While to many the answer to this question is quite obvious, to many others it’s a question that gets pondered on for weeks, months and sometimes even years.
Much like your house, your car, or a hobby, you can easily watch web services lower your bank account. While there is no “great one time solution” to “being on the web”, there are a few things you should know that can save you money in the long run. Let’s talk about a few.
Don’t put a starter and a new alternator in your 1992 Toyota Corolla
Get it? Ok, let me explain a little bit. If you had a 20 year old car, you could easily “solves its’ problems” with quick fixes here and there -- a new starter, alternator, timing belt, head gasket, etc.. Some quick fixes might be cheap, some might cost more. Either way one thing is certain – you’re constantly spending more money just to have a working vehicle.
Instead, many financial advisors would guide you along the path of a new car or to lease a car. The logic behind it being if you are going to keep spending money, you’re better off planning ahead to spend that money on something you can actually benefit from – driving a new car, that makes heads turn.
In the web world, I see people all the time do the same thing. We get calls to “fix websites”, to “just make it work again”, “bring it to the point where I can at least use it”. When in many cases, for a little bit of extra money, you could have a brand new website that gives you all the bells and whistles and utilizes the latest technology. Sometimes it’s not just a little bit more amount of money; sometimes it can be the difference of paying $200 or $2,000.
The difference is why would you want to keep dumping money into a website that is “Just up to par”. You’re better off spending the money and having the absolute best, and giving your company the online presence it deserves. With the rate technology grows, it’s not uncommon to get a complete web makeover every 3-4 years.
While you can add on new technology and new functionality to websites that are scalable, it only takes about 3-4 years until you get to that point of fixing the old car. The same reasons a standard automobile lease is 3 years, can factor into why you need a new website in about the same amount of time.
Think Long Term, not Short Term Results
Just as in life, if you think short term, you are going to set yourself up for long term failure. Many companies who pay for short-term results end up crashing shortly after. The reason is simple – you’ve invested money into trying to get some short-term results and only a small percentage of that is going to end up as repeat business.
A perfect example of this is Search Engine Optimization. Many companies don’t want to commit to 6-12, or 12-18 months of organic search engine optimization, they want to see clicks today. The solution for them? A Pay-Per-Click campaign. Just as easy as they can put $1,000 into a Google AdWords account, they can watch it go out the window and not gain 1 customer. We recently turned an AdWords campaign off for a customer because $1,400 went out the window in 2 weeks with not one sale.
The problem with PPC campaigns is the minute you stop paying, the clicks go away. While on the opposite end of the spectrum, organic search engine optimization is geared towards slowly bringing your site up in the rankings, so after 6-18 months, you’re on page 1 of Google, and not paying for a single click.
Staying away from PPC (Pay-Per-Click) Campaigns until you have committed to a year of organic search engine optimization is just one example of beginning to think long term instead of short term. At the end of the day, you might spend (invest) more money, but the results are going to be much greater.
Do Social Media The Right Way
While it’s never funny to see someone fail, it’s quite humorous to see someone fail at the same thing because they are attacking something else with the same mentality. In fact, Albert Einstein once said “Insanity is the process of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
What are getting at? Facebook ads. Many companies poorly invest their money and fail with a Google Adwords Pay-Per-Click campaign and then proceed to do the same thing with Facebook Ads. While you can’t invest in organic Facebook optimization, you can invest in a proper social media strategy.
Rather than load up another pay-per-click account with a set amount of money, you’re better off hiring a company or specialist (such as us) to set you up with a proper social media presence and come up with a plan (the strategy part of social media strategy.
Your social media strategy can include but is not limited to integrating your social media into your website, having and planning organized content to post across your profiles, interacting with your visitors, running campaigns and sweepstakes, and monitoring activity.
Regardless of what you want to achieve, you’re always better off consulting with a professional on the best route to take. It’s important that you do the proper research and find professionals that don’t just claim to be professionals, but that have the clientele, the knowledge, and the experience to prove that they are.
Basch Solutions, LLC is a Rochester NY based web design and web development company that also specializes in social media strategy, search engine optimization, and online marketing, among other services. If you’re in need of web services, give us a call, we’d love to connect with you!
