Lessons from America
Have I been wrong? All this time? In the UK I strive to provide value for customers… the Internet has grown up around the concept that everything is Free or Cheap, easy to set up a child could do it, they do it. You can build a Google out of a Garage, opportunities abound… but why spend a fortune and more importantly what happens when you consider an ROI.
Here at NCompass – we’ve always striven to ensure a decent ROI, our services are not that expensive in the grand scheme of things and we’ve seen some shocking quotes in our time… thousands where we would spend hundreds. This is also true in every aspect of a Digital presence. I struggle to get customers on board for Social Media because I know I need to be charging £600 a month to cover the costs of the time needed. SEO quotes these days easily range between £600-1000, but we still charge at the most £300 a month.
So whose, doing who down here, it’s about resources for sure, I cannot charge £1000 without doing £1000 worth of work (though some might suggest I do). But we have the resources now, we have developers, maintenance, marketing people, copywriters, Adwords specialist and they are all very good.
So what’s the lesson from America… well here people don’t worry about the savings… in the UK we seem to have this constant emphasis of ‘if you employ me I’ll save you X’ – that simply does not seem to exist here. Instead the mentality is – if you want to do it properly (and there’s no other way to do it) then pay.
We can take this in numerous directions, take the big tech companies – a very large part of their philosophy is to employ the best and they pay the best as a result. America to me is massively investing in quality, things don’t just work here, they have been carefully invested and made to work well… sure there is a massive America culture of capitalism, but people themselves aren’t prepared to deal with second rate. That’s why there are so many big cars. The demand for quality is huge and people pay for it – without worrying to much about it.
Back in the UK – we need to do the same – as we face more dire economic news, we devalue ourselves to much, we have the skills and the resources to do far far more better and to a higher quality. And this will come to all English People – it has to, it’s part of capitalism itself, we will demand better quality, better services, better cars and products and we will pay for them.
So it’s not about appearing number 1 on Google, or having the products with the lowest websites, it’s fine just to have a website – so long as it answers the questions a person might have. let’s look at examples:
- Brands… you might sell a variety of products from different producers… but putting all those products on one website means weakening your message – have separate websites that deal with each Brand individually, this way customers wanting answers can get them in more detail
- Design… you might think you need a swish all singing all dancing website with flashy everything, but that’s not the case, you actually need to answer your clients queries… it’s about content, the photos are there purely to brighten the experience. Good design is essential, but content is more important.
- Quantity… in the past I’ve always recommend to put your resources into one website and to do it well, but actually if you increase your quantity of websites and say produce five or six, then you stand a better chance of answering different target audience questions… and you get an opportunity to do it better than if everything was on one single big website.
There’s no doubt there are two sides to this argument, but Local Search means people are looking locally for their answers far more, SEO gives priority to specialist websites especially in niche markets, if you type in Cricket Nets you’ll far more likely see niche market websites than general ones.
And my last take home from America for the moment – Mobile – have you ever wondered how it’s possible that Mobile Internet use is overtaking Desktop… it’s now absolute fact, Mobile has overtaken, that coupled with diving PC sales means people are just not replacing their desktop. The profound effect here is that people are looking up things ‘near me’ far more often.
Let the big sites take care of the cheap white goods, groceries, or insurance services etc… but if you want to find an local attraction, petrol station, plumber, builder, gardener, you will use your Mobile to do it.