A Digital Strategy Podcast

Your CFO Isn't Saying No to Your Website

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Notes

Why does a website project that everyone agrees is needed keep dying in the finance meeting? Usually it's not the budget — it's the pitch. Symon and Marcello break down how to reframe a web investment as a business initiative, not a creative one, and walk through exactly how to build a case that finance can actually approve.

Topics covered: current cost audit (hosting, content ops, lost leads), opportunity cost of inaction, competitive and technical risk, how to connect a website to revenue (and when you can't), OPEX vs. CAPEX considerations, phase-based budget structuring, and how to build a measurement plan before you ask for money.

 

Chapter List (YouTube + Podcast)

  • 0:00 — Intro: Why website projects die in the finance meeting
  • 1:41 — The business case is already there — it's a framing problem
  • 2:20 — Why most website business cases fail
  • 4:13 — Looking at risk: compliance, accessibility, and fines
  • 5:13 — Current costs: what your website is actually costing the business
  • 7:00 — Opportunity cost: the website as a go-to-market tool
  • 7:46 — Risk of inaction: technical debt and competitive positioning
  • 9:00 — The investment ask: phasing, fiscal year alignment, flexibility
  • 9:25 — Defining project objectives from day one
  • 10:30 — How to connect a website to revenue (and when you can't)
  • 12:13 — Content bottlenecks as the baseline business case
  • 13:34 — Page speed: the metric that impacts both UX and search
  • 14:34 — Indirect value: brand credibility, talent, partner perception
  • 16:22 — How Tennis grew its own inbound with SEO and AEO
  • 19:10 — When the full budget won't get approved: the phase-based ask
  • 21:00 — What to do first if you need to pitch in the next 60 days
  • 22:28 — Build the measurement plan before you ask for the budget
  • 23:00 — OPEX vs. CAPEX: how finance wants to spend matters
  • 24:49 — Final takeaway: stop pitching a website

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    A Digital Strategy PodcastBy Tennis