I love helping clients get the most out of their budgets, and we’re known for delivering high end work at a reasonable price for our website design, video, and interactive clients. That said, there’s smart ways and foolish ways to try to save money on a project. This post talks about the foolish side of things.
Foolish Mistake Number One: “I Don’t Need A Great Website”
Actually, you do. Here’s why- your online presence has long ago become the most frequent “first contact” your company has with a customer, client, or partner. Would you meet a new client wearing a crappy, ill-fitting suit that makes you look like a fool? No. You’d dress appropriately. Your website needs to be updated on a regular basis, and it needs to keep up with the times. It blows my mind that clients who spend huge amounts of money buying domain names, doing AdWords campaigns, and so forth happily fall down on this.
A corollary to this thought is your website really should stand out from the competition. By spending the time and money to make sure that it does, you instantly boost your credibility in the eyes of your audience. This part comes down to this: does your business compete solely on price? If so, go ahead and aspire to mediocrity. If not, spend some thought and money on your website.
Foolish Mistake Number Two: “I Don’t Need To Do Social Media”
Maybe it’s a simple campaign that consists of you updating your Facebook and Twitter accounts whenever your company does something cool. Maybe you need to have an involved campaign that really puts serious resources behind social media. But you need a social media plan, and it needs to be ongoing.
Foolish Mistake Number Three: “All I Need Is Facebook”
Businesses that put all their eggs in the Facebook basket will one day find that the policies of Facebook have changed and their hard work is gone. This has happened quite a lot, especially to bands and companies that have rivalries. All you have to do is get a copyright complaint against you, and you’re gone. Smart businesses use Facebook as one of the channels to get their message out and foster strong customer relations, not as their home base.
Foolish Mistake Number Four: “I Can Get A TV Commercial For $300″
And I can find you a website for $300, too. And a car for $300. Heck, if you want a free TV commercial call up your local cable company. If you advertise with them, they’ll make a commercial for you for free.
But it won’t help your business. It may even hurt your brand’s reputation. Why would you spend thousands of dollars airing a crummy tv commercial that makes you look like a fool? The best tv commercials created by the $300 guys are absolutely terrible, because they have to be: you’re part of an assembly line, and that means your video will look pretty much like everyone else’s.
The Bottom Line
No matter what marketing collateral you’re developing, the bottom line is quality still matters. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying to you so they can make a quick buck. By putting out crappy marketing, you’re attracting crappy clients and losing the opportunity to show off all the great reasons why people should do business with you. Mediocre, unimaginative marketing can make a great company fail. Great marketing can help a small organization compete and win against global behemoths.
(Awesome photo by Editor B)
