Marketing & SEO Discussion List - LED Digest

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From: Eva Rosenberg

Subject: The Small Business Mindset and Web design

> That is just the nature of the business. You

> have to pay your dues, but not forever.

        - Dirk Johnson, In LED 1961

Dirk put together a pretty good outline of most service businesses.

What he says, generally applies to web design, programmers, project

managers, attorneys, accountants and other consultants.

And seeking new clients constantly is excessively time consuming.

Getting referrals, of course, is much better. You're more apt to

close a sale faster - for a higher price.

One technique that works for me, inadvertently, I might add, is to

tell referrals that you regret that you can't accept them as

clients. Nothing personal, you simply don't have the time.  You are

too much in demand. Not only will you not have to sell them, they'll

offer you more money to accept them as clients.

When that happens, establish ground rules of behavior (theirs) and a

payment structure (at least monthly, not on project completion) that

suits you.

For businesses like this, there is no point in taking on the

short-sighted, cheap client. Encourage them to find their own

do-it-yourself tools...then come crying back to you after a couple

of months when they've learned just how hard and time-consuming it

is to set up, design and run a web-site.

If you're smart, and want to save time, establish a reputation of

only accepting clients who want both a set-up and monthly

maintenance, with a base monthly fee - and additional charges for

non-routine work. Kind of like a gardener - you're cultivating their

business.

Doing that, you will rapidly reach a point where, with only 10

clients, you'd be earning at least $5,000 per month - and that would

leave you ample time to work on other, more lucrative projects.  Or,

hey! Even your own money-making website.

Just a few thoughts

Best wishes,

Eva Rosenberg, Author

Small Business Taxes Made Easy

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From: Kevin Jackson

Subject: Web design

> In the medium to large web services marketplace, a web

> design consultant will be competing with established

> professionals... in my view most web consultants will

> therefore either learn how to make it with smaller

> accounts, or find another line of work.

        - David Yancey, LED 1961

This is a great segue into my latest favorite topic: What do we as

industry professionals have to do to clean up our reputation?

The difficult situation described in this and other posts is not

going away overnight, and businesses - not only small, but some that

are larger - keep trying to find the lowest cost services they can,

without really knowing how to judge what they are getting. The

result is a wild, uncontrolled situation, where you have some

businesses paying way too much, others way too little, and the

quality they are getting does not always reflect the price they are

paying.

There is no credible, widely accepted, way to assure business owners

that they are being served by a professional with an industry

reputation to uphold, as do for example accountants, lawyers,

doctors, dentists etc. If such a body, or accreditation gained

enough industry momentum and credibility, I think we would be

looking at the dawning of a mature web development industry, and

that would lead to prosperity for all involved.

I throw this out as a question to the Industry Associations that are

out there: do you have what it takes? What do we have to do to make

this possible?

I know there are several accreditation programs out there, but it

seems most of them are being promoted to the industry themselves, as

a great way for an association to make revenue, but none are being

promoted, marketed or communicated to the most important audience -

the business customers, both big and small.

Am I the only one thinking along these lines, or is this an idea

whose time has come?

Cheers

Kevin Jackson

Biz-Zone Internet Group Inc.

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From: Mark Frank

Subject: Web design

I have to agree with Martha Retallick about abandoning the small

business website design market.  I too found that many small

business owners had no concept of how much work was involved in

designing an effective website.  Most of my clients expected

“killer” websites for a few hundred dollars.

Not only that, but every client had to be educated on Internet

marketing, copying writing, and computer graphics.  This usually

took hours of my time with little or no return.  It just wasn’t

worth the effort.

So I moved on to the professional market (doctors, etc.)  The work

was harder to get, but I found that people who provided professional

services were easier to work with.  They expected to pay

professional rates and they did not expect free support. They also

had a real advertising budget and some understanding of marketing.

Client relations got much easier and my profits went up.

Small business websites are a great training ground.  Most

home-based designers start there.  But if you want website design to

become more than just a hobby, take Martha’s advice ­ go for

corporate clients.

Mark Frank, Author

Start Your Own Home-Based Website Design Business

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From: David Pineau

Subject: Web design

The true key to dealing with the small business customers is to

understand them.  Most of us are small business.  We are the very

type of business we are shunning because we feel they are not worth

a ton of money right now.

Ask any successful business who comes first.  The big client who

will pay $2500 for a site and move on; or the small business that

you could get $5000 over a few years.  I will take the small

business every time.  While the rest of you are fighting over that

one big client there are 10 small ones that I can get instead.

Because of the personal service and attention I give, I average 3-5

referrals from each customer.  Add that up over time and suddenly

that small job just got bigger.

By spreading out my eggs in a lot of different baskets I am better

insulated.  If I lose a customer I may lose a few percent of my

base.  If you do work for a few big customers, losing a contract may

reduce you by 30% or more.  With proper marketing and sales my small

business grow into bigger business with more money to spend.

The best part is that I have my hand in their pocket the whole way.

I don't sticker shock them with a large price off of the bat.  I

break down a large job into a web marketing plan with a timeframe of

a year or more.  By doing this in small steps the customer sees a

smaller more affordable price tag to get started and by the time the

bigger items come along I have a trusting relationship with my

client.  When I delivered on the first part of the job and I can

show a return on investment for them, they are more likely to spend

more with me.

I just see that we sometimes think that the value of our skills as

designers is measured by the size of the projects that we do.  This

misconception puts a lot of work below our egos.  I am not saying

that we should all charge $10/ hour and do sites for $200.  With a

creative pricing scheme and educating the customer we can encourage

the customer that low bid is just that.  We are professionals that

care about our clients.  Why can lawyers charge %30 of a settlement.

 Simple, they tell clients that they are going to make money. When

you can demonstrate ROI to a client, you help them justify the

expense.

All most people see is the $$$ coming in and don't notice the small

fees along the way.  Car salesmen do this well.  They first thing

they ask is what monthly payment you want.  The last thing they talk

about is the final price.  Most people see their budget in a similar

fashion.  I give this option to my clients.  The same client that

balked at a $1000 site just signed a contract to pay me $1200 over a

year.  Because it only cost him $100 a month.  In his eyes he just

saved $900 at the start of the project and that the site will pay

for itself.  At the start of the process he was looking to spend

$300.  If I deliver what he expects and more he may give a referral

and now a project that I would have lost because of sticker shock

will now reward me with more business.

Just a different perspective

David Pineau

Hitchcock Data Solutions

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From: Scott Marino

Subject: Google vs Froogles

> I was wondering if any of the LED list participants

> have any comments on the law suite being brought

> against Froogle by Google.

        - James Haley, LED 1961

Google owns Froogle, the comparison based shopping engine. We list

our products in it and also do quite a bit of comparison shopping

with it. The best part is that it is currently free.

The lawsuit is against froogles.com (plural of froogle) for

trademark infringement. It's quite common for large companies who

invest millions in creating a brand to defend their trademarks

against infringement.

Scott Marino

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From: Michael Linehan

Subject: Google vs Froogles

Couldn't resist this one as it concerns a pet peeve of mine.  The

roughly 5% of the world living in the US bring about 95% of the

world's lawsuits.  And one aspect that is particularly ridiculous is

the trademarking of ordinary English phrases.  Similar to me is

suing someone over a similar sounding name.

Next will we have suing over a similar meaning name so I'll be able

to sue someone for Transform Your Marketing, Marketing

Transformation or Marketing Magic?  It's gotten way out of hand.

Michael Linehan, Marketing Alchemy

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