magento. I never want to touch that. Stacy Brockmeier 5:45 Do you remember? Member building that one shopping cart, light and Magento? Oh my gosh, so painful. It's like, was something I wrap Monica Pitts 5:56 my head around XML? Like, I cannot tell you the number of like questions that I asked to our, like one of our developers, because I was the developer and we had another developer and I was like, I just don't understand it. Can you explain it to me? And like, there's nothing tangible nothing. It's just like random, though. Anyway, I that. I digress. So we were on the hunt for the right system to help us grow our business on and how help other people grow their business on to and my brother called. And he was like, Hey, have you heard of WordPress? And I was like, No. And he's like, it looks really, really cool. And Travis is like an early tech adopter, he finds solutions to everything before you even knew that you needed it. He's a great person to have around, by the way. So. So I think I think around a little bit, and then we were like, we're going to try building our next client site on the system. And, and from then on, that's that's when our real marriage started. Like that's because it was so well documented that I could actually teach myself how to use it. And it made sense, like in my little brain that sees colors, and shapes. It made sense. Like I could understand it. It was amazing. Yeah, feel Stacy Brockmeier 7:13 like you're reminiscing of like a positive first day next year like that. Monica Pitts 7:17 Because I mean, you just you just heard me talk about Magento, it was like Stacy Brockmeier 7:25 was the guy who showed up with this wig on his shirt, and wrinkly pants Magento. And WordPress was like The Well Dressed like guy who opens the door. Monica Pitts 7:36 It is like, it was great. And so we continue to use it because it's extremely extendable. There are 60,000 free plugins as of right now in the WordPress plugin directory. So that means that there are 60,000 ways that you can extend the core functionality of your site for free. Squarespace has 37 I'm just saying 60,000. Yeah, and I'm not saying all of them are great, because the second reason that we use it all the time is because it has amazing out of the box SEO and everybody wants their website to be found. Right. So it's got really clean code, which you just heard heard me say that I could actually read it and understand it. So clean code, mobile, responsive, fast load speeds, customizable permalinks, XML sitemaps, all these things that maybe words that you don't even know what they mean. Yeah, so it's, it's going to help you get found, has a huge community, and support. So if you don't know how to do it, there's a YouTube video about it. And then last but not least, I always say that when we build websites for our clients on WordPress, it's like building them with an insurance policy. As of 2023 43% of all the websites on the internet are built on WordPress. So if you don't like us, or you don't like your web designer, you can fire them because there was another WordPress developer waiting right around the corner that would be happy to take over your site and help you use it. Okay. So after that, like all these things isn't glowing review, right? So if you're still not sure you've got Stacey who's going to answer all these questions for us. Okay, so Stacy, when someone comes in, and you're trying to help them decide if WordPress is right for them, what's the first thing that you talk about? Stacy Brockmeier 9:29 Usually we talk about how they want their site to function and how it can be an employee for them and work for them in the future. So understanding what their needs are as a company, and maybe how their website can help meet those goals. That's where we start how they Monica Pitts 9:51 and I feel like one of the things that I talk with people about a lot actually as they come in is the support factor. because they're often in a system, if they already have a website that isn't that either isn't doing what they want it to do doesn't look the way they want it to look, or they can't figure out how to use it. And so can you update WordPress yourself? Stacy, can you do it, you Stacy Brockmeier 10:15 absolutely can do it. But take a backup First, Monica Pitts 10:19 take a backup first. Yeah, if you're gonna need something big ticket backup first. I do Stacy Brockmeier 10:23 always tell people though, when you want to update your site, so in the admin section of WordPress, we, like people can update photos and text and stuff like that. And my like base level of tech that I tell people that they need to be able to update their site and WordPress is you need to be able to check your email. And you should probably be able to use a like Microsoft Office products like PowerPoint or word. If relatively efficiently, you don't have to be like the rock star who's like making designs and word. But you do have to be able to actually type in it and use it. Monica Pitts 11:04 And so when you work with a company like ours, well, actually, I don't have any idea. When you work with me create, one of the things that we do is we train people on how to use their site, we record that training. We also have like an online training portal where they can go in and watch little videos and have a resources section that they can go to at any point that explains to them how to do little things on their website that we know people have to use. All like that we know people ask about all the time, because we just record a video and then we upload it into our system. So then when a new person comes into your company or organization, because that happens a lot. You know, whoever your webmaster is, may not be your webmaster forever, then you're going to need them to know how to use the new system, but the old person's gone. So you can come in and like basically just tell us and we give them access to all the training. And then they can learn how to use the website the way that you use it, which I think is really cool. Because sometimes when new people come in, they're like, I don't want to learn how to do this. I just want to rebuild the site in another system that I have learned how to use before. How do you feel about that statement? Stacy? Stacy Brockmeier 12:22 My heart a little? Monica Pitts 12:27 Well, I think it hurts, it hurts my heart, like, in a few ways. One, because they're gonna have to invest all that money to rebuild their site. It's a lot of time Stacy Brockmeier 12:36 and money. Yeah, it is so much time and money. And Monica Pitts 12:39 then sometimes it just will not do what the current site does, because it can't because it's not as extendable. Right. So that's tricky. Which, okay, so extendibility. Okay, so the second thing that you talk about with them is customization, like how customized do they want this site to be? So tell me a little bit about what that means. So Stacy Brockmeier 13:01 there's two aspects to customization. One is how you want your website to look, and two is what you want it to do for you. So if you want a unique design or unique functionality, we can provide that in WordPress. And I do occasionally have the conversation with people when they first come in, where they say, oh, all WordPress sites look the same. And they don't, that means that you're probably looking at WordPress sites that were built from a template. We offer some sites built from templates that we built. But we also offer a completely customized design. And so we can make a WordPress site look in any way that we want it to look. It does not have to. You don't have to be pigeonholed into this one look, because you're using WordPress. But then often the second way that people customize it is what they want it to do. So do you just need a brochure site? Or do you need a site with an employee own employment application? Do you need a site with a shopping cart? Do you need a site with custom posts or different things that pull into different places? Does your site need to connect to another system? Those are all things we're going to talk about and quite frankly, I could probably go on for an hour listing all the ways that we've customized WordPress Functionality wise to make it work for the client. But really understanding what you want it to do now what you want it to do in the future. And is the platform that you're choosing extendable so that you can meet your goals now and later. Monica Pitts 14:44 Yeah, ultimately, if you just want a website that's a brochure and it doesn't have to be like super fancy designed to to meet your expectations. Then you can almost build your website anywhere. i To be fair, like you really Can and, and I really, I think it's okay. Like a lot of people start their websites like that they started in whatever system they feel comfortable in. And that's great. But when you want to, like, amp up the design, there are a few different platforms that you can do that on. And you usually have to work with a developer to get it, okay, let's be straight with that, like, you're gonna have to work with somebody who knows how to code a template in whatever system you pick to get a really fancy design. But then I feel like when you get to the point that you really need that extra customization. Remember, WordPress has, like 43% of the market share. And that means that there's a lot of websites that have been built to do a lot of things like Disney's is WordPress, okay, VO uses WordPress, they, they are doing some stuff on this stuff, right? So, and all that ends up like filtering out into the community, the open source community, and then you get to benefit from it and, and use tools that were built by someone else. So it can do a lot of things. A lot of things very fancy. Okay. So another thing you already touched on this a little bit, you said that, as far as tech savvy goes, people need to be able to check their email, they need to be able to work comfortably in a Microsoft Office program like PowerPoint or Microsoft Word. But okay, would you say that WordPress is the absolute most user friendly interface? Ever? I'm putting you on the spot here. You're talking about your your husband, your spouse? Stacy Brockmeier 16:46 I know I am. I mean, I think with any software, there's a little bit of a learning curve, right? So it's not that someone who has literally never been involved with web design is gonna sit down and intuitively know exactly what to do. And WordPress, I think if you're a tech savvy person, you're gonna sit down and be like, oh, yeah, that makes sense. That's where I would click to get that thing. But if you've never done anything, tech wise, or or website specific wise, I think that there is a little bit of a learning curve. Now, like I said, that doesn't mean that we can't train you to do it, because we've trained people of all ages and tech background to update their website. Monica Pitts 17:32 I mean, I just took what for people who are in retirement through creating every page of their website, and the better than DIY website program, and they did it and they did it really well. And so it can be done friends, it can totally be done. And I mean, to me, it feels intuitive. But I know that it, it can feel like a lot because sometimes, you know, you open up a super simple program, and there's only three buttons to click. And so it seems great, until you wish there was a fourth button. And it's not there. Okay, and then last but not least, so we talked about customization, like through plugins. And when you talked a little bit about that you touched on integrations. So give me an example of what you mean by integrations. Stacy Brockmeier 18:25 So there's lots of ways that different software's integrate with one another. We have clients who use Salesforce, and their website integrates with Salesforce, or they use a POS system for their shopping cart, and they want to manage their inventory through their POS, and that connects to WooCommerce. And so there's lots of systems that people use that they want to integrate with WordPress, and often, I would say most often we integrate HR kind of types of software. And so there's two ways that those can integrate. Sometimes they literally talk back and forth to one another. And sometimes we just install what we call an iframe, it's like a window to the other software. So there's lots of ways to integrate, but really, I mean, streamlining your process so that you're not entering data from one site to another or one software to another is really helpful in business can really make it so you can get a lot more done that way. Monica Pitts 19:30 I think the other thing that we integrate all the time is like email marketing software's we do that a lot and, and payment gateways. Yes, I was gonna say that like billing stuff, so that when people pay a bill, so especially for like a membership site, say, not a membership site, but a company or an organization that has membership, like when they pay their dues, it needs to mark them as having paid their dues, so that you don't have to accept the payment. And then go into your system and mark that they paid their dues, right? Like, it's just, it's just an extra step like it really. And sometimes you even set it up to where now they're getting like pay, or they're getting charged for their dues annually. So you know, you no longer have to go run all those cards or collect them again, to pay those annual dues. And so that's a powerful thing that your website can do for you. So Stacy Brockmeier 20:26 we also have a client that manages hundreds of volunteers. So it's an organization, they have hundreds of volunteers, but those volunteers have to have specific certifications. And they have to upload those certifications. So that website, actually renames the file that they upload, puts it in the correct folder, make like creates a line on a spreadsheet, saying that they've done their certification, which certifications they've completed and all kinds of stuff. So it's pretty robust. But the amount of data entry that one person would have to do if that didn't talk to the folders and the spreadsheets and whatnot that that client uses would be a full time job. Yeah, Monica Pitts 21:14 yeah, we have a staffing company that it was the same way. We like literally saved them, I can't remember, I think it was like 50 hours, a month worth of work by just integrating the things that they were doing with their website. And that's the tricky thing is that not all systems are going to integrate the iframe example that Stacy used earlier, where it's just a window looking out to your site, you can do that on most website builders, most of them have it, I actually went out and checked. The other day, I checked like on seven different ones. And you can do it, okay. So you can integrate it with an iframe. But when you want to get more robust and create a user interface for people and make things, talk to one another, and really put your website to work to save you time, and have it be an employee of your company, it's got to be able to talk and not all systems can and that's why we end up using WordPress, because most of the time it can talk right most of the time, not all the time, not all the time. But most of the time it can so yep. Okay, friends. So there you go. Now you know a why we think WordPress is awesome. We married it because it's extremely extendable. It has great out of the box SEO, there's a you really easily find, like support to learn how to do things. And and we feel like it's like having insurance for our clients because they have the ability to walk away from a web designer and find another one to help them with what they want to do. And then when Stacey talks to people to help them learn if WordPress is the right system for them, she talks about their goals like what do they want their website to do now and in the future. She asks them how much they want to customize the site as far as it looks and what they want it to do. And their level of tech savvy, because if they are, like totally freaked out by technology, and they can only have three buttons, this is going to not feel so great to them. And then the integrations like what are the software's that they use every day in their company that they need to have talked back and forth with WordPress so that way it's a good investment for their company to build this website and maintain it and use it for years to come. Stacey anything else? You want to tell people about who should use WordPress? I Stacy Brockmeier 23:32 don't know I think we did a pretty good job with this WordPress love fest. Monica Pitts 23:36 It is it's a WordPress love fest and everyone is invited to attend. Okay, friends, thank you so much for joining us today and living through this WordPress love fest. If you want to take a look at WordPress yourself and you don't want to set it up, we have a YouTube channel. And there is actually a playlist of introductory WordPress training videos that you can go take a gander at and get an overview of the system. We also have a WordPress user guide a training guide on our website that you can download for free and they will be linked in the show notes of this episode and also on the blog post that accompanies this episode over on May create.com. And that's ma yecreat.com. So, stick with me we have more website episodes yet to come because you know we'd love to talk about websites. So if you want to not miss a single episode, be sure to subscribe and we'll meet you wherever you are. Until next time, go for it and mark it with purpose. Transcribed by https://otter.ai