Thousands of e-commerce (online) store websites are springing up on a regular basis. Few offer anything unique or individual to their specific store which means competition is generally fierce to gain the sale. Although we have designed a few websites focusing on a unique product, most of us do not have the opportunity to have a grand invention that everyone wants and can obtain through noone else. So how do we make sure our customers buy from us and not somewhere else?
In today's economy customers are looking for VALUE. Value does not mean the cheapest price. It means the MOST for the price. For example, Wiregrass Advertising, Inc. is not known for its cheap websites (we don't do them). However, Wiregrass Advertising is known for producing a quality website that is search engine optimized, marketed to meet the needs of the target market, usually ranks well in the search engines, is submitted to nearly 200,000 search engines and/or directories, etc., etc., etc. We gain clients because we provide a service that has proven it's value to almost 250 clients. An e-commerce store is the same way. You must show value for your product that is better than your competition. If we only wanted to talk price, value in a store can be shown through free shipping, free gift wrap, free gift card with purchase, a bonus gift or dollars off a customer's next purchase.
If we do not want to decrease price, then we must show value through other means. This is most easily accomplished through the way we write our narrative about a product. I encourage our clients to be thorough in their narrative for two reasons. First, the more information we provide the more likely the customer is to purchase from us and, secondly, narrative is a search engine's fodder.
We can increase value through offering tips and suggestions for the use of the product or service. For instance, If I was selling meat, I would provide a recipe booklet showing ways to use that meat. If I was the customer and I ordered one steak and along with that steak received two potentially great tasting recipes I would be inclined to use one recipe on this steak and order another steak to try the second recipe. Both the customer and retailer have won!
If I was selling websites I would host a blog providing tips and suggestions on increasing income through the web. (Like this article.) This blog help increase the value we provide our clients when we design their websites. Since we have articles on many topics, if a client has a question I can always refer back to an article and provide tips and suggestions I might otherwise have forgotten.
Many people think that a website is free money. Build a site, let it sit there and people will begin ordering from it. Unfortunately that is not the normal scenario. Like any business a website must be worked. Regular to emails to customers, regular updates to products and additional pages to increase search engine ranking, traditional and non- traditional marketing to drive people to the website are all necessary if the site is to be a success. I recommend a minimum of six months of adword or internet marketing for a new site to get the traffic flow started, yet probably one in thirty follow the recommendation. Those who do tend to see faster return on their money.
Recently we completed a website for a client who was reaching into an extremely competitive market. Although they had their own niche, even that niche is competitive. They chose to give their site a boost with six months of adword marketing. Two months in they had nearly 1,000 visitors on their site that otherwise probably would not have located them.
Email marketing is important. I recommend sending emails to opt-in customers at least every two weeks as a minimum. The emails should contain product updates of interest to that customer, any sales, specials or product highlights along with tips or suggestions on use of products or services you provide. Emails should be informative and worth reading.
We would be remiss if we did not mention social marketing. Some studies show that as many as 50% of people who "like" a company on Facebook also have purchased from that company too. Sending out routine messages via the social networks is a must for any marketer. We even offer to assist our website design clients in setting up a Facebook page with their design package. (Again increasing the VALUE of our website design).
To increase your online sales you must increase value. This can be accomplished through some form of price reduction or an increase in service provided which might be as small as simply providing more information about the product or service than our competition does. We should also look at additional marketing avenues to increase traffic and make regular contact with our customers to help increase the value of our store.
Keywords: noneAlthough almost anybody who designs websites calls themselves a web designer, there are very distinct differences between the three terms and the differences determine the type of website you will be provided, how well that search engine will perform for you and could even determine your search engine placement. Before you commit to a designer you should ask them about their background and experience.
A graphic designer is, of course, someone who designs graphics. A good graphic designer can design a beautiful website, but a graphically designed website usually performs poorly in the modern web environment. A graphic designer is taught to make designs look nice and attractive. This is attained through the heavy use of graphics which may cause the page to take longer to become viewable. Often they will design headlines and other text as pictures which will lower search engine ranking as search engines cannot "read" and index this important text. In addition, upkeep and maintenance on a graphically designed website is ultimately more expensive due to the greater time it takes to rebuild graphics as opposed to simply typing some text. We have seen numerous, beautiful websites that were built entirely as one graphic. These websites did not appear in search listings, took longer to load (become viewable) and were not helping the client.
Easy web builders have been around since the web became popular in the mid-nineties. GeoCities and Homestead were very popular and easy to work with. Today, many small businesses use Yahoo and GoDaddy to quickly create template-based websites. Office supply stores usually sell cheap DIY website programs which make it simple for anyone to design a website in a couple of hours. As a result, almost anybody who creates a website calls themselves a website designer. This could be your sister, cousin, co-worker, child or friend-of-a-friend. Web designers are a dime a dozen and there are many website design companies listed in the Dothan, Alabama market area. Most website design companies are sole individuals working out of their home attempting to earn some extra money. These individuals are typically inexperienced in search engine optimization, proper coding techniques and web format necessities which cause inherent problems with their websites in the search engines and especially in proper function on multiple web browsers such as Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome and Safari. A website that looks great in Internet Explorer may look terrible in Firefox or other internet browsers.
With that said, there are some web design companies who do know how to properly design websites, however, there are only two website companies in the Dothan, Alabama market area that are experienced website designers who I would trust my internet business to and of the two, only one has an office outside their home. Furthermore, you will notice throughout Wiregrass Advertising Incorporated's website we call ourselves "a website design company," which is true, but "web developer" more aptly describes our company. Unfortunately relatively few people type "web development companies" into search engines as opposed to "website design companies." As a matter of competition we must describe ourselves as a website design firm.
This brings us to our last term, web developer. A web developer is much more experienced than a designer and does more work with coding and building programs to make websites do what you want them to do. Most designers will provide an off-the-shelf or template solution to your website, but a web developer digs deeper and builds a program designed and tailored to your specific needs. One purpose of the initial consultation with Wiregrass Advertising is to determine what your needs of a website entail. What do your customers desire in a website and how can we make the website take some of your workload off of you? Although a portion of our clients only need a basic website, the majority of our clients desire a much more robust marketing tool that performs specific functions enabling them to capitalize on revenue generation. As a web development company we can design a great looking website and we can also take our clients ideas and needs to create a custom built website solution.
Often, the bottom line between a graphic designer, website designer and web developer is experience and talent. A sole individual web designer has limitations. It is highly uncommon for one person to be able to perform well in all three areas of graphic design, web design and web development. Most people achieve only one or two of these characteristics. The ultimate web company is a firm who employs a mix of individuals with experience and capabilities that can be meshed into the development of your website. A website design firm typically hires people who excel in specific areas, then combines those talents to create a website for their clients. Wiregrass Advertising, Incorporated is the largest website development company in the southeast offering our scope of services.
Contact Wiregrass Advertising, Inc. at 334-393-9099 or click HERE.
Keywords: noneI am probably going out on a limb in writing this article, but there are distinct differences between website design companies in southeast Alabama. Over the years many design companies have come and gone, but several have dug in their heals and stayed for a while. It is these companies that we will look at today. Much of this information is pulled from their respective websites. The purpose of this article is not to belittle any of the designers mentioned, but just to provide a location where they can be compared.
Dothan By Design: Rick has been designing websites for many years. He has probably been in Dothan the longest of all of the companies discussed in this article. At one time Rick did a lot of coding by hand, but currently he is utilizing Joomla, an off-the-shelf content management system, for many of his sites including his company site. Rick usually works by himself.
Strategy6: One of the least experienced among the companies in this article is Brandon Shoupe, although he does has a degree in a programming related field. According to his website Brandon started Strategy6 in 2008 out of his house. In 2009 he opened an office in downtown Dothan, Alabama and hired a co-worker in the spring of 2010. Brandon normally works with several programming languages. At one point he indicated that his charge for an average website was between $3,000 and $5,000.
Advertising Companies: Advertising companies are the only group as a whole I will say anything derogatory about in this article. The Hive Group, The Scarlet Group, the Karma Creative Group and some others all advertise web design as part of their services. Although I have seen several very nice looking sites built by these companies for their customers, most rank poorly in the search engines and most are "wrecks" as far as websites go since most were built by graphic designers as opposed to website developers. Some of these companies have even called and asked us for website construction advice.
VeriQik: VeriQik started out as a cell phone, wireless internet, technology company who offered website design. As their business grew they hired a designer with experience, however the relationship broke apart after about a year. Most of the websites shown on their portfolio page were built by this designer. Currently they are not a leader in website design in Dothan, but continue to offer the service.
WebWise: This company was started as a marketing company and held some large accounts. In the past year or two the owner hired a web development team and began offering website design and development. Thomas Azar, one of the team, bought the company in late 2009 and is now focusing the company more on website design.
Wiregrass Web Works: I know the least about this company of all the website design companies in Dothan as their company website has remained unfinished for several months. They appear to offer a large selection of graphic design related services such as posters and vehicle wraps. At the time of this writing their website is build on a Word Press content management template.
Greg Rickaby Designs: Greg Rickaby works extensively with Thesis content management systems. At one time I believe he was associated with VeriQik, then started a design business with an office on Ross Clark Circle with his brother, but has since closed the office and works for Blue Water Broadcasting working on several radio station websites. He currently resides in Montgomery, Alabama.
509Media: I was not going to mention this company as they are new to the Dothan market area, but as I was perusing Dan Dubose's website I was struck by the many similarities between articles on on our own website and Dan's site. I guess I should be pleased that our website is worth copying by another company! Much of Dan's work has been for automotive and radio controlled vehicle companies. I will admit, Dan is a good graphic designer.
Wiregrass Advertising, Inc.: This is the largest website design and internet marketing company in southeast Alabama with well over 200 clients spread across the United States and three foreign countries. Corporate President, Tim Alexander, has a degree and background in marketing and entrepreneurialism. He has been designing websites for almost fifteen years. Lead Designer Christian Helvin's background is in web development and programming. He began developing websites over five years.
On March 30, 2010 I blogged about two restaurants I had the privilege to provide marketing consultations for while in Nashville, Tennessee. One business was very receptive and open to my suggestions while the other replied with numerous excuses and failed to implement any changes. I had made the prediction in my blog that one business would survive the economic downturn while the other would go out of business in April. I have to admit I was wrong. The Chinese restaurant remained in business until May, but has now locked its doors. The Mexican restaurant is doing well and is experiencing an increase in sales after making the changes suggested to them. You can read more about this trip HERE.
Keywords: marketing consultationI currently have an ongoing dispute with Travelocity over their website's function. Last week I purchased an airline ticket, then had to change it just a couple hours later. Travelocity allows a ticket cancellation for up to 24 hours after a ticket is purchased. This only being 3 to 4 hours I was well within the time limit. After carefully following the prompts on the Travelocity website, I finally reached the cancellation confirmation screen. Unfortunately, although I had seen a cancellation screen the ticket was not truly cancelled by Travelocity and I did not find out until after the 24 hour period. 
Travelocity- the reason a reputable web development company is necessary Travelocity's cancellation policy reverts to the airline's policy after 24 hours. In this case the airline is Delta. Their cancellation policy is a credit of the ticket price less $150 "ticket change charge" and an additional $50 charge because I used Travelocity to purchase the ticket. Consequently the ticket is now worthless.
Travelocity states that their website works fine and they do not have problems with it, yet no one I have talked who represents Travelocity has personally tried to cancel a ticket. Imagine that! Furthermore, each time you request to talk to someone other than the phone jockey they state that "someone" will return your call with in two to three working days. A long time to wait for a dispute.
So, this raises the question, "Who is responsible if a website fails to function properly?" Travelocity claims they are not responsible. Websites are, essentially, computer programs. On occasion, for one reason or another, any computer program can glitch. Websites are no exception. A company should be willing to stand behind their website in the event of a glitch and this policy should start with the selection of a reputable and skilled web development company who will insure the website is developed properly to minimize the potential for glitches.
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