Rapport Blog

Why the Huge Range in Web Design & Development Pricing?

February 16th, 2010 by Faith

When discussing a web design quote with a prospect recently, he said, “Faith, to be honest I have three quotes here ranging from a couple thousand to $20,000 and I have no idea why. I don’t know what to do.”

This has come up many times before, and here’s my thoughts on why:

Price ranges from freelancers to web specialty firms.

Higher prices seem to come from web development companies – specialists.

In the early days of websites, when it was a mysterious new skill, firms had to specialize in it. It was often done separately from branding or advertising as creative firms didn’t yet have the service in-house. These web development companies were in high demand and charged a lot of money. Web Development companies still have a very strong place as specialists in large complicated websites. Although everyone involved (web developers and creative) soon realized traditional creative and writing skills were still needed and incorporated, it’s often a minor add-on and therefore not a core competency. Believe me, when I have a very complicated back-end website project, I sub-contract to one of these companies myself.

Some clients think they still have to go to specialty web development companies – often by-passing their creative firm – who need to charge a lot to support their business infrastructure, which is just too much to spend for small or mid-sized clients.

Low prices are usually from freelancers.

On the other hand, there are a lot of freelancers out there, especially in developing countries, who can afford to build websites for much less. The downside in my experience is that they’re doing both design and development. Since these are two very different skill sets, they often are not doing one of them well. Plus, they may not have the resources needed to fulfill a robust website; like copywriting and photography. Freelancers are a great resource for start-ups, early-stage or very small businesses, but they often find their company outgrows the freelancers’ abilities. This is how my company grew – I could not meet the demands of my clients by myself.

How to Choose?

I wrote an article a while back that addresses this issue with graphic designers in general, but the same advice applies here.

Portfolio

Look at their portfolio and make sure the samples they show are up to the level of sophistication and standards your business requires to meet your goals, remembering we all show our best work in our portfolios. Look at similarities; with development specialists you often see templates used. This often means a strong back-end, but not necessarily tailored to your brand and strategy. Don’t get caught up in whether or not they’ve worked with your kind of business before, but do look for evidence of similar businesses.

Business Structure

Don’t be sucked in by a low price or overly-impressed by a list of large, impressive projects. If they don’t have the experience range or manpower to match what your business needs, it can be a waste of money that doesn’t get you what you need, whether the bill is in the hundreds or thousands. Experience range and manpower means design, development, strategy, writing, photography, video, etc.

Natural Rapport

We’re all about rapport and I often tell prospects they should go with who they feel most comfortable with. Do they ask you questions about your business strategy? Do they make you feel you can discuss things openly? Good communication is essential in web projects because they can easily go out of scope. Does it feel like a good fit and you can trust them? Whether it’s your company or just your responsibility, rapport is essential.

Shop Around

We had a client come to us after having a $50,000 site built that they were not happy with (the look of). They asked us to consult and we made vast improvements with what seemed like basic design skill. The site had no special functionality at all, it was a static brochure site that we would have built for $5,000, plus copywriting. The truth is, based on the quality of what they originally got, they could have found someone on eLance to do it for $500. I have no idea who built it originally. We’ve helped rescue web projects from both ends of the spectrum. Not all freelancers are unable to fulfill, there are some excellent finds out there. Not all web developments overcharge and under-deliver. But, if you don’t get at least three quotes, you’ll never know.

Compare Apples to Apples

We all price out websites differently so it can be hard to tell if you’re comparing things fairly. A good firm will not just quote on what you ask them to, but make suggestions that will make your website more robust and useful to people, or add things you may not have thought of like team photography. Ideally this is shown separately and clearly communicated. Disparities arise in situations such as one has proprietary software they rent out, while another quotes the same functionality using open-source code.

Comparing apples of different colours is one thing, but If there is a huge price difference in the ’same’ solution, they’re likely not both apples, so ask questions. It’s not ethical or legal to show the competition each others proposals with dollars, but you can copy and paste descriptions to request apples.

One final tip: never treat a website as a stand alone piece

Remember that a website should never be done in isolation from the rest of your brand and marketing materials. It is a very important stop in your marketing map and must be considered in relation to how people got there – is it consistent in the message and look, and encourage them to take the next step – which is often the very important pre-sale action step.

Good luck!

Tags: All-inclusive Marketing, graphic design, quotes, Toronto, web development proposal
Posted in All-inclusive Marketing, Big World Marketing, Web Development | 2 Comments »

How To Make Your Blog Enticing to Robots and Humans Seminar Recap

February 8th, 2010 by Faith

We had a great seminar Thursday February 4th with Rob Campbell of Smojoe. There was a lot of information to take in, which may have made it a little overwhelming for some.

Here’s a handy recap:

Blogs are a great tool to humanize your brand, share your brilliance with the world and capture key words that drive people to your website and therefore product or service.
B2B companies don’t really have a lot of competition out there for blogs, so it’s a great time to take advantage.
Rob prefers WordPress.org blog technology over any others because you can install it on your own site and it’s open source code, which means there are more 3rd party widgets etc more sidebar toys and options – and its always getting better

There are five places in a WordPress blog to plant key words.
Use Flickr or other photo sites to add photos to your blog so you can create links back as well as have an opportunity to add tags. It also helps people find you through image search.
Think of it like creating a tasty sandwich for Google, layering on the ingredients starting with Flickr as the first piece of bread, the blog post as the meat and then bookmarking the top piece of bread.
Create a group to Digg each others blog posts, upping the relevancy.
The best items to have on the right side of a blog are an RSS feed, twitter widget, the Roy Tanck Flickr widget, MyBlogLog’s recent readers and What’s New With Me?
A great way to build social capital (see past Rapport blog post with video from Scott Stratten) and also create links to your blog or website is to participate in forums, or comment on other blogs.

Tips from Rob and Faith:

One good blog post a week is a great goal.
Blog posts are usually personal, a point of view on something. When you’re inspired by something write it down so you don’t forget.
Remember to not delete negative comments, but reply to them.
A blog is for generating conversations, not just straight self-promotion.
Carry a camera or use your phone to add photos to Flickr and your blog.
Remember that your blog is not a stand alone piece but part of an all-inclusive marketing approach – make sure it fits your brand guidelines and marketing strategy.

Sounds complicated, but you’ll develop a ritual. Please contact Faith if you have any questions at all.

Tags: All-inclusive Marketing, blog tips, graphic design, marketing firm, Toronto
Posted in All-inclusive Marketing | 1 Comment »

How to Set a Marketing Budget in a Mid-sized B2B Company

February 4th, 2010 by Faith

Setting a marketing budget is the best way to keep control of your marketing dollars and plan cash-flow for the upcoming year. However, it’s very common for mid-sized and even large companies not to have one at all, but it can really give your marketing lead, marketing company or graphic design firm the freedom to use it and use it wisely.

So how do you set one? This is often calculated as a percentage of revenue, but it would vary from industry to industry. Go-to-Market Strategies says that 33% of companies spend 3–5% of their annual revenue on marketing, followed by 28% spending 0-2%. That sounds about right.

Looking Back – at Marketing Budgets Past

As a B2B firm, that calculation may shock you, even at 1 or 2%. This leads to my favourite method of calculating your marketing budget – look at what you spent the last year, or three – you may be surprised. No two companies are alike, so use your own history. This would include all graphic design and web development services, copywriting, printing, electronic and print ad space, sponsorships, internal time writing blogs and the like, pens with your logo on it, domain registration and hosting, mailing services like MailChimp or Constant Contact, etc, etc. – probably more than you realize.

Plan for Marketing Budgets Going Forward

Next, decide what you intend to eliminate this year by reviewing your marketing toolbox. What worked and what didn’t work? Click here for some formulas that may help you determine ROI on past marketing efforts.

Traditional toolbox used to represent a marketing toolbox.

You need to know what your pre-sale action step is and roughly what it takes to get people there. For example, if you have X discovery meetings per week, history shows it leads to X sales. What marketing tools helped you get there?

ROI also depends on intention: like awareness versus direct sales. Remember that all companies are unique and expectations vary. We have a consulting company who spends a lot on SEO every month and is happy with one sale per year, because it’s a $60k sale.

Then, see how you can strengthen the ones that worked well or you intend to keep. See previous blog post Think of Your Marketing Tools Like a Journey to a Sale
for some tips on how to do that.

When you review all efforts this way you’ll spot some efforts you don’t intend to continue with. Even with good ROI, our most active B2B companies spend in waves as they wouldn’t be rebranding, revamping their website or doing entire new ad campaigns every year – which is where reviewing more than one year is handy. Calculate an average.

What New Tools Do You Plan to Incorporate?

Factor in what you want to add to the mix this year. Even forays into social media aren’t free, though they’re often touted as ‘free marketing’. You may not have to buy ad space but it takes man hours. What’s your strategy? Who would do it? Do you need outside help in executing or setting it up (like an editor or ghost writer for your blog). The ROI on this type of marketing is harder and slower to recognize as relationship building takes time.

Don’t hesitate to ask your design firm for rough estimates to help with budgeting – you aren’t committing to anything.

Plan for the Unexpected

Finally, build in a buffer for unexpected opportunities. Many clients decide to participate in a tradeshow or sponsor something and are surprised with an offer of ad space they need to now fill. Or, your professional association suggests you provide branded tchochkes for giveaways at a conference. Maybe you hire new people or plan to move and will need more stationery. If you set aside a little extra, it will give you the breathing room to do it well, which often means professionally.

Sidebar: Even when something is unexpected, use your Marketing Map and brand guidelines to make sure it’s not a wasted, or low ROI effort by rushing it.

How a Marketing Budget Helps Us

We often ask clients what their marketing budget is – not so we can figure out how to use all of it, but so we have a place to start from when making recommendations. With no budget, we could easily come up with a proposal way out of a client’s means that would make professional service seem completely unattainable, discouraging all sides. Meanwhile, if we know, we can make appropriate suggestions to help them reach their goals. We can also help our clients avoid surprises as our experience helps us foresee extra expenses they may not be anticipating, which would help them stay within budget.

Tags: All-inclusive Marketing, graphic design, marketing budget, Toronto, website design
Posted in Big World Marketing | No Comments »

The Right Time to Rebrand?

January 24th, 2010 by Faith

You started a business a few years ago, maybe just testing the waters. When just starting ‘marketing budget’ is not in your vocabulary, but know you need basic tools like a website and business cards. So, you get them done inexpensively. Okay, that was sugar-coated: as cheap as possible and written yourself.
Butterflies in Cocoon
That’s the best way to go when starting, not just for financial reasons, but also because many new entrepreneurs aren’t set on what their brand should be, what they stand for, who their ideal clients are. How could they be – they haven’t really done anything yet. I know, I’ve been there.

I’ve Been There Too.

Flash forward a few years: after time in a cocoon your business has matured, your competitive advantage is becoming apparent, you know who your favourite clients are – the ones you want more of. At this point in my own business I began to feel embarrassed by the tools I had. While I had no real plan when I started Faith Seekings Design, I never imagined how much I’d grow. A name based on my own made me sound small by then. Plus, my name is just weird.
In order for me to grow a business that didn’t depend on me, I needed to rebrand. With the help of two great guys and some close friends we went through three sessions that eventually landed us a new name – Rapport – and tagline based on what makes us special. And my new website was written by a pro.

The Most Common Form of Rebrand: the Evolution

Think of it like a caterpillar to cocoon to butterfly. I rebranded again 1.5 years later – though this time only an evolution of the look and language to something more sophisticated, as our client-base was shifting from micro-businesses to mid-sized.

Even seemingly long-lasting, never changing brands like Coca Cola evolve at least slightly over the years to stay modern looking. It’s more than just look – messaging as well. Does your brand resonate with your ideal client?

Two Great Milestones to Rebrand By

First, once you’ve been in business long enough and have some experience under your belt you can seriously tackle your competitive advantage. Chances are what you’ve been saying so far is what everyone else says. By now there are real experiences, processes and great case studies to draw a true differentiator from. How you do what you say makes you different often becomes what makes you different. We use the Essential Message method to uncover this and the result is often something the client does so naturally and easily they don’t even realize they’re doing it or how important it is. If you figure this out, it should become the basis of all your messaging and marketing tools.

Another great time to rebrand is when you focus or refocus on your ideal client. If, for example, you start out serving small businesses but change your focus to larger, your approach would have to change. With small businesses it’s all about the relationship, trust and budget, where bigger businesses are more about the bottom line and want to feel secure that you can handle their project. Your look and messaging should go from fun and approachable or cheap and cheerful to established and sophisticated. Again, does your brand resonate with your ideal client?

Do I have to redo everything?

In short, yes.

Everything you or your team uses to represent the company to the outside world – not just your clients but colleagues and suppliers – should represent at the very least where you are now and ideally, where you intend to be in the near future. They should all be consistent in look and message, but also quality. This includes everything from the way the company is introduced, explaining what you do and what makes you different to the website to the printed materials, to the Twitter page and message style.

You can, of course, plan it out over a period of time. But, think of it as an ‘all-inclusive marketing approach’ to make it all work better together.

Tags: All-inclusive Marketing, graphic design, Marketing, mature business, rebrand
Posted in Business Growth and Change | No Comments »

Think of Your Marketing Tools Like a Journey to a Sale

January 10th, 2010 by Faith

When we start from the beginning with a new client we create a number of pieces at once. But as a brand matures, marketing tools are often created one item at a time. This can be a problem if we think of them in isolation, when in reality each is likely to be part of a greater journey and should be considered as such.

Consistency and Continuity

All tools should be connected, lead to other tools and ultimately to your desired pre-sale action step, but consider the experience when one moves from one tool to the next. For example, you meet someone at a function, have a good chat and exchange business cards. When they go to your website later does it look like your business card and back-up what you told them about your A network of marketing tools, showing how they are all connected business? When you achieve that kind of consistency it creates a continuity that, if not there, can be confusing.

Think of Each Tool as a Potential Starting Point

Assuming they are consistent, do your tools clearly lead prospects to the next step, tell them what to do? We take our knowledge of our industries and familiarity with our own websites and other tools for granted. Business owners and marketers must consider these tools from the perspective of someone who’s never met us before. Does your business card (don’t laugh) have a URL on it? Does your newsletter have plenty of links back to your website? If you have a cool interactive tool on your website do you invite people to use it anywhere else? Do you have a specific mode of sending follow-ups?

I recently had a very new client tell us they’d placed an ad directing people to the main website hoping visitors would request information, and/or funnel into two different location-based sites. The results were poor because the main website cited in the ad only promoted one location (in an obvious way) and there was no request for information on the main site. The location that was promoted had a request form right on the home page and people did use it, but nothing came of the other location site and the main site. The client hadn’t considered the whole journey and imagined someone who’d never seen their sites going through the journey.

Another had created a brochure about a special program the company had created for an association which directed people to the home page of their regular website. This home page had no reference to the program Broken link that looks different thant the other links. or association and the copy focussed more on the other side of their business. They had program information in the website, but one would have to dig for it. If you landed on this page and weren’t even sure you were in the right place, would you search for it?

Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference

Very small changes can be made to make this path work better. In example one; they may have promoted the other location as equally and added the same ‘request info’ forms that existed on the location site on the home page of the main website cited in the ad – in case visitors didn’t funnel down. For example two, they might add a callout referencing the association special offer on their home page, or in the future promote a URL that leads directly to the page in the website like: www.company.com/associationoffer.

Imagine yourself going from one thing to the next in your marketing map and ask yourself ‘does this have continuity and do I know clearly what to do next?’

Tags: All-inclusive Marketing, B2B, graohic design, Marketing, Toronto
Posted in All-inclusive Marketing | 1 Comment »

Something Fun and Creative for a Holiday Greeting

December 20th, 2009 by Faith

Creating A Special Holiday Card

This year at Rapport we decided to use our talent and resources to do something special for our holiday card. It allowed us to be purely creative – it didn’t have to be practical or stay within a budget. We did it with the help of regular partners like Doug Hall (photographer), Beth Parker (writer) and Rob MacGregor (our narrator). It was a lot of fun!

We created a full version inside a storybook setting that can be seen here. We also created a YouTube version you can see below:

How we did it – Preparation

One of the most enjoyable aspects was it pushed us outside of our daily creative comfort zones. We brainstormed the concept, roughed out the scenes, briefed Beth (the writer) and off we went. Beth had so much fun she got the script back to me in less than a day, and that was holding back so she didn’t look nuts (she says).

The designer in me usually thinks in still images, but I had to draw up a storyboard, planning out each shot for the photographer. I had to think about props and sound effects for each scene. We had to think it all through to ensure a logical order and plot continuation, one scene to the next.

The Shoot

Thankfully Doug, ever the professional, needed no more than my storyboards and the script. He had great ideas on how to actually bring the scenes to life, with creative angles and visual devices. When we started out I was expecting an amateur shoot with a handy cam, and suddenly it’s done by a pro, professionally lit and held to the highest standards. It took all day to get the shots done, and we had a lot of fun. Rob rented a professional microphone and recorded the narration on his own.

The team all had a blast, and the star did a fantastic job. Unfortunately, she had her own wrap party after we left for dinner, and trashed the bathroom like a rockstar.

Editing and Putting it all Together.

This part is just time-consuming, but Lisa did a great job. I saw the first cut and realized that she didn’t have the same vision as I did on some scenes, so I had to push back and request changes. They were minimal considering the length of it. One was ensuring we introduced Candy early on (getting up from under board table in beginning) otherwise the tail wag didn’t make sense. I enjoyed seeing Lisa’s creative touches, and she very much enjoyed the opportunity to do something creative that she doesn’t do everyday.

The final step was putting it all together in the context of our storybook design, with interactive page-flipping. The team – as usual – worked really well together and bent over backwards to get it out in time as we do with all our client jobs as well. The whole experience was a lot of fun and I hope to do something similar next year.

Tags: creative, Making a Youtube Video, Marketing, Toronto
Posted in All-inclusive Marketing | 1 Comment »

Professional Uses of Social Media Recap

December 6th, 2009 by Faith

Laurie Dillon Schalk did a seminar Dec 3, 09 for the Rapport community at the National Yacht Club in Toronto, on professional uses of social media. It started with an educating introduction into the rise of social media, the different types of platforms like social networking vs media sites, vs social bookmarking, vs blogs and podcasts, wikis and communities.

Where the Magic Happens.

Laurie talked about the idea of your visible network (friends and colleagues) and your invisible network (their friends and colleagues). This is often where the magic lies in social networking – the hidden opportunities for business, jobs, friends and ideas happen become much easier to find. Just by sharing information on a social media platform, you have much more opportunity for being heard by this invisible network.

Laurie then went on to talk about the major advances in the internet and software development that has lead to this fairly recent explosion, but what’s most interesting to me is how I can help my clients use it to expand their reach, build their brand and sales.

Where to Focus Your Social Media Efforts

The vehicle you use depends on business and marketing objectives, customer experience, purchasing decision cycle or criteria, where your target market hangs out and your organizational readiness. Though social media is often touted as ‘free’ it is a marketing effort and takes someone’s time. If you are going to use one, choose which and make a real go of it – just like networking in real life. Pick the venue you like best and be willing to devote time and effort to it, to build a presence and relationships.

The numbers and demographics of people getting involved are changing daily and staggering. Keep in mind when you are generating content that 24% of social media users are creators with 73% being spectators with critics, collectors, joiners and inactives in between. That means there’s a lot of room to become known as an expert.

Remember, it’s More Than Just Twitter

When most people hear the words ‘social media’ they automatically think of the big three: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and Laurie gave tips on optimizing them. But, remember that social media includes things like blogs, wikipedia, web-based collaboration and YouTube – anywhere people can share information/media with the masses. There’s a lot available to help you manage and analyze the effectiveness of all this, like MailChimp and Google Analytics – to really build your business.

Social Media as Part of All-inclusive Marketing

One of the most important things to remember is that engaging in any kind of social media on a professional level is an extension of your brand. It should be considered as an integrated part of your marketing efforts, and held to the same standards of consistency and continual experience we encourage with our marketing maps. Where you have the opportunity to decorate (like a Twitter background) make sure it fits in with your brand colours, imagery, etc. If it’s mostly around information sharing, decide on your voice and stay loyal to your brand character. Your approach, your purpose should be considered before diving in. Any weak link in your marketing map detracts from the rest.

Tags: All-inclusive Marketing, brand character, graphic design, seminar, social media, Toronto
Posted in All-inclusive Marketing, Never Stop Learning | No Comments »

Marketing Map Talk and AIP

November 28th, 2009 by Faith

Last week I did my Marketing Map seminar for the Toronto chapter of the Association of Independent Professionals – AIP. Donna Papacosta interviewed me after and posted a podcast online.

AIP Interview with Faith Seekings and Donna Papacosta

I’m very pleased how well received and very rewarding considering they are all communications professionals. Even though they’re in similar businesses, the Rapport Marketing Map gave them a new way to look at the time and money they are spending on marketing efforts. They said they found it useful for themselves and see how it can benefit their clients too. Due to time limits, we focused on developing the map itself.

The Marketing Map Basics

I’ve described how to do this before, but essentially: you start by determining the thing you want people to do that usually leads to a sale (ie: call for a consultation or fill out a discovery form). Then, with this thing at the centre, you plot out all the different marketing tools you use and see how well they all work together. Don’t forget these tools are not only your business card and website, but any public-facing, company representing interaction like how you introduce yourself, your blog and your team members.

Top Three Points

You would review your tools for consistency: look, feel, messaging, etc. Then, how well they lead to each other: a dead end tool such as a piece of swag with no URL on it is a waste of money if it doesn’t lead to the something else. Then finally, how well your tools lead people to take action we defined, that’s at the centre. You’d be surprised how many companies don’t tell prospects how to do business with them, what to do next. There are often small, easy changes that can correct any gaps you see after you look at your tools this way. When they all work well together, each has more value and better ROI.

This isn’t meant to replace a marketing plan, but it’s a great way to make sure your marketing budget is working as hard as it can.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Moving Means Change

November 10th, 2009 by Faith

Moving = Change
Now is a good time for review

There are several issues to address when you’re moving into a new office space. For example, you’ll need to consider having your stationery updated, perhaps a new sign made for the hallway or building, or beside the elevator, etc. The fact that you are moving, however, suggests something has changed for the company. Now is an excellent time to review how you’re marketing yourself.

What’s changed for you this year?

Ask yourself the following. If you’ve been in business for a couple years, have your grown, added new services or dimension, aiming to conquer bigger mountains? Does your logo still make you proud? Does your website still inspire you and do what you need it to? Does your messaging still articulate your brilliance and why you’re the best in your field?

Name 2-3 factors that have changed for you or in your business environment from a year ago. Perhaps your clients have different needs? Are you conducting business in another region or country? Have you added new skills to your organization?

Where do you want to be in a year?

Now think about the current position of your company. Pat yourself on the back for everything you have accomplished. Next, think where you want it to be in a year. What is the biggest thing you want to accomplish over the next year? Your goal might be based on revenues, landing some investment dollars or gaining specific clients.

What are your marketing tools?

Make a list of the items, or platforms that you use to represent yourself or your business. Your list might include: business cards, web site, blog, articles, speaking, events, networking, Twitter, brochures, trade shows, crm, newsletter, webinars, etc.

Look at all of your existing marketing tools and evaluate them against:
1) The things that have changed for you, and
2) What you want to accomplish over the next 12 months.

Next think about how these items look as well as your messaging, matching them up against your target audience. Do your existing tools still reflect and support you in what you want to accomplish this year and in light of recent changes?

If you have added new skills to your company, have you listed these? If so, then the next step will be as simple as updating your website’s services page.

If you’ve changed your client focus from large enterprises to SMEs, you will want to make sure that your content is still appropriate. For example, large businesses are all about the bottom line and efficiencies, whereas SMEs are a little more about relationships and trust. Ask yourself if your current approach still resonates with this new target.

Your clients may be holding back due to the economy. This is a good time to change your messaging to be more sympathetic or collaborative, maybe demonstrate your value to them more.

Think for a moment about these things and write down some things you may have spotted. These maybe items that that might need changing to meet your vision for the year and take into account changes that have occurred.

Once you look at your marketing tools in this light, some of you may say ‘okay, it’s clear to me that I need to make some changes.’ Others may feel extra confident in what they have already included any necessary changes. The most important thing is that you feel supported, inspired, heard seen and excited by your tools.

Tags: business growth, graphic design, Marketing, small business
Posted in Business Growth and Change | No Comments »