Summing up 2019 and Onwards at NCompass
For me this image sums up 2019 for NCompass beautifully, look how busy we all are and how we love the sunshine and to party and to be beside the seaside. Chuck in a bit of politics, sailing and hard work and you have the perfect British scene.
And boy, at NCompass, have we been busy – on all fronts. I sort of want to tell you about all the successes of our clients, but I have to tell you about ours first. As a team we’ve grown, we a solid team of 8 with experience in every area of website building possible from conception to runaway success. 2018 was about consolidation, 2019 we’ve been pushing boundaries of what we can offer and achieve. 2020 is all about the new. That’s important.
Domains and Hosting
We don’t just profiteer from these services, we manage your needs individually and overall I’d say we’ve saved clients considerable sums by finding the right solutions.
I know we’ve saved at least 7 or 8 domain names from being accidentally lost forever, it’s too easy to sign up and forget about a domain name, only to find you forgotten the password and the credit card has expired. With NCompass Domain Name Management, we advise on which domains you actually need and then make sure you keep them.
Hosting is an area we have hugely expanded in – we can offer everything from Microsoft Azure (the big boy’s toys) to AWS, Dedicated Virtual and shared, we can also manage SquareSpace, Wix, Shopify and many others.
Some will try and shoe-horn you into their offerings, but with NCompass you’ll get what you need for your needs. A small corporate website with a specialised audience does not need a high capacity dedicated server, a simple £10 a month will do it – and do it better.
Contact us if you want to find out more.
Email Management
The world of email has changed with the rise of Office365 and G-Suite, these £4/5 a month per email address start to add to your costs… Google alone up their prices up by a third this year.
We still offer free Email accounts to all our clients… and 2019 has seen new servers and new IMAP accounts – these sync with your phone, laptop and any other device, seamlessly and easily.
Yes – you will probably have to call us if you use an iPhone – but at least with NCompass, you have someone you can talk to… with G-Suite and Office365 you have no one.
Email is tricky – I will grant that – but there are still cost-effective solutions for growing business out there. Talk to us.
Website Design and Creation
I admin I get embarrassed these days when people ask me what I do… I am a website designer… but now that our team is so strong with Olivia on Graphics, Jim/Diego leading Development, Robert/William on Content and Charles/Chris on Marketing – what’s left for me.
You can say Website design has entered a more formulaic era, a maturity that dictates where the Menu is or the Contact form lies… and the NCompass mantra is ‘Putting Business on the ‘Net’ – that is precisely what we do.
My role is more like ‘where’s the ROI‘, if you use x tool or y design will you get a better ROI. We still like cheap… but if you have read any of these posts on this blog you’ll understand Website Design and Creation has become more complicated.
Period – I’ve said it… more complicated – more people, more to think about, more to work out, we have to keep costs down and maximise revenues for clients up. It’s a big game.
But you’re in safe hands, with 21 years experience, I hope we know what we’re doing.
Management & Maintenance
A side effect of using Platforms doesn’t matter if it’s Shopify or Joomla, WordPress or Magento… we’ve seen a huge consolidation and monetisation in 2019… It’s like all these designers out there one year decided they needed to eat and go on holiday.
You cannot argue with them – life costs money and prices are going up, the good news is there are plenty of ways to remain efficient, done properly and you can navigate the world of software upgrades quite comfortably. And one easy solution of course is to let NCompass do it for you.
Be it technical, hardware or otherwise – we’re here to help and here to advise.
Adwords, SEO and Marketing
Perhaps our biggest challenge and yet so unbelievably important. We lose clients – we often do, however, the biggest reason we lose clients is that they out-grow us.
Essentially, the websites we build generate or form such an important part of the business that either service have to be taken in-house or outsourced to far bigger operations than NCompass.
And I believe that is to celebrated. Some of our customers stick by us and have done for years, others grow, expand, move and invest.
Overall as we grow – so we can cater for bigger clients. But that’s never been a goal at NCompass – we help all businesses, big or small to get online, be they an artist, charity or one-man band, as much as we help multi-nationals, public listed corporations.
We also have experience in all forms of Advertising on the Internet, not just Adwords, PPC or SEO, bit Email marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Banner Advertising, Referrals and Social Media.
Ultimately, the strength of NCompass is in our ability to help you grow and perform better.
Social Media
Always the anti-social one, Social Media only continues to rise in importance, variety and breadth of service. Whether a Video on YouTube or incorporating WhatsApp onto your website – it is not just about Facebook you know.
We have the skills to navigate this highly complicated area of marketing. We understand the challenge and remain unceasing in knowing what needs to be done.
Conclusions and Consultancy
2019 – what a year – it’s been up and down with the Economy, Politics, our Nation, Business, the Exchange Rate, the argument.
2020 – is likely to be the same – but likely Christmas comes round again and everyone buys their Christmas Trees and life is not so bad.
Let’s make it a good one.