If you have decided to look for a marketing company for your website, you will need to know a few things on how to go about choosing one. I hope that you will not just wildly look around and decide to go with the first one you find. It isn't the best approach for you or your website. Here are some suggestions on find a good marketing firm that might help you market your site successfully in the end.
First, you must decide how much you want to spend on the site. Be realistic in your approach. Know that you can always go back, and spend a little more for upgrades and maintenance. Overloading yourself financially would not be wise. An online business involves more than just online cost. Other necessities include printer cartridges, paper, mailing envelopes, stamps etc. The sooner you realize this, the better off emotionally and financially you will be.
The characteristics of a good marketing firm are as varied and unique as your site and needs. Here are a few factors that you will need to look at when spending your hard-earned money and time.
Experience - You will want to pick a firm that has extensive knowledge in the area of service that you need. For example, if you want a designer for your pool table site, do not go pick one that only has experience in perfumes. It is like a sub specialty in medicine - go with the one that knows your particular area. Do not be fooled by any marketing company that lets you think or implies that a search company is a search company. There is not any one formula for all websites. It is just not so. Specialized experience matters a lot.
Testimonials - Take this one serious. People have gotten numb to the value of a good testimony. Thousands of testimonies are on the Internet endorsing everything from cooking oil to airplane parts, so it is understandable that some testimonies are lost because of the numbers. The important part is if you request it, can you speak with someone or email him or her about his or her experience with the company? In addition, can you view several websites that the company has done and marketed? Look for a pattern in success and the design aspect of the site. This can include how popular the site is including the cohesiveness of success.
Integrity and Personality - Any reputable marketing web firm will not endorse Black Hat tricks such as fake doorways, portals or any other host of magic tricks to make you instantly happy. In fact, if any firm, without seeing your site, says they can get your website into the top two pages of certain search engines, do not believe it. It does not happen overnight. Tweaking and refining a website is a detailed process. They need to be willing to work with you and use the latest marketing techniques on the market to get you there. Putting just a few Meta tags in your site and telling you that is all it needs is not good business service. There is so much more to marketing. You may in danger of falling for a scam. A good personality and communication skills is a necessary skill in marketing and it should shine through with you - their customer.
Price - This category could also fall under integrity. Finding a company that will let you know up front, especially if you have extensive SEO, search engine optimization work, what it will cost in a quote to redesign or design a site for you is important. Ask for a quote, but only after you have worked together to find exactly what you need. If their price seems a little over the top, you can always go to another company. Remember though; do not judge to harshly at first. Check around and talk with others their approximate price for work they have had done. That is the importance of having a base of testimonies to rely on.
When choosing a marketing company to work with, consider other options such as how long it will take them to schedule you in. Larger design firms have more people, so consider your needs. Understand that they just cannot drop a project and work on yours. This is also true for the smaller firms on the market. Other considerations are what kind of services do they offer? Do they have exactly what you need? Do they package their work at a set price? In the end, you will be the one to make the final decision and how you carefully you choose a marketing firm will affect your website and profits - so choose wisely.