Professional Custom Websites & Marketing Strategies for Business
Whether you’re a corporation, proprietor or partnership - a professionally built website with a marketing strategy is now becoming one of the most important decisions to the growth and viability of any given company, any size.
Social Media versus Search Engine Marketing
As most of us know a lot of the business buzz these days is social networking. It's amazing how viral this term has become in a reasonably short period of time. The reality is most business owners don't understand how to use it. All they know is, "everyone’s doing it and I need to be part of it". We recently had a client ask us if the CEO of the company should simply use Twitter instead of the news feed on their website as ...read the rest of the story on our blog
Corporations Shifting Advertising Promotion Budgets to the Internet
Corporations of all sizes are shifting their advertising budgets to the Internet. Why? Consumers are getting tired of the barrage of advertising thrown at them in all medias - from junk mail, radio, telephone solicitors to in your face TV advertising. Getting your product or service to your demographic is becoming increasingly difficult. The Internet allows corporations to grow with far less cost versus traditional advertising and promotions.
Traditional Advertising Methods are Not Working Effectively
Let's consider just a few factors. Many of you may already have hi-definition television and to receive that perfect hi-def signal you need a cable or satellite receiver. Many receivers now have built in hard drives from 160GB and up. So why does this matter? People simply don’t like advertisements so they pre-record their selected programs and fast-forward the advertisements.
Does your business use non-addressed printed material as part of your marketing strategy? As most of you know, we call this junk mail and in both the US and Canada you can request to be removed from the junk mail list. Millions of companies have depended on this method from carpet cleaners, restaurants and a multitude of other types of business that are now losing their potential customers by the millions each year. This includes telephone solicitors as well and that media is not going to last.
Environmentally Conscious Consumers
Now lets consider the environment. Whether we like it or not global warming is not something that can be repaired easily and millions of people are now looking for environmentally friendly companies that don’t use excessive paper, plastics and smog polluting transportation methods to ship and receive their goods. Just think, only a decade or so down the road, how much printed advertising is going to be left? We will be reading our newspapers, books and any other content of interest online. And why not? It’s a great way to stop destroying our forests and the use of chemicals used to create paper.
Internet Marketing - Consumers are in Control
As marketing methods evolve the consumer has now become far more educated on how to use search engines and web site technology.
The Internet puts the consumer in control; they can access information when they want and how they want.
Some consumers are now involved with the creation of advertisements, something they have traditionally hated. Corporations that see the new trends have actually saved 100’s of thousands in advertising by asking the consumer to submit a video of how they would sell that product. The corporation offers a $10,000.00 award for the final winner and they have no shortage of candidates submitting videos. $10,000.00 for a television ad is unheard of in traditional advertising.
Baby Boomers – Will Your Retirement Be Affected?
As most of you know baby boomers are expecting to retire in the tens of millions in the next decade. Many expect their retirement based on the sale of their business.
In Canada alone it will take over one trillion dollars to make this happen. Will your business sell?
Lets look at some of the factors that could affect the value of your business.
Good will is not worth nearly what it was in the past
People don’t want to buy businesses that are built on a single person versus a branded self-generating corporation, there’s simply too much risk. In other words if you as a business owner or shareholder walk away, will the company be as profitable?
Have you created a business succession plan to pre-qualify a potential buyer for your business? With increasing emigration from Asia and India it’s very likely they may be the demographic most likely to buy you out. However have you even thought about what they want?
Have you researched their customs and buying habits?
Technology. Have you spent the time to educate yourself and your staff on all the current trends?
Do you know how to setup a POP 3 email with a signature and proper E-mail etiquette for communication? Do all your staff communicate the same way in E-mail communication? Do they have the same signatures, font colors etc.? It’s amazing how many people cannot do this fairly simple task nor check staff’s communication even with the largest companies. We have only scratched the surface on technology and this is only one point of many.
Your website and its promotion are extremely important to help with the perceived value of your business. What kind of business would you want to buy? One with a website that self generates leads each and every month, reflects who and what you do, educates your clients and stays in touch with your clients? Or a company that has not embraced technology, has a homemade type looking website and no traffic.
Make the Right Decision for Your Business
If you have read the preceding information you may now understand why making the right decision for a website design and marketing company is critical. It’s your future and the wrong decision could actually cost you both your business and your retirement.
We are not saying by any means Webacom is the only web design company that can do it correctly, however we can educate you on what we do and how our experience can help you make the right decision for your company and site.
The Vital Basics You Need to Know:
Choosing the Right Web Design Company
Years in Business – Most experienced business people know the statistics. 80% of all businesses will fail in the first five years. 80% of the remaining 20% will fail in the next five-year cycle. With those types of statistics we highly recommend a company that has been in business in at least it’s sixth year of operation. We mean FULL TIME, not a side business.
No Sub-contracting – Most businesses lose quality control when they out source. Make sure the chosen company performs all work in house otherwise you will face a middleman markup. Lets face it although we realize capitalism is what keeps us in business we stand by fair labor practices and encourage local employees. In addition, rather than dealing with one company you end up having to deal with several that leads to more of your valuable time being wasted.
A Team or a Lone Ranger – Lets face it, as the old saying goes, “two heads are better than one” still holds true. Building a business or niche website presence takes many levels of expertise, and we have yet to see any single person achieve the success a team offers.
Home Based or Commercial – This is not a slam to any home based business as in thousands of circumstances they can do a good job, however not in the web industry. We know this first hand as Webacom was a home-based business for a very short time. It wasn’t until we moved to a professional studio that we were taken seriously. Our whole goal is to help business increase their value and how many multi-million dollar home based businesses do you know of? In addition working in an atmosphere with a team generates far more creativity for your project.
Portfolio – Proof of Competence – As with most professional web design companies a fairly large portfolio is important. Any successful web company creates at least eight plus websites in any give month. That means an average of 96 a year. If they only have 10-20 websites in their portfolio how experienced are they?
Part Time or Full Time – Wholly Dedicated – Would you want your year-end done by someone that was not 100% dedicated to a full time career in accounting? Successful businesses take their work seriously and dedicate their careers to full time. If you chose a part time web master and needed emergency work, are you willing to wait until they have time off their real jobs? Most won’t - and shouldn’t - wait, your website is serious business and it’s not a part time effort.
Experience – Perhaps the most difficult subject is experience. Our own employees have changed drastically over the last five years due to changes in web technology. We now have far more staff with database experience versus in the past with mostly HTML knowledge. Here are the main categories of experience needed to create a successful website.
Graphic Designers - Experienced with all current trends including vector graphics and current design programs.
Website Developers – These are the people that take the designs from the graphics department and slice and format the custom website for content.
Database Programmers – If you need to sort and quickly retrieve large volumes of information, whether those are photos and images or SKU numbers and information for your product line, you'll want to have that information stored in a database. A database built by the right person will be scalable and allow you to maintain your inventory levels in real time.
Content Writers – Most business owners feel they can create their own text, however we have rarely seen any that have been successful. Formally trained post-secondary writers will increase your profits substantially. 85% of all websites fail to make a profit and that’s because of bad content.
Search Engine Optimization – Just as important as good content, your website profitability is seriously affected by your search engine marketing plan. Search Engines change their algorithms all the time and it requires a full time expert that understands all the new trends from social networking, video and photo marketing, link building strategies and more. It's critical to have solid SEO (Search Engine Optimization) for your site if you want it to be found.
3D Animators & Flash – Yet another extremely difficult expertise. While the Flash introductions to web pages are disappearing rapidly, we now see Flash as a much more integrated part of people's websites sitting side by side with other elements. Most commonly, streaming video as seen on YouTube is displayed as a Flash file, many online games and interactive experiences are still done in flash as well.
A relatively new trend is 3D modeling for use on the web. Google Earth utilises 3D modeling applications to add additional layers of depth by allowing users to create 3D buildings. There are also virtual 3D environments such as Second Life that enable you to interact with other users on a more 'human' level. Wal-Mart, Sears and Ikea are just a few examples of companies that have invested in these new forms of online marketing.
Domains – Who owns your domain? Have you checked to see if the designer registered it in your own name? If not, you better check as we have seen new customers that have had to use lawyers to gain the right to their own domain. That’s not all, in the last month two businesses almost lost their licenses as there were changes in their industry that required an update to the website. In both cases the web master could not be contacted.
Hosting – Website hosting is critical to your success. If your website is down and you need it for a presentation or a trade show can you imagine the embarrassment and losses? Understanding servers is one of the most complex tasks and whoever is managing it better be an expert as it can effect your communication with your clients through E-mail and whole array of other risks from hackers to identity thieves. Is your data safe?
IT Department, Friend of a Friend, Your Children – We all love our children, family, friends and of course the IT person we hired to manage our computers. First web design IS NOT the same field as IT. It’s often confused with computers. Although we display our websites on computers the working behind them is vastly different from working with computers. Please, all respect to IT departments but if you read the proceeding you will know your education was computers, not web development and marketing.
We also see it time and time again, one of your children or friends just graduated and one small portion of the course covered perhaps a single web design. Next thing you know Dad or Mom wants them managing their website, after all these are our brilliant children right? Wrong, as with any discipline it takes years to get good at it. Would you really go to a dentist to get a root canal with only partial training? The same hold true with custom web design and marketing.
The list provided only covers the basics and we sincerely hope it educates you on how to make perhaps one of the most important decisions for your business.
Webacom Media Corporation Services
- Website Design
- Graphic Design/Branding
- Flash Animation
- Upgrading Existing Site
- Maintenance
- Video
- Printing
- Signage
- CMS – Website Editors
- E-commerce
- Database Development
- Search Engine Optimization
- Content Writing
- Marketing
- Corporate Name Protection
- Consulting
- Hosting
- Domain Registration
- ECO Business Marketing
The Next Step To Your Success!
If you would like more information on any of the web design marketing services Webacom offers please call us now or fill out our online quote request.
Thank you for your time, we truly wish you business success now and for the future!
Sincerely;
Jay Somerville, President
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