How much is a new customer worth..? Do companies get by-passed because of a poor online presence..?
By Vincent Gentile, www.avminternetsolutions.com
My client, who will remain un-named, owns a large nursery and landscape design business. They also own a custom pool company under a different name, as well as a construction development company with a third identity that primarily creates and builds outdoor living areas.
The company had been marketing it-self in three different venues with different websites and identities. The websites were somewhat dated and on the lower budget end of the spectrum. The company probably spent around $500 per website.
The three companies, more often than not, would overlap. A custom pool client will likely need new landscaping and possibly an outdoor living area. A nursery client might need expertise in design and possibly a new patio/outdoor living area. Since the company does great work, their customers are happy to have them do multiple projects. Essentially, a new pool customer could spend as little as 25K for a new in-ground pool, or upwards of $70K with landscaping and patio additions.
The company’s target market is home owners in wealthy communities with home values around 1-2 million dollars.
The turning point for this company in realizing their need for a complete identity makeover was the possible loss of prospective clients that never go further than the home page of a low budgeted website. Will a prospective customer that may spend 70K take a low budget web presence seriously? In today’s market, a user will digest a company’s online impression in the first 5-6 seconds, and then decide whether to drive deeper into the website or move on to a more appealing option.
Since 80% of users will research a company online before making a connection, there is always the fear of not having an opportunity to meet a new prospect because of a weak online impression. Since a new connection/customer for this company could be worth 25K-70K, it wasn’t a difficult decision in understanding the value of a make over.
There a few objectives for this makeover. First and foremost, to establish a state of the art, online web presence that incorporates everything the company has to offer. This new identity would capture everything from their landscape design and nursery products through outdoor living areas and pools. Second, a web design that drives users deeper into the site with galleries to illustrate their projects, incentives and whitepapers designed to capture online leads that will ultimately drive the user from the site and into the business. Once the new online identity is established an interactive strategy incorporating social networking, e-mail marketing and search engine marketing would be employed to increase online traffic.
Now the real work begins….! Check back for make over tips….!