Coastwebs.com WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING GUIDELINE v. 1.0

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1 P a g e 1 Coastwebs.com WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT & MARKETING GUIDELINE v. 1.0

2 P a g e 2 WHY GET A PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE? a. Your small business will gain credibility Today, more and more consumers use the internet to search for the products or services they need. Your small business will gain credibility by having a website. Without one, potential customers will go to your competitors that do. If you already have a website but it is "home-made", having it professionally redesigned will provide your business with a professional image which will inspire even greater confidence. For home-based businesses, this is particularly beneficial since you do not have a store front to promote your products or services. b. A website saves you money As a small business owner you probably think you can't afford a professional website, but you can't afford NOT to. Although the cost of designing a website varies, once it's up and running, a website for a small business generally costs under N3, 000 a month and, in some cases, as little as N200 a month. Compared with the cost of a newspaper ad, when you consider the potential market you can reach with a website, it is a very cost effective way to promote your business. c. It will enable you to keep your customers informed Think of your website as being your online brochure or catalogue. It is much easier and quicker to update information about your products and services on your website than in print material, making it an effective way of letting your customers know about the arrival of new products, upcoming events, special promotions, or any new services you now offer. Unlike print ads which quickly become outdated, your website can provide current information and news. d. It is always accessible A website is available to both your regular and potential customers 24/7/365 providing them with the convenience of reviewing your products and services when your store or office is closed. With today s busy lifestyles, this is a great selling point when making a purchase decision. e. A website makes it possible to target a wider market Whether you provide products or services, your website will provide an alternative location to sell them. As a retailer, a website (ecommerce) is a great place to sell your

3 P a g e 3 products to a wider market; even services can be made available globally. Don't think you'll be able to sell your products or services online? Don't forget, even cars and houses sell online! f. It provides a medium on which to showcase your work No matter what type of business you re in, a website is a great place to showcase your work. By including a portfolio or image gallery, as well as testimonials about your work, you can demonstrate what makes your business unique. g. A website saves you time Providing information to your customers takes time, whether it s on the phone, face-toface, in a brochure, or in s. With an online catalogue you can provide lots of information about your products and services. Once your website is up and running, it is available to your customers indefinitely, saving you time. And what is time? Time is money! h. It improves customer service Maybe you sell environmentally friendly products and would like to share tips on how to recycle, or perhaps you re an accountant and want to give your clients advice on how to simplify their bookkeeping practices. By including a FAQ page, adding articles or uploading newsletters to answer all your customers' questions you can keep them upto-date. What better way to provide them with value added service than by sharing information on your website. WHY USE SMS FOR BUSINESS? a. It's opt-in SMS marketing relies on consumers to opt in. This means your target audience must first sign up to receive messages about deals and promotions before receiving them. Opt-in marketing has big benefits for businesses. One is that consumers who receive your messages are already heavily invested in your brand or product; otherwise, they wouldn t have signed up. Another is that the opt-in model also means you won t waste time or money bothering customers who aren t interested. Just like with marketing, most SMS marketing tools make it fairly easy for users to opt out.

4 P a g e 4 Of course, you'll need to get consumers to sign up to receive your messages in the first place. For this reason, it's almost impossible to divorce SMS marketing from traditional advertising because you must first rely on Web, and social media ads to build your SMS contact list. b. It's engaging Not only are the consumers on your SMS contact list willing participants in your promotional campaign, but they're almost guaranteed to read your message right when you send it. SMS marketing won't get your promotion in front of as many eyeballs as other modes of advertising, but by delivering your messages directly to engaged consumers and getting them to read those messages quickly -- it delivers great bang for your buck. c. It's quick Much of the appeal of SMS marketing is in its brevity, both for the advertiser and the consumer. Unlike lengthy promotions, SMS messages are generally just one or two sentences in length, sometimes including a link to a website with more details about the promotion. Consumers are very likely to read entire messages, simply because they are so short. SMS messages can also be read at the consumer's convenience, so they aren't as intrusive as Web pop-ups or telephone calls. The brevity of SMS messages also benefits the small business owner who is short on time. Planning and deploying a promotion via SMS is quick and easy, and requires much less up-front planning than traditional advertising. d. It's cheap Small business owners in particular can benefit from SMS marketing because it is affordable. Sending an SMS message is much cheaper than placing a full ad in front of a potential consumer. Prices vary, but many platforms allow your business to send each message for just a few cents. Meanwhile, bulk packages allow you to send hundreds or thousands of messages each month for a relatively low, flat rate. Considering the power of SMS marketing to directly target engaged consumers, it delivers a good value proposition for small business owners on a budget. e. It's interactive Planning an interactive SMS promotion is a good way to make your message fun and engaging, and there are plenty of ways to do it. Posing your message as part of a

5 P a g e 5 questionnaire or poll encourages your target audience to read more closely and become an active participant. Offering up a toll-free SMS reply option is an extra incentive for users to engage with your brand. Meanwhile, including a link to an entertaining video or images with more details about your promotion encourages users to investigate further. Not every cellphone has the ability to connect to the Internet, but as smartphones become nearly ubiquitous, business owners would be wise to consider including visual and interactive elements in their SMS marketing efforts. WHAT IS THE PRICE OF WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT? The question isn't easy to answer as one might expect. A certain business owner seeking help with website building submitted the requirements of the site with a list of functions and goals, to three different web development companies in order to get estimates. 5 days later, the business owner received three separate website design estimates. The first design company estimated the project at N100, 000. The second determined a price of N450, 000. Finally, the third potential developer estimated N2.1m. These quotes are a bit confusing, to say the least. Why such a wide disparity in the estimates? That becomes the client's issue. Only through time-consuming research can one discover the differences in services and skill level or get to the bottom of why companies charge such wide prices for the same sort of website development. This scenario is very common. We recently received two proposals from a business owner that she had received from website developers with a request to explain the differences in pricing. Most business owners aren't certain what prices are fair and will give them the desired result. For the purposes of this document, we are defining a "small business website" as an informational website of about 10 to 20 pages that has basic content management and utilizes social media widgets. Have you prepared a detailed document setting forth what you will require from your website developer? Gather the creative movers and shakers in your company to discuss visions and expectations regarding your website development. Come up with a clear list of ideas and guidelines for your developer to work from. It is advised that all new website projects start with a familiarization and documentation process which involves three steps that are elemental in relating your website concept and ideas to us. You have to define your Online brand --your services, products and identity. Then, you have to come up with an outline for the structure of your website. Lastly, you need to hone in on what you want your website to do--define its functionality, in other words.

6 P a g e 6 Before you can begin collecting bids from design companies, the detailing of your requirements are essential. It helps to set up expectations and avoid miscommunication with potentials designers. This is obviously the first step towards creating a functional and efficient website that truly defines your business. Average Expenses for a Small Business Website Below you will find a list of some of the basic components of a small business website. This will help in estimating the cost of a small business website. Domain Name N2, 400 per year Hosting N2, 400 to N360, 000 a year (depends upon traffic and your service) Web Planning, Design and Development Time 50 hours + Continued Website Maintenance N50, 000 a year and up (contingent upon how many changes and what kind are made) Marketing Your Website Online N75, 000 per month + These figures are average. If you d like a precise estimate for your small business, kindly give us a call or send us an . Factors that Influence the Cost of Development There are some important facts that you should consider when you are working on your web site budget. Take the time to ask yourself these questions: 1. Will your business website be a new site or are you going to be redesigning an existing site? New web sites will often be costlier than redesigns. Editing an existing page is far easier than starting from square one. It s more challenging for you, so it s certainly more challenging for the designer. It involves creating online brand, features, and functionality of your website from square one. Understandably, there s a difference in the amount website developers charge when creating a brand new entity. You will save

7 P a g e 7 money by revamping an old site. Good developers can turn your ineffective website into a whole new design that will work for you. 2. Do you need someone to help you with blogging or with creating your website content? The least expensive way to create and add content to your website is to do it yourself. Website developers can design a template where you can easily post content. You can, of course, have the website designer add the content and adjust the layout of the text rather than doing it yourself. If you re after full service that will require us to write your content and upload same, you should expect an additional per page charge of N10, 000 N15, Do you have the graphics you want to use on your website? If not, setting a budget for graphics is difficult. The prices of images are widely varied-- from free to N2, 000. The images you select for your website must be compelling and having the appropriate graphics can really make a difference in your site s overall effectiveness. This is not a place to skimp. For budgeting purposes, allow about N20, 000 for the use of stock images. A good designer can use simple stock images and enhance them so that they become more appealing. You ll also need icons and buttons for your website s functions. Budget about N10, 000 for these additional elements. 4. Would you like your site to resize automatically for mobiles and tablets? Our world today is comprised of mobile applications. Everyone s wired in. It has become a fundamental of online success to have a website that resizes automatically. Thus, your design should be mobile-friendly. Top of the line designs are responsive. This means that the device will display your layout to look and function the best. If you are interested in having a design that is responsive, you will pay about 15 to 25% more. This task is more time-demanding. It also requires more testing before it is actually ready for use. Responsive designs are quickly becoming the rule rather than the exception. 5. Does your website require multimedia components? (Flash, Video, etc.) It s fundamental for your website developer to be informed of any multimedia elements you may be planning to include on your small business website. In this technologically advanced world, web browsers tend to pass by websites that don t utilize some form of multimedia to grab their attention. An apt video or interface can compel a website visitor to stay longer on a website and possibly be converted into a client.

8 P a g e 8 6. Interface design Interface design can really enhance your business image. The blending of all the visual elements of your brand--photos, images, page layout--work together to create an online presence. Working with your website designer, you will come to a design that pleases both of you. The design should be frequently updated to remain fresh and interesting. The budget for this valuable service is N140, 000 to N700, 000. This fee would take the project from an idea to full fruition. It is ill-advised to skimp on interface design. 7. Do you require special features such as SEO, e-commerce, or social media channels? There are a plethora of extra features available that website developers can add to your site to enhance your success. Sometimes an extra feature might be included in the price of your website. We ve included a list of possible extra features and the approximate cost of each. Certain individual factors can push the price up. We ve averaged the costs based on 7 years of experience in website building and design. If these estimates don t work for your project, give us a call and we ll give you more precise information. a. Custom Content Management Systems If you are willing to manage your own content, your designer can customize content management systems (CMS). We team up with companies like Drupal and WordPress. Costs for integrating and customizing a CMS can range from N106, 000 to N4, 000, 000. b. Training and Documentation It is necessary to obtain a precise set of instructions and all needed documentation on how to provide maintenance and how to edit your site content if you want to be doing that by yourself. Depending on how extensive the instructions need to be, expect to pay from N40, 000 to N300, 000. c. Blog

9 P a g e 9 Many clients request a blog (WordPress or something similar) for their website, customized to reflect their unique branding and design. Adding a blog ranges from N100, 000 to N500, 000. d. E-commerce For E-commerce shopping carts, catalogs, and payment processing add N300, 000 to N1, 000, 000 or more depending on requirements. e. Marketing Campaigns Clients who wish to gather addresses and send out branded messages for announcements or newsletters require an management tool. We can integrate third-party tools such as Mailchimp, Graphicmail or Constant Contact. We can also create the perfect template design for blast. We manage your blasts for you starting from N74, 000. f. Branding/Identity Development We frequently design winning logos. On the low-end, we start with an eight-hour process that generates about six rough ideas for your logo. If you choose one of these six, we will edit it until it's exactly what you want. N80, 000 to N700, 000. g. Targeted Landing Landing pages are pages that promote a particular service or product. They are usually part of social media, or banner ad campaign. We can design and create these pages starting at N40, 000. h. Newsfeeds - of both your content (outgoing) and adding content to the site (incoming): N40, 000 i. Contact forms and surveys: N30, 000 and up j. Newsletters: N40, 000 to N180, 000 k. Advertising integration (Google AdWords): 40, 000 l. Photo gallery: N25, 000 to N100, 000

10 P a g e 10 m. Metrics (Google analytics, custom reports, etc.): N40, 000 to N400, 000 n. Search Engine Optimization, SEO (off-page optimization submission to search engines, on-page optimization, etc.): N60, 000 to N800, 000 o. Social media We can create and manage social media network profiles (Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.): N50, 000 to N400, 000 p. SMS Confirm addition of extra layer of security to your website by verifying users with their phone numbers via SMS costs N100, 000 and up. q. SMS Short codes: N90, 000 and up So, what can you expect to spend for your website? Most of the small businesses we help with the design, development, and launch of a website spent from N280, 800 to N3m. As you surely noted from the list of add-on extras above, the elements of website design can add up quite quickly! Plan also for your website s maintenance. Remember that your website must be looked-after and updated from time to time. Effective websites change constantly. It keeps people coming back. It s wise to enlist your website developer to take on the role of updating your site. It s easy for errors to occur when you or others you assign try to maintain the websites. This is best left to the experts. Adding a minimum of N20,000 per month to your budget would be wise if you want to have a maintenance contract with your designer/developer. The more you expect from them, the more you can expect to pay. For instance, if you will expect the creation of new images or adding new content, etc. We offer several options that we can customize to your needs and also the option of full-service maintenance. Create a Quality Website Your website is part of your identity in today s world. It s a major part of your success, so this is not a place to skimp. The design and development of your site is the groundwork that will support its success. The creation and maintenance of your web

11 P a g e 11 presence is an essential business investment. In order for a small business to create an effective website, you can invest as little as N280, 800. By enhancing a basic website, you can spend up to N3m or more. Base your budget on your individual needs, constraint, and goals. Coastwebs Technologies, info@coastwebs.com, ,