*5 pages with an average of 3 graphics per page and one form
A Web site does not have to be expensive, but you really do need to have one!
A web site can cost a lot of money if you are building one for one of those huge businesses. But the web sites we build are for the small business. You know, the Mom & Pop, locally owned business. The Internet is a wonderful equalizer. It lets the little guys compete with the big guys at a cost that the small business can truly afford.
The initial design is where the major cost is involved. Designing the site might cost $500-$1,500 but then that cost is over and the cost to host and maintain the site might only run $300-$500 per year total!
That is less than the cost of a rather small yellow page ad and a web site can say so much more than the yellow pages! It can get the visitor involved in the business and offer so much more information than a 3"x5" one color ad in the back of a phone book nobody even picks up anymore because they use their cell phone or the Internet to find whatever they are looking for!
So, if you are currently spending $500/mo. on a yellow page ad it might be time to move into the 21st Century and take the free ad that comes with your bushiness listing and invest that money in a web site that can not only give the info your yellow page ad did but actually sell your product or service as well!
Today it's All About
Building Relationships
It used to be that you ran the business and your customers patronized you. They did so for many reasons but loyalty played a large role in your success. Today, loyalty is only to oneself and your customers are more than willing to walk away from you if they perceive they can get a better price or even better information from some one else. Today you have to build a relationship with your customers and that usually begins with interaction on the Internet.
Many times your potential customers are looking for information as much as they are looking for a product. People are doing much more research before they buy than they used to. Now, you could stand around your store and carry on a long conversation with each customer that wants to know about your product and how it will solve their problem; but you have many more things to do to keep the business running than spending all your time being a brochure.
This is what your web site can do for you. Your visitor is going to do his/her research before they even come into your store. They are not going to call you until they are right down to the purchase point. If your competitor offers them the answers they need you will lose the customer.
Your ability to build a relationship with this customer before they even come into your store by providing him/her with the information they are looking for will greatly enhance your chances of actually selling something to them. And as we all know, nothing happens in America until the sale is made!
Why does a simple, less
expensive site work?
Your site can be as complex or as simple as you wish. Many times the simpler a site the better! Those that use the Internet, and today that is almost everyone, are a different breed than those that just walk into the store or are 'old school'.
If the Internet user has to go through too much activity to find what he/she is looking for they will just click away and go somewhere else. So, a simple, straightforward site that gets to the point is much more likely to do its job than a complex, fancy site that requires a lot of effort on the part of the visitor.
In fact, a lot of graphics, flash movies and animated gifs can detract from a web site's effectiveness and cause it to under perform. Now, video is currently becoming a very effective tool and even that is not as expensive as one might think.
Therefore, the simpler, less expensive site can serve you well and after all, it can be made more fancy and complex once it proves itself to be a profit center for your business.
Why spend thousands of dollars up front while you are working out the bugs and getting your site working for you and waiting for the search engines to find you and start sending you traffic? ATD Marketing specializes in helping small businesses get their first web presence and then grow into the more complex world of Internet marketing and e-commerce.
Give us a call @ 931-268-8639 or e-mail us today and let's see if we can bring you out of the age of the dinosaurs into the 21st Century!