By Doug Fouts - Managing Director at Xapsis Integrated Marketing
Last year, my family took the long awaited first vacation to Disney World, the “happiest place on earth,” and home to the myriad of princesses that my daughters have grown up watching and emulating. Both of my daughters saved up money to go towards the inevitable souvenirs that they were gleefully anticipating. Everything from the autograph books, to stuffed animals, jewelry and clothing. They both had a goal in mind of how much they wanted to take, and they were both looking for all kinds of ways to earn more around the house to reach those goals.
During this quest for funding, my youngest daughter lost a tooth. After greedily wiggling it for an entire evening knowing that it would result in a financial gain from our friend the Tooth Fairy. Sure enough in the morning she discovered the cash under her pillow, and at breakfast let her 11 year old sister, Maggie, know she had more money in her Disney fund. My older daughter turned to me and said, “Dad, what can I be doing to earn more money for the trip?” Before I could answer, her younger sister piped up with timely advice, “Just start pulling some teeth!”
After I stopped laughing, and Maggie stopped scowling, I thought about that suggestion for a moment. While humorous, it made a certain amount of sense from an 8 year old perspective, the logic is pretty sound. Your experience tells you that when you lose a tooth, you put it under the pillow and voila it’s replaced by cold hard cash, and you have done this over and over again with the same results. Therefore it is very logical that the quickest way to make more money is to mine your current resources, and molars, bicuspids, incisors, etc., and make the dough roll in! It’s the shortest distance between the two points of needing money and getting money, and it’s literally right under your nose the whole time, simple enough. The only problem, the shortest distance isn't always the smartest route to take, and the quickest way is not always the most pain free.
Think about the advertising messages we are bombarded with on a regular basis promising us faster, easier and cheaper car insurance; faster, easier and cheaper meals; faster, easier and cheaper mobile phone service and yes, faster, easier and cheaper websites. Everyone loves a good deal and we all want to get the most for our money.
What I would ask you to consider today is when the salesperson comes knocking on your door, and their pitch right out of the gate is to show you their cheap packages that can be produced in hours or days it might sound appealing. It may even sound like the shortest distance to get what you want, but it also may result in a product that is the equivalent of pulling teeth when it comes to effectiveness.
I once heard someone say, you can buy something great, or you can buy something cheap, but as a rule you don’t get both. When it comes to your marketing that is very often the truth. The next time you are considering working with a web development company, ask yourself a few of the following questions:
1.) How much time are they taking to understand my target market segment?
2.) How much time are they taking to understand my competitors?
3.) How much time are they taking to understand my business?
4.) How much time is spent refining the navigation?
5.) Are they selling by package and price, or are they selling by effectiveness and business growth?
These are thoughts to start with to determine whether or not your journey from point A to point B will result in a Tooth Fairy payout, or a tooth pulling nightmare!
