Online Marketing – Beware of Price

If you are looking to redesign your site, launch a new site or promote an existing site, DO NOT ask for a bunch of price quotes.  Price quotes are just numbers and the folks that you are speaking with on the phone are just voices on the other end of the line.

You really need to think it through because the price quotes will not tell you anything you really need to know.

Before you look at price, consider getting the answers to the following questions FIRST:

1.    What are the business objectives you are seeking?
2.    Which competitors seem to be achieving at a high level?  Do you wish to emulate these results?
3.    Are you willing to do what is necessary to compete effectively?
4.    How are you going to learn what is necessary to achieve such results?
5.    What are your top 25 keywords and how many competing pages are there for those terms?
6.    What is your vision of your website?
7.    What do you consider to be a successful website visit?  What do you want a visitor to do when they arrive and before they leave?
8.    How am I going to find a highly performing internet marketing company?
9.    Is it important that I see solid results in terms of design, online visibility, and conversions for existing clients before I actually hire an internet marketing company?
10.    Is it important that I interview existing clients of companies I am considering to verify client satisfaction and bottom line ROI?
11.    What are your realistic expectations in sales and profits in the next year, 3 years and 5 years?
12.    What are you willing to invest to achieve such results?
13.    What kind of effort are you willing to commit to the success of your website?

Price quotes and even phone calls don’t mean a thing unless you focus on your objectives and RESULTS.  You need to identify these and own them before price quotes have any meaning.  After all, going for the lowest price (the likely reason for the price quote request) can be the most expensive thing you can do.  Consider the cost of poor results, in money wasted, in time wasted and the opportunity cost wasted.

Get committed to your success and invest yourself.  There are much more important numbers you need to determine before a price quote has any relevance.

Arthur Cooper

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