"Too good to be true" pricing is out of control in the world of website design. It's tempting business owners every day. If a company you're considering has a much lower quote than everyone else, BE CAREFUL - they may not offer all the services you need.
There are 5 essential elements to website design. I call them essentials because if you are missing just one of them, your website could collapse. Make sure your design team is fully capable of handling each of these essentials below - or it's time to look for a new one!
The Five Essentials of Website Design are:
1. Design
A quality, aesthetically appealing website makes your business look top-notch - even if you haven't made it out of the spare bedroom yet! Be careful, though: many design firms focus exclusively on this. Incredible design is great, and you absolutely need it, but it's only one aspect. It can't hold up the website on its own.
2. Marketing
If the design is the face of the operation, then marketing is the brains. You need a designer who understands how consumers think, and creates a website layout that guides them through the sales process and maximizes the amount of conversions you see. Without this essential, your site will be just another pretty face in the business world - with nothing to show for it.
3. SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
SEO is how you improve your rankings in search engines like Google and Bing. High search rankings bring you organic leads (leads that find you without paying Google). If SEO is ignored, Google won't send people to your site - even if it has an incredible design and marketing strategy.
4. Copywriting
Probably the most underrated of all the five essentials, many businesses provide their own copy (words) for their website. Be extremely cautious about this! There is a reason people make a living copywriting - there is an art and science to advertising and product copy. To get the best possible results from your site, hire a design firm with a professional copywriter on board.
5. Programming
Programming is vital to the success of your site. Even the simplest error in functionality makes a website look unprofessional. On the flip side, excellent programming can make your site easier, and more fun, to use than your competitors - and gives your prospect value they can't get elsewhere.
So that's it. Make sure your design firm has ALL these points covered - or kick them to the curb. After all, these aren't "optional add-ons" but essentials to your business success. You need them.
Author Resource:
Joy Gendusa began PostcardMania in 1998 out of her home, with nothing but a phone and a computer, never taking a dime of investment capital. Joy originally started PostcardMania as a full-service postcard marketing company helping clients create turn-key marketing campaigns with graphic design, printing, mailing list acquisition and mailing services. Over the years, Joy has grown PostcardMania into one of the nation’s most effective, top marketing agencies specializing in lead generation for small to large-sized businesses. Since then, PostcardMania has expanded to offer its clients more services including website and landing page design and development, email marketing and full marketing evaluations — all while continuing to educate clients with free marketing advice.
If you don't have a professional web design firm, or your current firm doesn't stack up, call one of my marketing consultants at 800-628-1804. We take care of all of the above to give you a website that can stand on its own!
Joy and PostcardMania have won many awards for creativity, best business practices and expansion and have been recognized on the Inc. 500 and 5000 lists. By 2008, revenues reached nearly $19 million and the company now employs over 160 people, prints 4 million and mails 2 million postcards each week, and has more than 40,000 customers in over 350 industries. Visit (www.PostcardMania.com )
You can download the first three chapters of Joy's book "The Ultimate Postcard Marketing Success Manual" here: (www.PostcardMarketingSuccessManual.com )
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