What does it take to develop an effective Online Presence?

In many cases you need to understand your budget, or do you really need to understand the value of your online presence… or is it both?

Is it time for a new website in order to enhance your online presence? The costs of a new website or website redesign will have a wide range, depending on what your needs are, whether you can do some of it yourself, or need a website design company to handle the entire project for you.

What factors contribute to the cost of your new website??

This question is similar to the one you might ask internally when designing any of your products or project that you support. You will need to define what you are looking to accomplish and what tools are needed to ensure success. Some basic considerations are:

  • Design level required: Custom design, customized template, or an out of the box templated design?
  • How many pages will your site contain?
  • Who will write your content?
  • What level of imagery and video content is needed?
  • To BLOG or Not To BLOG?
  • SEO? What is it and why can it help you?
  • Do you need a responsive website with support for tablets and mobile devices?
  • What are the custom needs of your site? Payment processing, quote systems, membership options, logins, API integrations, a CRM, or others?
  • Site maintenance and problems? Who and How to support?

Once you have established some of the basic needs, will this break the bank?

Based on a variety of industry standards, the average cost of a website redesign can reach the $30,000 level, if not more. WHOA…many businesses cannot support such a hit to the bottom line…again, that is the Industry Standard. Some companies, such as cloudCreative have developed a variety of unique cost models that minimize the need for a business loan, while meeting the objective of a website design that will help you stand out, above your competitions in both impact and presence.

While each project varies, some of the more typical expenses may include…Some of the capabilities of MM Marketing are:

  • Custom coding for Integrations with CRM software, APIs, database applications and more
  • Payment gateway setup and implementation
  • Extensive Competition and Market Research
  • Professionally written content – MM Marketing has over 40 years of experience in content writing!
  • Email Sales Automation
  • Pay Per Click and Sales Landing Pages
  • Call Routing with Google Tracking
  • Email Opt-in
  • Blast Email marketing
  • More site pages
  • and so much more…

So now you have a website, how do you want to maintain it? Do you want that headache or give it to the experts?

There are various ongoing costs associated with keeping your website live, functional, and perhaps most importantly, secure. Some industry standard costs for these types of services are:

  • Web hosting – You’ll need a place to host your site, whether that’s on a server or a cloud. Prices vary depending on your size and traffic.
    Typical cost = $29-$300 monthly
  • Web support – Unless you or someone on your staff is technically adept, you’ll need a webmaster to help you update, make changes, solve problems etc.
    Typical cost = $199 and up monthly
  • Content creation – New content for your site, if you hope to compete!
    Typical cost = $1,200 – $3,500 monthly
  • SEO – Keeping your site optimized for the best chance at ranking well in the search engines.
    Typical cost = $1,000 – $3,000 monthly

READY… SET… GO!!! Let’s do it within your organization!

If you have a full-time marketing department, though you might spend less in outgoing cash by developing and maintaining your new website redesign internally, companies find this does not hold the BEST value to them or their employees.

The problem is, like many specialties, aka Accountant, Machinist, etc. there are many details to be considered as well as new trends and integrations processes that you may not be up to date with. Additionally, in most cases, this will add task(s) to someone’s already full plate, making the process often never ending and taking away from their real value to the organization and its growth.

Some additional considerations in a DYI approach:

Delays – When doing the project in-house, there will very often be many people involved, especially when it comes to content and design decisions. This can result in delays which will make everyone unhappy.

Site Security – Perhaps most important, creating a secure website doesn’t happen by chance, and mistakes in this area can have an enormous effect on your revenue and online reputation.

How Long Should This Redesign Last?

The time it takes will vary with each project; you want to ensure that you have a reliable and proven design team that can give examples of similar designs/approaches establishing a credible project timeline. What is more important, are the results that the new site it will bring to the organization such as increasing traffic, being able to accommodate changes on the fly, and allow your business to grow with it. This is a stage that many do not consider, as your business is not static nor are your competitors.

Where to begin: How to Choose a Professional Website Design Team?

Now that you are ready to move forward you want a design team that can work with your needs and budgets as well to be there for the long haul giving the on-going support you need, without having to sit up all night waiting for that long-distance tech support call.

Websites are created and developed to:

  • Grow your business
  • Give your present and future customer a user-friendly and supportive experience
  • Enable your business to scale without new rebuilds each time
  • Gain the Online Presence you desire

Again, redesigning your website or development of any of your marketing collaterals needs to be designed to meet the core message and lifeblood of your organization. You want this process to be as stress-free and inexpensive as possible.

Contact us today so we can share with you the various design and cost models that will meet and exceed all of these objectives.