Great Photography
Website Design
If you are a small/medium sized business owner, and you are feeling a bit confused and overwhelmed with all of the techno speak and jargon being thrown around by mainstream internet marketing companies, we have good news for you:
You are not automatically at a disadvantage vis a vis your larger competitors who have an in-house marketing department—because there is no “secret” that you are missing out on. Take a look at whatever ad campaign you admire most—do you see any obvious gimmicks or shortcuts? We’ll bet that great photography and intelligent website design are a part of each and every one of them—and for a smaller investment than you might think, your company can own a similarly great appearance.
Are you being told that you cannot compete in today’s online market without spending a ton of money, instead of a reasonable amount of smart money with an ethical, knowledgeable, and very hard working firm? It’s not hard, and the most important things an independent business owner should be aware of in order to achieve reasonable success with a competent online advertising agency can be learned right here in just under five minutes.
Internet Marketing
Professional Photographers
If you want to make millions of dollars, then you have to look like a million bucks. Simple? Yes. However, our experience teaches us that so many small businesses overlook the fact that in today’s business world, their website is their first (and often last) public impression.
We all know the cliché of the first impression, so why do so many overlook the obvious with their Internet marketing? The myriad reasons are not the point—the point is that it all starts with great presentation, and just about every great impression starts with an image. This is why great photography is essential. If you were required to submit a photo of yourself to be published in a business journal, would you send any other photo than the one you thought was your best? Of course not! That’s precisely why successful businesses hire professional photographers on a regular basis.
Would you like to know how Criddle & Co. makes our client’s products and services look their very best? Here’s how to make the very best impression not only the first time, but every time.
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Your Business Has To Be Attractive
Criddle & Co. will show off your products and/or services in the most attractive (and professional) way: Yes, we said attractive.
Attractive adult models, attractive kids, attractive cars, attractive animals, etc. all sell—ugly does not sell. Sorry, life is not fair.
Together, we will go over the most attractive aspects of your business, and really make them shine—literally—on your website, and your print marketing. Shiny things attract attention. Dull, and flat looking things do not.
At the end of the day, your budget will determine whether a Criddle & Company staff photographer will come on location and do custom work, or whether we will be required to purchase lower cost stock photos in order to get the job done. Any stock photos we would consider using were taken by professional photographers, and if you want to be the best you can be, only professional photos will do. Think of the magazine ads, and web sites you admire most…were any of the photos taken by amateurs?
Ok, so now you are convinced, right? After a Criddle & Co. photo shoot, or some careful stock photo selection, your web site now contains professional photos, and a code that is error-free and Search Engine friendly.
You, your customers, as well as your friends and family (important social networks in today’s market!) now applaud your efforts and love the new design—so they naturally want to tell everyone about it, driving traffic to your site via Facebook and Twitter. The decision is unanimous, your product and/or services look like a million bucks, so now it’s time to take the next step toward online success.
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If You Are Not On Page 1, You Are Not Really In Business (or might not be in the near future)
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The Good News & Bad News
Now that your business looks better than you ever thought you could—you must have an online presence—not just a pretty web site.
This means that when your potential clients type in what they are searching for in that “little box” on Yahoo, Google, and others—YOU come up on Page 1.
If your business’s web site is already on Page 1 of the Search Engines, whether your business is profitable or not (it soon will be if it being managed properly)—congratulations! Please Click Here The Following Does Not Apply To You
If not, please continue reading, and please prepare yourself for some potentially bad news.
There are few things we regret more than having to deliver bad news to any business owner, but like a doctor having to give stern advice to a patient to change his or her ways; it is sometimes necessary—so lets get it out of the way now:
If your business is not profitable—and you are not ranked on Page 1, and you are not in the process of taking swift action to improve your web site and rankings, your business plan needs to be reevaluated right this minute.
Your business needs to STOP, DROP, and ROLL! Remember, they used to teach that in elementary school? If you are on fire, it needs to be put out immediately before more damage is done. If you have the capital to invest in an online marketing campaign with the goal of achieving Page 1 results, you will want to do so immediately—but you know that…that is why you are on our web site.
If you are not on Page One, and you are not making the investment to do so because you think you cant afford it—you should strongly consider initiating budget cuts in every other part of your business in order to finance a viable online marketing campaign. If budget cuts in other areas are truly impossible (we are saying impossible, not painful), and/or no more capital can be raised to invest in online marketing toward Page 1 results, then you should really reconsider whether or not you can afford to be in business in the first place—because not everybody can.
If your business is profitable right now—congratulations! You are certainly doing a lot of things right, and at this point, only you can determine how long those profits will be sustainable while your competition outranks you and you are only found on Page 2 or worse, Page 3 or 4.
If you determine that your business can sustain profitability without Page 1, you might consider if growth is possible for your company without improving your rankings.
NOW FOR THE GOOD NEWS!
Achieving Page 1 rankings does not have to be expensive, and it is certainly not hopeless. Here is how we can do it together—
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Here is how
Criddle & Co. can get your business on a realistic path to Page 1 results in the Search Engine rankings:
- After diligent research, you come to the conclusion that in order to be the best you can be, you need to be attractive, and while looking great, your web site needs to be ranked on Page 1 of the Search Engines. You conclude that you need to hire a professional online marketing firm—not your friend’s teenage son, or your buddy’s “web guy” (we recommend Criddle & Co.)
- Criddle & Company designs a website for your small business (using photos taken by professional photographers) that has the capability of conforming to the requirements of the Search Engines. Some websites, no matter how cool looking, will never rank well in the Search Engines.
- Together, we reach an agreement (based on your skills, inclination, and budget) on who will update the website. If you a good writer, and you are extremely motivated, you can update the website every day (or every hour) using a Content Manager. This will save you literally thousands of dollars—and that is one reason that many of our competitors will not suggest this as a possibility, because they want to charge you every time a change is required.
- Social marketing (Twitter, You Tube, Facebook, etc.) are here to stay. This is a good thing for small businesses. If you have a great product or service, and a lot of fans, you can really outshine your competitors. If you don’t yet, we will show you how it is done, and better still, how you can do some of it on your own—without having to pay us or anyone else a penny.
- Provide you with a monthly evaluation and rankings report. We will track our progress, and we will clearly identify what is doing well, and what needs improvement. During this meeting, you will decide if what needs to be done to improve your rankings (sometimes it’s just adding a page of content a week that your competitor is not doing), is something you are capable of, or not. If you do not have the skills to do it, or simply do not have the time to do it—we will negotiate an affordable solution to improve the site’s rankings.
- NO CONTRACTS. If you are not satisfied with any of our services, you may discontinue at any time with 30 days notice. Marketing firms that require long-term contracts normally do not allow the customer to contribute to the improvement of their site without charging them for it, and require long term contracts in order to hold you hostage. As we stated in the beginning, if you want your business to be successful, there is no way to avoid hard work. Getting Page 1 rankings requires a site with a lot of content, great images, and a high quality video helps a lot. You will also need a strong following in the social media, as well as an informative blog. You might opt to do a lot of this yourself and pay us a minimal amount using a content manager, or you can pay us to do all of your work if you do not have anyone in your company with the time and/or skills to do it—but make no mistake, some seriously hard work and daily updating is unavoidable. The are no gimmicks. There is a cost to achieve high rankings, or everyone would have them. The system is fair, and rewards those with the sites that possess the most relevant, informative, interesting and yes…even the most popular sites—as judged by Yahoo, Google, and the rest of the smaller engines.
We hope that we have simplified the process for you somewhat. The worst thing you can do is nothing at all, just hoping that the online market will change in your favor. The market will continue to change, and the most important Search Engines will continue to change their algorithms, and search requirements—therefore, if your site does not change with them, you will lose whatever rankings you have now—if you have any at all.
The longer your website is out of the game, the more ground the competition will gain on you. If their site has 155 pages, and yours has 5, they are going to reach hundreds of thousands more potential clients, since they will outrank you on the Search Engines by many miles—you will be mathematically out of the game, and if they keep growing, it will take that much more time and money to catch up. If you are fortunate, your competition does not have high rankings, and you can set the standard by getting 155 pages ahead of them, for example.
It’s your future. If you so desire, we will help you level the playing field. We have done it for many other businesses, and we can do so for you. Give Criddle & Co. the chance to be your collaborators—you will be glad you did.
Contact us right now for a consultation at 214-695-4746 or info@CriddleCompany.com and let’s get started today.
