Hiring a Portland Web Design Company
If you were to survey Portland business owners and ask them what their biggest challenge is you would hear the same response over and over – how to consistently attract new, excited customers in such a vibrant, eccentric place. We all know how crucial marketing is to our business’ bottom line but in the chaos of working with our existing clients and putting out day-to-day fires, it is not uncommon for marketing to fall to the bottom of our to-do lists. Even after years in business, many organizations struggle financially because they fail to figure out a way to have new qualified leads come in on a regular basis. What if you could change all that?
What a lot of people don’t realize is that if your business already has a website you already have a member of your staff who is ready and willing to work 24/7/365 to grow your business. Take a second now to ask yourself the million dollar online marketing question “how well is my website actually doing at its job of bringing in new leads?”If it is currently under-performing, the next question to ask is “how can I improve it to reach my goals?”
So many businesses have websites that are being under utilized and are essentially just taking up cyber space. Once upon a time they set up the site, made a few initial updates and then left it alone hoping that in the proverbial words of Field of Dreams “if you build it they will come.” As much as I would love to say that this approach works, it doesn’t. The good news is that there is another strategy that will work in turning your website into a lean, mean, lead generation machine – hiring a professional, affordable, experienced Portland web design company.
If you’re with me so far your next questions probably are “how do I know what to look for when hiring a someone to help me with my website? How much does it cost? Wouldn’t I save money trying to do it by myself?” All great questions. Let me lay it out for you…
Six things to look for when hiring a Portland web design company:
1. Is this company focused on helping you create a holistic marketing strategy?
In today’s world of online marketing, an engaging, professional-looking website is just one piece of the marketing pie. You need to ask if this company also equipped help you with the just-as-important aspects of lead generation such as social media marketing, search engine optimization, branding, newsletter / content management, and digital marketing pieces (brochures, business cards etc.). Only focusing on one of these avenues can can create a big gap inviting your competitors to come scoop up your potential clients. Don’t let that happen to you.
2. Does this company have an efficient team in place?
When investing in hiring someone to do your website, efficiency is the name of the game. We’ve all heard of people who hired a someone to do their website and then many months later it still wasn’t done. Why does this happen? Usually it is because there is just one or two developers slogging through a huge pile of time-consuming projects. Our advice: be preventative. When interviewing a prospective companies ask them about what kind of team they have in place and how long it should take for them to complete the project. If you don’t like what you hear, keep on interviewing.
3. Does this company employ proven marketing experts?
It’s one thing to know how to write code and build a website, it is completely another to know how to take the results of that code (your website) and turn it into revenue for your business. No one wants a website just to have a website; we have websites to attract clients and make money. Make sure that the company you work with takes the time to understand your story and has the know-how to help you share it with the world.
4. What standards does this company have in place to respect your budget?
Because so few people understand how web design is done, they feel obligated to blindly pay whatever the developer charges them (even if they feel they’re being ripped off). In our opinion this is completely unacceptable and unfair. Look for a team that models “money transparency” which allows clients access to a billing portal so they can see item by item, minute by minute how their money is being used. This approach minimizes over-budget surprises and creates an environment where you can to ask the team any questions about entries you don’t understand.
5. Will this company be able to support you long-term as your needs change?
What works today in your marketing strategy may not work tomorrow so it is crucial to be partnering with a marketing team that is paying attention to the results you are getting and then make adjustments as necessary. Getting a website and social media profiles set up is just a start – make sure the the agency you hire has the capacity to play the long game with you helping you adjust your approach as the needs and goals of your business change.
6. Will this company allow you to play a role in the ongoing marketing effort of your business?
While some business leaders are happy to outsource all marketing work to a third party, many are excited about the possibility of making their own updates to their website and adding their style to their own newsletters and social media posts, etc. Make sure the company you hire doesn’t set up your marketing system in a way that only they can make edits and changes. Not only does this make your project way more expensive but it creates a sense of helplessness knowing that your online presence is out of your hands.
Midas Marketing is a Portland web design company with a wide offering of online and digital marketing support We are a team of business owners ourselves who have again and again run up against the challenges of finding a company to help us hit our business’ goals. As a result of years of frustration in not finding what we were looking for,we created a local company ourselves that would provide clients the support in the above six areas that we had been looking for all along but had never found. If you are a business owner looking for a Portland web design company to help you generate more leads, we’d love to chat with you further about how we can help take your business to the next level. Click here to get started.
