In one word, yes! The internet is the most effective marketing tool in existance nowadays, it has the capability of reaching far more people than any leaflet drop or advertisement in the local paper ever will.
As an NDIS and disability business marketing agency we get questions from our clients all the time about the choice to create a website and if its worth it or not so we thought we'd share some of the most common questions we get and what our answers are in response to them.
Should you produce your own website?
It all depends on your skills, if you have the ability to produce a site that looks good, then go ahead, it will save you money and will work wonders as a marketing tool. However if your skills are limited or non-existant then we'd say no. Why? No, not because we want your money (although we don't mind if you want to give it to us...), because if your site doesn't have a professional look to it, then it is going to reflect badly on your company's image and trust us when we say a bad website can be so much worse than not having one at all. You should be protecting your brand reputation at all times and a poorly designed or dodgy looking website is a big no no in our opinion.
Do you need to spend lots of money?
It really depends on the size of your website, if you're looking simply get a presence on the internet, then you can easily get something for around $750 (our basic website package) if you want something super advance, more robust with the ability for clients to login to some kind of portal, have a whole bunch of extra fancy bells and whistles then yes the cost will start to add up, some companies will pay upwards of $15,000 for a complete web design package that meets all their needs BUT and we think this is a big BUT... its not actually necessary for a lot of the businesses we've spoken to, more often than not they just want and need an online presence that clearly articulates who they are, what they do and how to contact them... for that we suggest a very basic but professional looking website and it should cost you less than $1000
What content do you need?
This all depends on what you want from being online, if you want to sell online, have your products, services or supports promoted online is going to be very useful! If you're just looking to get your company online, then there are TWO elements that we believe are imperative:
Information about your company (who you are and what you do)
How to contact you
Without these two no-one is going to know who or what you are, with the former being your chance to sell yourself. Remember when people look at websites, if its well designed they won't know if they're dealing with a multi-national company or a one person organisation, this is your chance to play alongside the big boys!!
What to do now?
So you're convinced a website is the way to go? Excellent, this can only be of benefit to you! Now you've got to find a designer (there's one right here!!!), things to keep in mind when looking is what kind of style are you looking for, find some websites that you like then find some designers and see if they can produce something along that line! If they can, you're on the way to bringing into being what can be one of your best employees!
If you'd like us to prepare a quote for designing and developing your website for less than $1000 send us an email or fill out the contact form on our website, we're happy to help!