Advertising costs can quickly consume a large part of new businesses’ startup costs and existing small businesses’ operating expenses – but without advertising there will be no customers or continuing sales. Fortunately, there are low-cost ways you can advertise that require more of your creativity and time than dollars.

Community Involvement:

• Have a “happening” — contests, parties or picnics for your customers.
• Give product or service donations to a charity auction.
• Give free talks to community groups.
• Run booths at local fairs.
• Attend local business groups’ meetings and business card exchanges.
• Patronize other home-based and small businesses. Participate in cooperative advertising for special newspaper business supplements.
• Post your business’s fliers, cards and brochures on community bulletin boards.

Giveaways:

• Give away free samples or advertising specialty items (magnets, mugs, etc.).
• Offer discount coupons in fliers
• Offer free evaluations or consultations.

Media:

• Send out newsworthy press releases. Use them sparingly.
• Be available for last-minute interviews on local radio and cable television shows — as a “fill-in” guest to replace unexpected cancellations.
• Write how-to articles for industry publications.
• Host a local cable television show related to your business: growing herbs, “handywoman” home fix-it projects and so on.
• Place classified ads in free shopper papers.

Signs:

• Design a logo and slogan that will become identifiable with your business’s name. Display them on all your business cards and promotional materials as well as on magnetic vehicle signs, lawn or sidewalk signs, T-shirts, fliers and so on.
• Design business cards that stand out. Hand them out to everyone you meet. Ask relatives and friends to do the same.

Teaching:

• Give free demonstrations at trade shows and community or store events.
• Teach courses at local schools or community colleges.
• Conduct workshops at business conferences or expos.

Customer Considerations:
It costs less to keep a customer than to get a new one, and word-of-mouth advertising is one of the best advertising avenues.

• Send thank-you, birthday and seasonal cards.
• Offer special sales for loyal customers.
• Handle customer complaints quickly and to their satisfaction.
• Always do a little extra for your customers.
• Be professional and respectful to all customers.

Always aim your promotions where they will reach your target customers – the ones market research has determined are most likely to buy your goods or services. Evaluate each promotion’s responses and repeat those that bring the most business. Remember, customer satisfaction is the best (and lowest-cost) advertising avenue of all. Put customers first, and your product or service will practically sell itself.

You may not be an SEO expert, but that doesn’t mean you shouldnt pay close attention to SEO best practices when creating and publishing content. Paying mind to search engine optimization ensures that you are giving the search engines all the clues they need to determine what my content is about, while also giving customers what they need to know, as well.

Below you’ll find 6 common SEO mistakes frequently made by small business, and how to very easily fix them.

Mistake: Using duplicate Title tags

Your Title tag is the hyperlinked text a user will click on when your site comes up in their search results. And when they click on your link and go to your page, it’s the Title tag that sits at the top of their browser acting as a headline for your page. Both these facts should tell you that crafting a good one is really important. So why are you ignoring it? Spend time writing unique Title tags for every page on your site. The goal of your Title tag is to tell visitors what the page is about, while also making it compelling enough that they’ll want to click through. For example, don’t make the Title tag for your site’s home page [home]. This doesn’t tell anyone what that page is about, nor would it entice anyone to click on it. Instead, use something like [Business Name + Keyword].

Mistake: Having no content

Your Web site needs content. The search engines need something to rank and you need a way to show authority with users and answer their questions. You want to write at least one page of content for every product or service that you offer. I know it’s a lot of work, but this is your business. If you have a retail Web site, don’t just copy the 3-line manufacturer description because everyone is using that description. Write your own. Write a real About page, write a company history page, have a page on all of your employees, etc. Create video content showing people using your product, create a video about how users can hack your product to be better, create a video giving customers a tour of your headquarters. Let them submit their own videos. Write text to go with the videos. Start a blog. Create a podcast. Include text with your images. Use Google’s Keyword Tool or Wordtracker’s Keyword Questions Tool to see what people are asking about in your niche. There are so many ways to get content on your site, take advantage of them. A site with no content is a wasted opportunity.

Mistake: Keyword-less URLs

Don’t STUFF them, but whenever possible you should be trying to get keywords into your URLs to help with your site’s search engine optimization. If you’re using WordPress, I recommend going in and tweaking your settings to better accomplish this. You can do that by going to Settings > Permalinks and selecting the radio button marked Custom Structure. Once you’re there you can decide if you want your URLs to end with /post-name/ or /category/post-name/. Depending on which you prefer, you’ll want to paste in one of the following pieces of code:

• /%category%/%postname%/>
• /%postname%/

And that’s it. Now you’ll be able to very easily alter your URLs to make them as keyword-rich and search engine-friendly as you can.

Mistake: Poor internal linking

We talk a lot about the power of links in SEO. You want people to link to you with keyword-rich anchor text as a way of telling the search engines that you are relevant to those terms. Well, then why aren’t you linking to yourself the same way? When you’re linking between pages on your site, make sure you’re using preferred anchor text to give yourself a boost in the search engines and give users a keyword-rich path to follow. You may not be able to control how other people link to you, but you can control how you link within your own site. Make it count.

Mistake: Using photos instead of text

I see this one a lot with small businesses. Mary owns a bakery on Main Street. The home page of her site is nothing more than a .jpg of her storefront with a link to the food menu. When you click on the Menu link to see what sounds good, you’re shown a scanned PDF version of the menu. This may be usable from a customer standpoint (and even that’s arguable), however, it’s useless from a search standpoint. The search engines can’t see or read your images. To them, Mary’s home page is blank and the menu doesn’t exist. If you want to appear in the search engines, you have to give the robots something to use to rank your site. And that means content. Whenever you’re using a photo, make sure there is also text to accompany it. And don’t rely on photos when words will do.

Mistake: Not using Alt tags with images

Related to the item above, spiders can’t see or read images. To help them get an idea of what the image is about, you need to include alt text that describes the image on the page. If you can, write the alt text to include a relevant keyword to again get that added boost. Again, it’s one of those small, little things that has a real impact.

Those are a few easy ways that you can quickly boost the SEO power of your content. They may seem like little things, but together, they pack a mighty powerful SEO punch.

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Most small businesses get stuck with their online lead generation in three areas:

• SEO – They understand the concept of search engine optimization, and do some work there, but they usually give up before great results are achieved.
• PPC – People get a Google AdWords account, invest some money, watch it disappear, and stop.
• Social Media – Here, people just waste time because they don’t know how to do it right.

Online lead generation is a big topic.  In this post, I’m going to talk specifically about how to spend money wisely to ensure return on your investment.

Before we begin, I’m going to assume you have a well-defined target market, you understand clearly who your target is, you know where they hang out on the Internet, and you know their psychological triggers. Without this info, you’ll always lose in marketing.

To get started, you need to think outside the box. Yes, your potential customers may search for your product or service–so being listed with a PPC ad can do you some good.  But that’s not the only way to reach them.  Plus, only a small percentage of your entire target market is searching for what you sell at any given time.

The key is to go where the customers are. Figure out where they hang out on the Internet.  Learn what they read.  Find out what social networks they visit.  Discover industry-specific forums or blogs.  You get the picture.  Once you know where they are, advertise there.

Sponsoring newsletters or dedicated solo e-mails is an extremely effective method of advertising for many businesses.  If you discover that much of your target is subscribing to a certain newsletter, find out if you can sponsor that newsletter or send a dedicated advertisement.  A dedicated, or “solo,” e-mail is an e-mail advertisement that a publisher will send to their newsletter list that contains only one piece of content: your ad.  These can be golden.

Once you find an area where it makes sense to advertise, contact the publisher or vendor and set up a test. They’ll always want to sell you on a long-term contract.  Don’t bite.  Your job is to make this process scientific.  Take the guesswork out.  The only way to do that is to test.  I like to limit tests to $2,000.  You may want to limit them to less than that.

When you run your test, be sure to split-test. If you’re running a dedicated e-mail, for example, you’ll want to test a couple different subject lines against each other.  On your next test, choose the subject line that performed best and then test something in the body of the e-mail.  Next test the landing page.  Eventually, you get to the point where you’re confident in the number of leads or sales your ad is going to produce every time you run it.  Only at that point should you sign a long-term contract.

That’s it.  It requires a bit of patience and scientific thinking, but it will produce results.

Lastly, let me just give you a few pointers:

• Always have your landing page mirror the content of your ad.  The further the landing page strays from what the ad said, the higher the bounce rate you’ll have on the landing page.  I prefer to have my dedicated e-mails and landing pages look almost identical.
• Be sure the important content and your opt-in form (or “buy now” buttons) are above the fold on your landing page.
• Use subject lines and headlines that trigger a psychological response from your target.  Talk about the benefits of what you sell first.
• Keep distractions to a minimum.  Preferably, you should only have one call to action in your ads and on your landing pages.  If you give users other options, they might take them and then you might lose the sale.  Help narrow their focus.
• Use lead capture forms to capture lead info on your landing pages if your product is not an impulse-buy product.  Offer something of value (a free report, e-book, consultation, etc.) in exchange for contact information.  The minimum piece of information should be an e-mail address.  Keep in mind, the fewer the number of fields in your form, the higher your opt-in rate.  The more fields you have, the lower the opt-in rate.  Use the fields to filter your lead flow.

Online advertising is an important marketing strategy for many businesses. This is just a start (and the most important part) of getting it done right.

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Today’s companies face the challenge of marketing in an economic state of turbulence and uncertainty. The key to maintaining forward momentum in today’s market is to resolve to be competitive and shift to an opportunistic mind-set. Rather than focusing on the turbulence, your company should leverage the dynamics of a down market and become an even stronger competitor. A weak economy can actually serve as an opportunity to evaluate your marketing and public relations initiatives so you can make them more effective and efficient.

In good times, it’s easy to get into the proverbial marketing rut; some companies have been marketing themselves the same way for years, using the same old marketing plan year after year. But when you’re forced to scrutinize every expenditure, suddenly a new zest for change can emerge.

Let this weak economy empower your company to find fresh, creative ways to remain visible, stand out as a distinctive brand and be the leader in your category–even on a smaller marketing budget.

The key to competing strong in a weak economy is to remain visible and project an image of strength and stability. Customers have a heightened sensitivity to any sign of weakness, so resist the urge to dramatically reduce your marketing activities.

To flourish in challenging times, you’ll need to distill your marketing and public relations efforts into a powerful, concentrated mix that delivers a high level of visibility and impact on a limited budget.

If your company is looking for ways to do more with less, taking the following 10 steps can help you compete strong:

1. Rethink your marketing strategy.
   Rather than making random budget cuts to reduce your marketing costs, determine how much spending is feasible based on your current financial situation. Then create a new marketing strategy that optimizes every dollar and integrates your activities to gain the highest return for every effort. This approach will ensure you forge a cohesive, strategic plan that will enable you to remain visible and strongly compete on a reduced budget.
2. Evaluate your brand.
   Now is the time to carefully evaluate your brand, the market and your competitors. You need to get a 360-degree view of your current situation and how your existing marketing activities align with the current market conditions. Review your marketing assets (such as your company’s brochures and website) to determine if they are relevant to today’s customers. Also look closely at your competitors to determine if your company stands out.
3. Target your marketing efforts.
   When marketing on a limited budget, laser-focused targeting of your ideal customers is vital. Invest your time in creating a targeted customer database to use for direct marketing. You may not be able to afford broad advertising efforts, but that’s OK because direct marketing  allows you to directly reach your customers in a more efficient and cost-effective way.
4. Message strategically.
   In a highly competitive market, you need to stand out with messages that are relevant to the times. Evaluate your messaging to ensure it connects with customers. Keep in mind that their wants, needs and interests may have shifted with the economy.
5. Update your core marketing materials.
   If your brochures, website and other materials are not relevant to today’s customers, or if they blend in with those of competitors, make the investment to update your core materials. Many times, customers will visit your website or request information before calling your business. Be sure to make a good first impression to optimize every opportunity.
6. Integrate traditional methods with online tools.
   Today’s communication model is a two-way dialogue. Integrating traditional marketing tactics with web-based tools and social media can boost your response rates by engaging customers at a deeper level. In many cases, boosting exposure through online social networking adds very little cost. Direct marketing can be used to drive customers to microsites (small, three-to-five-page websites) that focus on generating leads. Empowering customer interaction with your company can add significant impact to your campaigns and boost exposure for those on limited budgets.
7. Generate media buzz.
   Increase your media exposure by launching a public relations campaign. Distribute regular press releases to your industry or local media outlets. Submit applications to speak at events or conferences as a thought leader. If your advertising budget is limited, supplementing your media and industry exposure with public relations is a good idea.
8. Increase your network.
   Network with other business owners and customers at industry or local events to increase awareness of your company and generate interest. Do not underestimate the power of word-of-mouth; it is a powerful, cost-effective marketing tool.
9. Forge partnerships.
   Remember, people don’t have to work for your company to work with you, and your peers are in the same boat as you are. Many companies cannot afford to hire extensive staff or experts when times are tough. Strategically partnering with complementary companies can provide you with new leads and expand your network without adding costs. Look for win-win partnerships that can help your business move forward and help you achieve your goals.
10. Optimize your existing customers.
    Many companies spend all their energy trying to win over new customers when existing customers may be the quickest way to increase business. It is critical to maintain strong customer relationships to retain customers. Look for opportunities to upgrade and cross-sell to your existing customers since you already have a relationship with them.

Resolve to become a fierce competitor to win more of the business that’s out there. It is possible to leapfrog the larger competitors in your line of business–not by spending more, but instead by shrewd opportunism. Take a look around–if your competitors have cut back on their marketing or gone dormant, you might have an unprecedented chance to overtake them. Make every marketing move strategic and calculated.

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It’s frustrating. As a proud small business owner, you put a lot of time into your site and perfecting its content. You’ve segmented your customers and have created targeted landing pages to attract them but, for some reason, they’re not converting. What are you to do? It’s time to tweak and troubleshoot your landing pages for ultimate success!

Here are seven reasons your landing pages may not be converting for you and how you can help turn it around.

1. Too Many Distractions

One mistake folks often make crafting landing pages is to throw everything they have related to a topic on one page. The hope is that if you list everything, something will catch a user’s eye. However, that’s not actually what happens. What happens is you muddy up their conversion path by either overwhelming them into taking no action at all or encouraging them to take an action that doesn’t put them on the correct conversion path.

Instead, limit the number of distractions and products you place on a page. Be confident that if customers find one thing they’re interested in, they’ll look around for the rest of what you have to offer. You don’t have to throw it at them all at once.

2. Important Content Is Hidden

One of the basic tenents of journalism says that if you want something to get read, you have to put it “above the fold” (that is, in the top half of the paper’s front page). The same thing goes for content marketing. Make sure the most important bits of your content, the ones that are meant to drive customers to do something, are in a place where users will actually see them without having to page down. There’s no point in having exceptional content if you’re just going to hide it in the basement. Put it front and center to help it do its job.

3. You Need Stronger Calls to Action . . .

. . .or maybe you just need a call to action, period! The call to action you place on your landing page is often what either compels (or doesn’t compel) someone to do something. If your pages aren’t converting, then it might be a sign that you need to tighten up your calls to action. We can help you learn to how to speak to your customers in a way that encourages them to take action.

4. You Need Stronger Direction

You know the conversion path you’re trying to set for customers.  Can they identify it? Are you making it seamless or are you allowing them to veer off course because things aren’t clearly laid out? If you’re not sure of how well you’re pointing people in the right direction, take a look at your analytics.  If you find that lots of people are abandoning the process at the same spot, it may show you that something odd is going on in a certain part of the conversion process.  Maybe you can tighten up your writing, maybe you need to remove a distraction link or maybe it’s something else.  Either way, you want the flow of your page to be clear to those reading it.

5. You’re Sending Them Away

Another reason people may not be converting is because you’re accidentally sending them off the desired conversion path. Do you have a link back to your home page in the same place you’re encouraging someone to “check out”? Do you mention your other product pages from the landing page of another? Do you link to a funny YouTube video for comic relief? If you do, you’re giving people an excuse not to buy from you. Don’t put extraneous links on pages that are meant to funnel people into a shopping cart and get them to make a purchase. People will do anything not to buy. If you give them an option to get out, they’ll take it.

6. You Scare Them With Too Much Text

I don’t know about you, but when I land on a page that has 6,000 words and barely any white space, I hit my back button. It doesn’t matter how interested I was in the product or how engaging the copy might be; it’s too intimidating to tackle. If you want people to convert, make sure your pages are lightweight, scannable and easy to process. If you’re overloading them, you may end up scaring them away.

7. They Don’t Trust You

A final reason customers may not feel comfortable purchasing from your site is that they don’t trust you. That could be the result of a number of things. For example:

• You don’t have an About Us page. Or, you have one but it doesn’t feel “real.”
• You don’t list any contact information like a real street address, phone number, social networking profiles, etc.
• Your site doesn’t look professional.
• Your content is filled with typos, grammatical errors or is too informal.
• Your content isn’t engaging or doesn’t show that you’re committed to your customers.
• You can’t be found on social media.

If any of this sounds familiar, then I’d encourage you to go into your site and amplify these trust factors, as they’re often the deciding factor for customers looking to purchase from an SMB.

The point of your landing pages is to attract customers and get them on a specific conversion path. If this isn’t happen, you need to start testing/tweaking to find out exactly what’s setting users off course and how you can rectify it.

Need help revising your website strategy?

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Whether you’re a brick and mortar or you’re strictly an online shop, you need a website. And while many small business owners are starting to come to terms with this, I can’t tell you how many SMBs I’ve spoken to who have spent considerable amount of money (often five figures) on a website that simply “didn’t work.” Either it didn’t do a good job selling,  or simply didn’t address any of the things important to wary customers.

Don’t let this happen to you.  Below are six things your website should absolutely have. Are you covering all your bases?

1. Intuitive Navigation

A user landing on your website should not have to spend time deciphering how to work their way around. Instead, it should be intuitive. Don’t put your navigation on the right-hand side, don’t make it all Flash, don’t hide the search box, and don’t make the links so tiny a potential customer would need the physical dexterity of a neurosurgeon to click the right link. Make it simple. Something else to consider: Call things what they are instead of trying to be clever. The place where items go once a user attempts to buy them is a Shopping Cart. Call it a “product receptacle” and they’re not going to have any idea where that link goes. And then they may run away scared.

2. Sticky Content

What separates your site  from everyone else trying to be you is the strength of your content. For that reason, it’s really important that you highlight some of the “sticky” content you have on your site, preferably directly from your home page. What type of content qualifies as “sticky”? Maybe it’s that e-book you created, a business checklist you allow users to download, or the most recent article from your blog. You want to have something that will attract a potential customer and lure them further into your site. If your website is a blog, then consider using something like WP-Sticky to bring attention to the posts or articles you most want to highlight and the ones you think visitors should read first to understand your brand promise or what you’re about. Bringing attention to your best content brings attention to the best parts of your brand. Show it off a little.

3. A Blog

This probably isn’t too surprising, but I’m a really big believer in small business blogs. As an SMB, there is no better way to establish a point of difference, become known for thought leadership or consistently attract links and attention than by putting a blog on your site and using it to share information and/or start conversations. You don’t necessarily have to update it every day, but get yourself on a schedule for sharing quality content with your audience.  Your blog is your company voice and what gives your company a personality.

4. Your Address, Phone Number & Contact Information

One of the most powerful ways for a small business owner to establish credibility is to include a local address, phone number, and a few ways for customers to get in touch with them (e-mail address, Twitter, Facebook page, etc.). By highlighting this information, you show people that you’re real and that you’ll be easy to get ahold of should they have a question or a concern. This information is also super important from a search engine optimization standpoint because it gives the search engines important cues about where your business is located and what areas or neighborhoods you’re relevant to. Make sure this information is highly visible on your website.

5. Reviews

It used to be that online reviewers were simply used as another way to establish credibility, but in 2011 they’ve become much, much more important. With the introduction of Google Places, Google Hotpot and Google placing review information right next to business listings, it’s important that small business owners not only encourage reviews, but also be proactive about getting as many of them as they can. As the Web gets more social, online reviews are being shown to have more weight and prominence.

6. Calls to Action

Users are on your site. Be sure to tell them what you want them to do! You want to create a clear path for visitors to navigate through so that they’re naturally achieving all the goals that you’ve laid out. If you want them to buy something, set up the offer and then show them how to do it. Then take away all their distractions so they have nothing to do BUT click the “buy now” button. If you’re trying to educate the people who land on your site, make sure you’re directing them to the resources and articles your site features. Your calls to action should be as clear and intuitive as your navigation. It’s the only way they’ll work.

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When creating a personal or company website for business or promotion, there are many things that you will want to concern yourself with. This is especially true if you want your web presence to be effective and capable of communicating your message and generating sales. If the design of your website is poor and does not meet the high standards of those individuals who will visit your website, you will ultimately create an unsavory public image for yourself, which could result in a grave loss of business.

With that in mind you need to seek out web designers who are more than capable of handling your website needs. You need to seek out website designers who have the skills and experience needed in order to establish a firm and marketable web presence that will generate the type of business that you desire. You should always rely on the skills of trained and reputable web designers and should never attempt to carry out your web based designs and tasks on your own.

When creating a website, you are creating a living and breathing representation of yourself and your company. Visitors to your website will make judgments on both you and your services based on what they see and experience while on your website. This is why you must make a great first impression with the website you have created and choose to share with the world.

If a visitor to your website is not impressed with your websites design, they are 85% more than likely going to feel that your products and services will also lack charm. When you rely on the skills and training of professional web designers, you can be sure that you will receive a final web product that has the capability of making positive and lasting first impressions. It is these powerful impressions that will actually convince your visitors that you are the company for them.

Web designers know what website visitors want and expect in a company website. First off, readers look for and expect a sleek and unique design that stands out and grabs their attention; a design that loads quickly and features easy to understand navigation. If you were to bypass the use of website designers and attempted to generate your own website via the use of a template, you would be creating a poor representation and vision of your company. Visitors to your website would automatically be able to determine the amateur nature of your website and would most likely feel that it reflects the type of services you offer.

Always seek out web designers when it comes to the creation of company based websites. Website designers know what web surfers are looking for and what they expect in a website. Professional website designers can ensure that your web presence reflects these standards that all web seekers seek, so that your website can truly generate the type of business and buzz that your company desires.

Let us help your company grow and provide you with a new, professional website.

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Internet marketing can attract more people to your website, increase customers for your business, and enhance branding of your company and products. If you are just beginning your online marketing strategy the top 10 list below will get you started on a plan that has worked for many.

1. Start with a web promotion plan and an effective web design and development strategy.
2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques.
3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively.
4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs.
5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant.
6. Build a responsive opt-in email list.
7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories.
8. Write and publish online press releases.
9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site.
10. Blog and interact with your visitors.

By following the above tips you’ll be on your way to creating a concrete internet marketing strategy that could boost your business substantially. For more information and assistance, feel free to call us at 262-725-0580 or request a price quote for a free consultation.

Just because the rest of the world is on the Internet promoting their brands, it doesn’t mean they aren’t or shouldn’t be continuing to utilize traditional offline marketing strategies that are working.

With all the hoopla about SEO, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and the tons of other social networking sites, small business owners might be led to believe that they have to do a total about-face in their marketing efforts and jump into the Internet with both feet without looking back. Instead, they need to analyze, evaluate and strategize.

First, small business owners need to take stock of what their current marketing initiatives are and analyze their success rate. Are your current programs attracting qualified leads? If something is working, keep doing it, even if it is not on the Internet.

For instance, if attending or participating in trade show events results in valuable and qualified leads for your company, then trade shows are a viable marketing initiative that you should continue. In addition, you should be analyzing your competition. What are they doing that is working? You want to do what they are doing, only you want to do it better.

Next, you need to look at all your current marketing efforts and evaluate how effective they are in terms of return on investment. Using the trade show example, attending a trade show is usually far less expensive than exhibiting at the same show (unless the show is out of town and you are bringing many employees). But if having a booth attracts enough qualified leads (“enough” can only be determined by the business owner) that convert to sales, then the expense is worth the effort and exhibiting at the successful trade shows should be included as part of your overall integrated marketing strategy.

The last step is to strategize or plan. This is not a final step because your marketing strategy should be dynamic in order to remain competitive and keep up with the ever-changing market and latest technologies. Without a clear and concise marketing plan, the small business owner can literally get lost on the Internet scrambling to try to find out where to put the most effort.

Let Avant Garde Media help you evaluate your marketing plan, and put together some options to maximize your budget. Call us at 262-725-0580 or request a price quote for a free consultation.

These days, web design pricing tends to be all over the map. You can find a lot of web designers who claim to be willing to design a website for $200, a lot who wouldn’t touch a project for less than $10,000 and even more who fall somewhere in between. So what’s the right price? You’re going to hate this answer, but there isn’t one right price. It’s sort of like buying a home; it depends on a lot of different variables.

Price is what you pay, value is what you get.

You could save tons of money by going with a dirt-cheap web designer, but if your website does a poor job of converting your visitors into customers, what did you really save? On the other hand, if you blow your entire marketing budget on the perfect website and then can’t afford to market it, did you really make a wise investment?

You need a website that presents a professional image and gives your visitors that warm fuzzy feeling deep in their gut that lets them know they can trust you. But more importantly, you need a website that converts your visitors into customers. It’s all about results.

To determine whether the price/value ratio is on the mark, you’ll have to know what your website needs to be capable of. Functionality impacts price. For example, our website design prices currently start at around $1,200. That’s for a completely custom designed, multi-page website website, coded with valid HTML and CSS that works properly in all major browsers. Specialized functionality, like a content management system, which gives you the ability to easily change your own website content, moves your investment up into the $2,200 range. The more bells and whistles you add, the more your website will cost.

Some people may be thinking that’s a lot of money, which is both right and wrong at the same time. If you just want to set up a blog as a hobby, a couple thousand dollars is probably a lot of money to spend, but if you want to set up a custom website for your company, investing a couple thousand dollars is virtually nothing. Think about it like this. You’re selling a product or service, and if you’re website allows you to increase your sales by even just 5%, how quickly will your investment pay for itself? More importantly, what will it mean to your bottom line after that?

What is the scope of your project

In addition to the functionality of your website, the scope of your project can have a significant impact on the price. More work obviously means more fees, so you’ll need to factor in certain details ahead of time, such as:

• How many pages will be included?
• Will you be providing content or will they write it for you?
• Who will input your content (copy and/or products)
• Is web hosting included?
• Is a domain name included?
• Will you be providing images/photos?

When do you need it?

You might be surprised at how many people wait until the last minute to start their web design project. If you want to save some money, don’t be that guy! When a firm has to rearrange their existing projects, work extended hours, through weekends or holidays to meet your deadline, there will be additional fees.

Experience counts

An experienced web design firm will almost always charge more, but will produce much better results. We’re not just talking about appearance though. In this case, we’re talking about your bottom line. An experienced firm knows what it takes to get your new website up and running quickly, how to drive traffic to it and how to convert your visitors into customers.

Experienced web design firms will often utilize standardized processes, and checklists, to make sure each client receives consistent quality, their specific needs are met and that no details are missed. If you’re considering several firms, look at the systems they’ve put in place, some of the websites they’ve designed, read their testimonials and even contact some of their clients. If they seem to have solid systems, you like the style of their work, and their clients are successful and happy with their service, it may be worth the additional cost to hire a more experienced firm.

The bottom line?

Price should never be your sole determining factor, in fact, it should be the last and least significant factor in your decision. You should choose a web design firm with sufficient experience to execute your project, but you also need to make sure you can afford to market your new website once it’s up and running. The “build it and they will come” days are far behind us.

If you need more information on how we can develop your business website, feel free to call us at 262-725-0580 or request a price quote for a free consultation.