More and more small businesses are being offered all-in-one marketing systems: a CRM, follow-up emails, text messages, booking calendars, and, quite often, a brand-new website thrown in. Some of these systems are genuinely good at marketing. But before you move your website onto one, there’s one question worth asking first:

Will you own your website, or will you be renting it?

Owning versus renting

Think of it like a shop. If you own the building, you can repaint it, extend it, or sell up and take everything with you. If you rent, it’s convenient, but when the lease ends, you hand back the keys and the building stays where it is.

Websites work the same way. Some platforms keep your website on their system for good. Your pages are built with their tools and can only run on their servers. If you ever stop paying, change your mind, or the platform raises its prices, your website doesn’t come with you. You start again from scratch.

That might not matter today. But a website takes time and money to build, and over the years it gathers your Google rankings, your reviews, your content and your enquiries. It’s a business asset, and it’s worth knowing whether it’s actually yours.

Four questions to ask before you move your website

If someone suggests moving your website to a new platform, ask them these four questions, ideally in writing:

1. “If I leave in two years, can I take my website with me as files I can host anywhere?” This is the big one. A copy of the text and pictures isn’t the same as a working website.
2. “What happens to my website if I stop paying?” Does it switch off the same day?
3. “Who owns my domain name?” Your web address (yourbusiness.co.uk) should always be registered in your name, not someone else’s.
4. “Will my page addresses stay the same?” When a website moves and its page addresses change, Google can treat lots of it as brand new. If customers find you through Google, that matters.

If the answers are clear and in your favour, great. If they’re vague, that tells you something too.

Why a WordPress website is yours

WordPress is free, open-source software, and it powers a huge share of the world’s websites. Because it’s open-source, no single company controls where your website can live. A WordPress website is a set of files and a database that can be copied and moved to any web host you like, any time you like.

That’s why every website we build at 3001 Web is built on WordPress. It’s your website, not ours, and not a platform’s.

You don’t have to choose between the two

Here’s the part that often gets missed: you can use a new marketing system without moving your website.

Most CRMs and marketing tools can be connected to an existing WordPress website, so every enquiry from your contact form lands straight in your new system, ready for its follow-up emails and texts. You get the marketing tools you want and keep the website you’ve already built. As a bonus, your enquiries can still be saved on your own website too, so if the other system ever has a problem, nothing gets lost.

Or keep your CRM on your own website too

If you’d rather not add another outside system at all, there’s another option: FluentCRM. It’s a CRM that runs inside your own WordPress website, so your contacts, enquiries and follow-up emails all live on the website you already own.

It works hand in hand with the contact forms on your site, so every enquiry goes straight into your contact list. You can send newsletters and set up automatic follow-up emails, and because it’s priced per website rather than per contact, the cost doesn’t climb as your list grows.

If that sounds useful, ask us about adding it to your website.

Thinking about a new marketing tool? Talk to us first

If you’re a 3001 Web client and someone suggests moving your website to use a new system, have a quick word with us before you decide. In most cases, we can connect your website to it, so you get the best of both and don’t pay twice.

And if you’re not a client yet but want a website that’s genuinely yours, get in touch. We’d be happy to chat.