Today there are more marketing options available than ever before. Sometimes it can be hard to get a good grasp of everything.

This graphic is one I made to try to illustrate different forms of marketing and how they interact. Notice also how central a website is in all of this. Naturally it’s the hub for your social media and web promotion marketing, but it’s also an important part of all other marketing.

Why do I want to advertise my website and not my business directly?
Naturally, you want to do both. But remember that a lot of people are more likely to go to your website for information than they are to pick up a phone to call you or to come to your office. Once they arrive on your website, your site needs to be attractive, full of useful information, and with very clear ways of contacting your company directly.

Or download a high resolution version here:

marketing_diagram_web.pdf (228.37 kb)

Check out our new whitepaper on Social Media Marketing for Businesses. Just go to our homepage at www.askbisdesigns.com to download.

Have a look! We just completed a new site for the Mobile County EMA. www.mcema.net.

This extensive site include a lot of useful information about emergency preparedness, evacuation procedures and what to do after a disaster hits.

In our area the most likely disaster is a hurricane. The 2011 Hurricane Season is still a few months away, but now is a good time to review your emergency plans. This Family Emergency Plan is a good place to collect vital information in one place. All businesses should have a disaster plan. BIS offers many backup and disaster recovery services.

This website features a completely new design with an updated and more user-friendly navigation and site structure. The site is built on our powerful edit-yourself engine which allows the MCEMA to easily keep the site fresh and quickly get vital information out to the public.

 We recently completed a website for a home construction company, and have worked on some similar projects in the past. These are a few thoughts on what to keep in mind when you are having a website made for your homebuilder or construction company.

A professional looking website is important for all companies, but especially so for a company that relies on a reputation of reliability and quality. A home is usually the biggest investment most people make, and you want to make sure you instill them with a feeling that your company is one that pay attention to details and quality.

Also, make sure that your site is built so you can update it yourself. This means that your site should be built in a Content Management System (CMS). Examples of CMS are Joomla, DotNetNuke and Drupal. Updating a CMS site is usually easy, and only requires about the same skill as working in word or writing emails. This way you can keep your site fresh without needing to pay a web designer every time.

It is also important that your site perform well in search engines. While your site will be useful for your existing customers (contact information, policies, etc.) the main function of a contractor/builder’s site is to bring in new clients. Combinations of service + location are the most important search terms. There are many factors that determines how a website performs in search engines, including the coding on the site and the text. Also, remember that the age of a domain name can affect how well your site performs. So even if is not in your budget right now to set up a full-featured site you will benefit later by setting up a simple site right away.

Here are a few suggestions for what to put on your construction website

• Project Listing / Gallery. This is one of the most important features to add to your site. A simple picture gallery is fine, but even better is a listing that enables you to post multiple pictures of the same project along with a description, location, date of completion, etc.
• Featured Homes. Highlight your favorite projects to really show what you are capable of.
• List of Services. This is an obvious topic to include, but it is an important one not to overlook. What kind of jobs do you take on? Do you do only new construction, or do you work on additions and renovations as well? Do you work on commercial or residential projects? What else do you provide – financing? Lots? What materials do you use? Which vendors do you work with?
• Home Plans. Do you offer your customers a selection of house plans? If so, you obviously want to display these on your site. Use pdf format for details plans to let the user zoom in on details without degrading quality.
• Service Area. Are you working only in a certain geographic area? If so, make sure to specify this on your website. Clearly labeling your site with the cities you work in will also help your site in search engines.
• Contact. Your website is a sales tool, and it’s important to make it very easy to get in contact with you. Remember that many prefer to make initial contacts with e-mail instead of phone, so make sure to give them both options. A web form makes it even easier to contact you.
• Social Networking Integration. Social networking is quickly becoming a big part of online marketing, and should not be overlooked.

Check it out! We just completed a new website for J. L. Loper Construction in Orange Beach. www.loperconstruction.com

Loper Construction realized early the importance of having a website and have been online for close to ten years. Their previous site was not performing as well as it could, and they came to us with two main concerns:

• Their site was not performing as well as it should in the search engines.
• Updating their site was a cumbersome process, and they were not able to keep their website fresh.

Their old site was using flash technology, which hampered the performance in search engines. We constructed a completely new site from the ground up, adhering to current w3 standards for maximum search engine recognition. We built the site on our powerful edit-yourself engine which enables them to easily log on to the site and update the content. The site includes a gallery for them to post pictures and details of their recent projects, as well as a blog to post news.

The Results:

• The new site has been up for only about a week, and we’re already seeing it moving up in the Google search results. For instance, check out its top-5 rating for "renovations Baldwin county".
• They are already taking advantage of the edit-yourself functionality and have added pictures and information for over 60 of their recent projects.

Hello!

As we recently lauched our new website, we've decided to start over with a new blog. Here we'll write about internet marketing, display some of the things we're working on, as well as anything else that comes to mind.