Millions of users are online right now conducting Google searches for your services. All business research the services they need online, always as part of a multi-step decision-making process with what Google call's the Zero Moment of Truth or ZMOT.  With such a substantial amount research being done, companies must, at the very least, take advantage of content marketing to grow their business. Content marketing works on the principal that if your firm has more pages dedicated to specific keyword-rich topics than your competitor than you are more apt to be found by someone seeking those services. 

Not all content marketing services are the same when it comes to billing methodology. In fact, you have a choice between retainer or project-based marketing firms. When choosing a marketing company, begin by seeing who will provide the best results and then request a breakdown of the cost for a particular marketing service. Take a blog as an example. If a retainer based company has a junior level associate write your blog for an hourly rate of $100, and it takes 5 hours or more after revisions, is it better to pay a fixed price of $300 per blog project price? 

Retainer vs. Project Based Marketing

A marketing retainer works in a similar way as a lawyer is compensated. It is an amount of money used to hold the individual for a set amount of time.  Cost is not determined until the marketing company knows how much time is going to be required. Retainer based marketing companies are given a monthly lump sum and are told to use it to properly market for a client company. At best this system can be variable at worst it is fraught with mismanagement and sometimes fraud. We think we've found a better way.

We believe in setting a dollar amount for a specific marketing deliverable, and then if required, we alter the agreement to ensure the business is properly hitting benchmarks. This enables us to ensure you're getting what you pay for without overspending on budget. Moving forward, our clients only pay a marketing fee on a per project basis. This straightforward approach prevents hidden fees, keeps the marketing initiatives honest and places the responsibility for hours or under charges with me, the owner of the marketing firm. With information on fee structures so readily available, we felt that honesty was best for our clients and our company. 

Website Design

Our project-based website design is a fixed price for a set number of pages and functionality. Our experience has taught us that the bottleneck in all website design is the need for someone to write the website copy. It is harder than people think and once the project is underway the added stress of hitting a deadline reduces the quality of the copy. So, we've solved the problem with the following set of website related deliverables.

Website Design and development on the Squarespace platform with written content for all pages. 

• 5 Top Level Navigation Pages. These can be About, Services, Portfolio, Testimonials, etc...
• A Blog page with social media share buttons. Your first blog will be written and be 500-600 words +/-
• 1 Contact Page with a paragraph of content, a contact form and Google Map
• 5 Pages of written content 400 words +/-
• 2 Landing Pages with a form so that you can gather the name and email addresses of prospects. Each page will have a paragraph of content
• 2 Whitepapers designed to be premium content downloads 1000 words +/-
• 3 Call-to-Action buttons
• Social Media buttons that allow visitors to share your website pages on their social media platforms
• 2 Galleries of photographs with up to 9 images each
• Search Engine Optimization on all pages and in the metadata including title tags and image descriptions
• Footer with contact information and pictures of professional associations
• Total cost is $4200 - 50% down and 50% at the time of website launch. Or, if you would prefer terms, scheduled payments are available with $1500 down and monthly payments of $250 for 12 months. 

Our website design process includes search engine optimization (SEO) to make the website visible in online searches. The copywriter the website is a former Associated Press journalist who will call your firm and conduct an interview before writing the copy. 

Additionally, the content includes two galleries of photographs. Both will have alternative tags as well as keyword-rich descriptions that help your website attract clients. 

A website is only as good as the leads it attracts, so we've added a premium content offer or whitepaper tied to a landing page. The website is designed to help you capture leads. An extremely shareable blog page will allow visitors to post your articles on their social media account (such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google + and others).  And the website will be designed with a call to action buttons that drive prospects towards the services and offerings page.