What site fits you best?

Getting the right type of site makes all the difference.

This page is designed to get you thinking about how you will use a website, which will in turn make it easy to decide what kind of site will fit you best and how much that will cost you in the end. So let's get started, there are three main facets to success on the web: the purpose, the design/operation, and the marketing. We are going to go over all of them here, or you can call, we'd be more than happy talk about your options!

What is the goal of the site?

This is the most important question to answer, this determines everything else in the life cycle of the site. This doesn't need to be a twenty page paper with mission statements (although it sometimes helps...) This can be as simple as "I need a cool version of my company brochure online so that I can cut my spending on printing costs," while other times we hear "I need to open another reliable revenue stream for my brick and mortar electronics store." So with all the choices out there narrowing it to the ones that appeal to you is the first step. The following are some of the common purposes that we hear, we take this information and figure out how to get the best results with the technology that is available. With that in mind figuring out what your site needs to do starts here, "I want my site to...."

• ₪ Inform: Give them the goods, pure and simple, people go to the web to learn.
• ₪ Advertise: Get your message out there, target people and promote your brand.
• ₪ Collect Data: Get stats from your users. Figure out how to refine your marketing.
• ₪ Add Followers: Sign-ups and social marketing are powerful ways to get a message to the people.
• ₪ Entertain: Visual media has the most stopping power, hands down.
• ₪ Capitalize: Un-limit your earning potential.
• ₪ Become an integral part of people's lives: There are so many ways to get this one accomplished...
• ₪ Obviously this list can go on forever....where does your list end?

How does your site look and function?

So you know what your site is going to do for you, now what does it look like and how does it operate? While we love the entire process of marketing and site creation, as designers this step holds a special place in our hearts. We love the collaboration and creation involved. The design can make or break any advertising campaign, this is why we take special care to make sure that the design is perfect. Good design fades into the background, instills confidence, promotes elements in order of importance, and communicates more about your business faster than anything else. Bad design however, does not simply do these things poorly, more times than not all that is communicated is "Run Away!" There are many books and dissertations on the importance of first impressions and the visual nature of our species, so we will not drone on, but suffice it to say that great care should be taken when dealing with the look and feel of a site. For this reason all of the people we work with must have a "designer's eye", including our printers and programmers. To help with this step we turn to a short this short list of questions:

• ₪ Do you need the ability to update the site without programming knowledge?
• ₪ What design and branding do you have in place currently?
• ₪ In terms of look and feel what other art, web sites, or design personifies your business?
• ₪ Will you want the site to interface with social/viral marketing?
• ₪ Are you prepared for the time commitment that constant site updating requires?
• ₪ Will you be selling product or services within the web site?
• ₪ What types of multimedia would you like your site to have?
• ₪ Are you aware of the general components that make up all web sites?

Who needs to know about you?

The dirty words of business....marketing, promotion, advertising! Marketing seems to be an area of great challenge for many businesses, the difficulty being that ROI can sometimes be hard to determine conclusively. This is another area that technology, specifically the web is able to help us out a bunch. We can track all ad campaigns and the impact that they have on our goals. In this way we can test success of any given site; is it fulfilling its purpose? There are thousands of different advertising paths, and spins to give you an edge, we are ready to walk with you through the exciting process of advertising for your business. Everything from print ads on billboards and bus stops, to social networking and video commercials, to good old Google adWords, we can cover all your bases. We also work on quite a few SEO campaigns. Check out some of the major options and guide lines below then drop us a line, let's hammer down a plan. click here

• ₪ By far the best investment in marketing you can make is in SEO.
• ₪ SEO campaigns need time and patience to be effective. Typically 3-12 months depending on the goals, and industry.
• ₪ To help mitigate the wait time with SEO we recommend starting a PPC campaign.
• ₪ There are many sources that offer PPC advertising options. Getting in the right places is critical.
• ₪ Especially for local based businesses (i.e. restaurants, etc...) print advertising can be very effective. If targeted correctly.
• ₪ Social marketing is a cheap or free and can be have explosive results if used properly, however even with the best technology it can take a bite out of your day.
• ₪ Depending on the geographic area and ad budget, television ads can provide a serious bang for the buck. Unfortunately the price of entry can be quite high compared to many other options.