It’s time to take a look back at 2022 a little bit, the year is drawing to a close and despite the Pandemic taking up all our attention during 2020 and 2021, 2022 has been another year where real events have overtaken digital events to a large extent for website designers.
What’s happened then
Firstly, having had an optimistic start to the year, Russia invaded Ukraine, this was big news, it hit energy prices pretty quickly. That could have had ramifications for the digital world after all the dependence on Energy is paramount… Except is it? Many tech companies from Google and Facebook to Datacentres across the world have aimed for ‘green’ energy sources, thus their bills have not had to shoot through the roof. More to the point some data centres not using ‘green’ energy have run into problems and their prices have gone up – so it’s wise to pick your supplier carefully.
Then the UK had an interesting Political summer, from the ousting of Boris Johnson to Liz Truss and now the heavy tax burden placed on both consumers and businesses. Not to mention the effects of inflation. What all this has done is severely dent business and consumer confidence in both Britain and our post-Brexit status. It’s not conducive to a growth and expansion climate in the UK and we are heading to a full recession.
Is there a difference this time compared to say the 2008 Financial Crisis or the slow days of Austerity? When in fact was it ever good? We would take the view that this time we sort of know where we’re going even though it’s a fairly dark place. What’s happened during 2022 is bleak and if we’re not careful what will happen next is also pretty bleak.
On the flip side, we’re also very much of the opinion that these events often do not affect us as much as we’d suppose, we still have to eat, sleep, learn and earn, so really our political leaders can do what they like and we by and large just have to lump it, it’s said that politics only affects 2% of our lives and I tend to agree with that as we still head down to the pub for a pint.
What’s next
To say we’ve been here before is not a lie. We’ve also survived before and in fact, NCompass is in a fairly strange situation, we actually stand to do quite well… as the ‘glory hunters’ of website designers, the experts if you like, the really good guys suffer, and many over-priced agencies will drop out of the business. Clients will look for better value, it’s as simple as that. I will not hide it. NCompass is and always has been excellent value and you’ll find plenty of references to that in these Blog Pages. We do not ‘rip off’ clients and we have a strong belief that we are paid for the work we actually do… Not for the inflated fees that some try to get away with.
A real example of this might be our attitude to Domain Names, many website designers still to this day register Domain Names in their name, not their client’s name. A Domain Name can be viewed as crucial to the value of a business these days. NCompass we absolutely ensure Domain Names are in the control of the client.
The same is true of all aspects of our services, be it Hosting, Code, Social Media Access, or Adwords – we will always encourage our clients to be in control.
So next – we’ve suggested it before, it will get more complicated… there’s no getting away from it, everything about the Internet from your Spotify account to your electric car is becoming increasingly complex. It is called progress. Our job is going to evolve increasingly helping businesses navigate through all these systems, already we are seeing big reductions in real code requirements, instead focussing often on platforms like WordPress and Shopify, which strictly speaking doesn’t involve any coding at all.
But it’s these very platforms that at first pronounced themselves as user-friendly and self-intuitive that are increasing the complexity almost daily as they add new settings, features and configurations. Sadly, what you could do for yourself as an early adopter of these technologies is increasingly hard now and that’s where again the services of a 3rd party like NCompass can come in handy. Or alternatively, you need someone in-house that has the time and knowledge to invest.
Marketing – What’s That
I have not even touched on Marketing and increasing we are calling ourselves a Marketing Agency. Here’s how this evolved.
We’re Website Designers, always were, always will be. But what’s website design, gone are the days of Photoshop mockups, wireframes and planning out pages. Web designers became web developers. Web developers now built databases, and automated stuff and allow eCommerce websites to be built. Gone are the days of Dreamweaver inserting ‘recordsets’ of data and configuring checkout pages.
We started covering all the bases, from registering a domain name, hosting the website, then make it, and finally supporting it, making the changes and keeping it all updated. When we first made websites the life expectancy of a website might have been 18 months before a new one was needed, then 4 years, before mobile and Web 2.0 came along at which point, around 2015 onwards – websites started lasting a lot longer. We still regularly maintain websites that were designed over 10 years ago. They age with the trends, but they are still working for the clients.
But – why stop at just editing a website, eyes on the screen are what counted, there was no point in building a website that no one saw, the rise of Adwords came along, then SEO, then Email marketing and all the rest. NCompass dips toes in all of this, from big toes in Adwords and SEO to smaller toes in Email Marketing and our smallest toe in Video for example. The point is – we could get involved in everything, all aspects of a business’s marketing.
We had Made It – we were officially a digital marketing company. Anything to do with the Internet we could get involved with. we even cover the final slot, actually delivering the product, with a warehouse and packing team we could even process and fulfil the orders for our clients.
Then companies stopped advertising in traditional ways, the local rag mag, and a billboard around the local village football field. Our daily sighting of non-digital advertising has reduced to a few shop signs. Think of a French or Italian town, on your way in, driving along, you still see countless signs advertising local wares and businesses. Not so in the UK, in fact, that garage up by the rubbish tip on the Industrial estate, if you don’t know it – you’ll never find it. Unless you look online that is.
Small business has simply stopped advertising anywhere else. It’s all online. Thus we come full circle, we are no longer just a digital marketing agency, we have in fact become a Marketing Agency.
2023 – More
So – that is our future all lined up. NCompass will host, build and maintain your website through 2023, but we will increasingly look to supporting clients through the marketing minefield that is advertising, promoting and pushing clients towards their audiences.
There’s nothing wrong with any of this, other than it all getting a bit more complicated to achieve, but you can rest assured – we’ve got the tools and we’re ready, we still have the ability to get into the coding, but equally we also have the ability to really push for the future. All at great value and always most and foremost with genuine returns on investment and profitability at the heart of every commitment.
Perhaps after 23 years, it is time to change the NCompass strap line from ‘Putting Business on the ‘Net’ to ‘Navigating Business Through the ‘Net’ – certainly food for thought.
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