Design or market?

[Business Brian]

I had been speaking to a potential client in the health business - seemed like there would be room for some marketing of health products online for him. Wasn't keen on the idea, as we are talking very serious keywords. In my book, if you get spam about a partiular product, then the product is almost certainly a very competitive keyword.
 
 He was looking to launch 3 sites, but he wanted to incoporate a stock inventory solution to work on and offline. That was a little over my head, so he purchased from a design company with offices in Mayfair, who outsource to Argentina. To design the 3 sites and add the shopping carts and inventory system cost him £5,000 for the lot. Just a little steep, I thought.
 
 That was quite high, so now he didn't want to put any money aside for me to develop and build a forum for him, which was going to help market his sites for human and search engine traffic.
 
 He also turned me down for SEO link building work, on acount that he found someone else who can do it a quarter the price I quoted, and can do it apparently in two weeks. Huh?
 
 The problem we have here is that we have a company selling a product range that is an extremely competitive market on the internet - and he's gone and blown all his budget on design only. He's almost nothing left for internet marketing, so he's jumped into cheap and easy promises rather than making careful and considered judgements.
 
  I have a funny feeling that this is not a rare scenario either.
 
  In my opinion, people should be looking to budget far more for marketing than design. And if you find yourself paying more in design that you plan, don't jump into paying for rash promises for your internet marketing.
 
 In this business it is visibility that really matters. It doesn't matter how pretty or technically accomlpished your site is - if you have no internet visibility then who is going to find it? Visibility costs money. It's an investment. And if you fail to invest strategically and properly in your business, then how on earth can you expect it to succeed?

[revsorg]

3 websites, a shopping cart and inventory system for £5,000?  Maybe if it's an off the shelf solution that's steep, but if there is any custom design or development it sounds like a bargain!

[Business Brian]

I'm still not convinced it's all that cheap - I'm under the impression that the software is off the shelf, and all the custom design is outsourced to Argentina. I figure the company must be making a heck of a profit on the job. But...that's their prerogative to charge it.
 
 Really, though, the problem here is that the customer has used up all their budget buying up a shop front - and now has nothing left for marketing. In my opinion, that's a very bad move. Even more so as he's already been burned before by promises of cheap high rankings, and he's gone and fallen for it again. This is even more accentuated by the fact that the business involved health supplments - and that's a very very competitive market to SEO for. But it's not my lesson to learn.

[David Hazzard]

I think you have to achieve the correct balance in design and marketing.

Design can be as cheap or as expensive as you want, and the amount you invest in design reflects in the design. Similarly with marketing, invest nothing and you will get nothing.
 
In marketing the first thing we tell a customer is on your letter heads, and on all forms of signage to include the website address in which you have just invested - its amazing how many donot.

[Business Brian]

Hi David, and welcome to business talk.
 
 Indeed, I think the core message here is - BUSINESS PLAN!
 
 Simply blowing money on one aspect of your business, without taking care of other aspects, seems like a very bad idea - especially if you are left with little visibility.

[techiebabe]

Hi David, and welcome to business talk.
 
Indeed, I think the core message here is - BUSINESS PLAN!
 
Simply blowing money on one aspect of your business, without taking care of other aspects, seems like a very bad idea - especially if you are left with little visibility.

Absolutely agree! I have a limited budget and have to consider every opportunity as a chunk of money that I can't spend on other things...
 
Another issue is to remember your business plan can be a work in progress - you can change it as you identify new opportunities or find other things don't work quite as planned.