October 31st, 2009
When deciding to put together the right web-site you definitely want to take some time to think through all of what your site is going to do and what it is going to look like.
I know the idea of making a site sounds grand, and will make your business flourish if done correctly. But if you do not make a blue print of how your site is supposed to work you can find yourself spending a lot of extra time and money.
As a client to a company they will give you the option up front to help you arrange your layout and design. But, extra changes after that initial encounter are going to cost you extra dollars per change. So be proactive and take the time to really think through each process that will occur during a visit to your site, and map that out for those who are designing it.
Writing out the steps and making your plan clear will go a long way with the company that is going to be building your site and it will help them to work faster and more efficiently when they don’t have to go back and add things that you missed telling them.
TMap Staff
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August 10th, 2009
Website Front End: $2200
Website Back End: $2500
Total website design: $4700
The Ultimate Website!…..*Priceless*
Web Estate is like high value real estate! The value of your home makes that piece of property more valuable, your website design is your home and it is worth the money you put into it, as long as it is designed right. One thing we know for sure is when stepping into the world of web design; you will end up putting out some hard cash for a good site. Don’t let this be a place where you shrink back with your investment. It is sometimes discouraging to a client when they see the bill for their website design. They think, “What could possibly cost so much?”
But in this age of web-estate, you want to make sure your web property holds its value. When it comes to your web site, what you don’t see is what you are paying for! You have heard the saying; “It is not what is on the outside that matters, as much as what is on the inside.” A good web designer will build your site for durability and flexibility so that it can be maintained easily over a long period of time, and coded so that a client is free to take what they have paid for to another vendor if they are not satisfied. What is happening behind the scenes is crucial for your business to grow and attract people to your site. As your site gathers client content, processes payments, or creates invoices, you’ll want to know that it is working efficiently and accurately. This involves precision coding, and someone who knows how important it is that your site works seamlessly, when visited by your customers. When it comes to your business investment don’t hesitate spending the extra cash, you will not regret the decision!
TMap Staff
Tags: investment, Value, web design, web estate
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June 16th, 2009
Many online marketing firms have architected their entire business model around the dynamic of “click to close”. How high is your pay-per-click ad placed? How efficient does your ad and/or landing page translate into a sale? There is nothing wrong with these activities (in fact, we offer these services), as long as the customers in your market buy that way.
Unfortunately, many B2B companies have been captured by the allure of this “easy money”, only to find themselves spending a lot of money and then losing the customer before the sales process even begins. Why? Because business to business customers buy steak, not sizzle.
If you want to buy a East Carolina Pirates football jersey, your purchase process is based on closing that specific transaction. But if you are looking for a partner to help your business succeed, you are looking for a relationship-oriented partner. How do they find that partner? They may indeed click on your ad, or organic listing and land eagerly on your landing page. But then what? They check out the rest of your site, to find out what your company is really made of. If they find a web site that highlights your differentiation and capabilities quickly and effectively; if they can find the specific information they are looking for, then you have probably started a dialogue that can turn into a sale.
However, if the emerge from your world-class landing page into an online brochure, full of reassuring industry speak guaranteed to cure their insomnia – then off they go to the next vendor (or to their local Starbucks for a quick hit).
If you are a B2B company, you need to make sure you have built a marketing and sales system that enhances the relational nature of the sales process. Don’t expect that placing a couple cool ads will double the size of your business overnight.
TMAP Staff
Tags: B2B, Marketing, PPC, Sales
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June 5th, 2009
As we talk to our customers, one of the recurring themes we’ve encountered is the idea that somewhere along the line they were led to believe that the advantage of internet marketing is that it’s supposed to be really cheap, or at least much cheaper than traditional outbound marketing methods like direct mail or print.
Where they usually got this idea was from “internet experts” who could deliver “traffic” to their site cheaply. Why spend $1.00 each to print a direct mail piece when you can get a click for like 20 cents, right?
So, for example, you might pay $1000 for 5000 clicks, and that would translate to… not many leads. Like zero. So it didn’t do much for you, but at least it was cheap. And you kept some internet experts employed and you get to tell your friends how many people visit your site and maybe one of them will give you a cookie.
Here’s the truth- quality outbound marketing, through any method (web, mail, print, whatever) is, by definition, ALWAYS cost effective, not because it’s cheap but because you aren’t paying to reach people you don’t want/need to reach. Traffic does not equal quality traffic, and web marketing is still marketing. Would you spend $1000 on registered mail to people selected at random from the phone book, so that you could measure how many people signed for their letter? Of course not. So why is traffic the metric you should be using to measure your web marketing efforts?
What can make the web cost effective is that it can get you in front of a different set of customers, or the same set of customers in a different way from other parts of your outbound marketing mix. If you are reading this blog, you probably know roughly how much you are spending on marketing, how many people you reach, where your leads come from, and could probably come up with a rough idea about how much those leads cost. And what we believe is that a good lead should be worth it no matter where it comes from, and that cheap marketing is the most expensive thing you can pay for.
TMAP Staff
Tags: Myth Buster, Web Marketing
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May 18th, 2009
Welcome to the Navigator’s Blog! Our intent here is to educate people on how to use the internet more effectively to grow their business. If we’re doing this well, you won’t find a lot of jargon or clever technical information. You will just find the facts and insights that will actually improve how you spend your valuable time and money on the internet. And hopefully, you will get to know us as well. Welcome aboard!
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