As a busy las vegas company or business owner, there are only so many things you could do in a day, especially things where some element of skills is required. Designing your own website is one such activity, one which should really be designed by a professional Las Vegas website design company (we like to keep business local). If you are not a professional designer and developer, you should leave it in a professional’s hands, and a professional web design firm (like my company Perkolate.com) will work closely with you to ensure it meets your marketing goals and is properly and professionally designed.

Here are the key reasons you should hire a local Las Vegas website design company:

It’s Technical - Leave it to the Experts

Designing websites is definitely not something that just anyone can do. Sure, there are do-it-yourself websites out on the internet, but they have a lot of limitations. You neeed a professional company that can help you shape the design and flow of your website. You need a company that is experienced in specific coding languages like PHP, ASP, HTML and professional softwares like Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Flash. If you are not familiar with these languages and softwares, you may well have to learn them, because without them, you cannot even think of starting to design a website.

Time is of Essence - Don’t Waste Yours

If you’re the average business owner or run a company, do you really have the time to be trying to build and launch your own web site? Rushing through things at this stage, even if it is assumed that you have the appropriate skills for web designing could mean you making a complete mess of your website. That is why I recommend that you hire a professional web design company right here in Las Vegas who will get everything done quickly and effectively.

More Cost-Effective In the Long Run - Don’t Do It Yourself

If you hired someone in house, you would have to cover all of the costs associated with hiring an employee. That employee most likely will not have all of the marketing, strategy, programming and development skills you might need for your corporate web site. Or if you are trying to build the website yourself, I ask you, wouldn’t your time be more wisely spent doing what you do best in running and growing your business and leaving a professional web design company to do what they do best and in your best interested? In most cases, working with a professional web company works out to be the most cost-effective option.

For more information on professional website design and development solutions, visit my company’s website at www.perkolate.com. (We are located in Summerlin)

Cheers!

Many Las Vegas companies may decide to follow a shortcut method of planning their marketing communications strategy. Whether you’re an individual business or a company, skipping this step of business development will hinder your sales growth long term. It is important to recognize the focus on advancement by those that take the time to develop an effective marketing communications strategy. You will definitely spend several hours putting this together, but you will know that it’s useful because a marketing strategy provides you with a plan of how to handle projected successes and when it’s completed, you will have gained valuable intelligence about your target customers, brand strengths and weaknesses, competitive landscape, and finally the marketing objectives that will lead you to the top.

Start with what you know.

Take a few moments and capture your thoughts on the ideal target customer for your business. Write it down. Your final notes will give you the detail you need to formalize your Marcom strategy. Consider who you are and what you represent. What image would you like to project in the marketplace? What’s most appealing to your customer? This should be your perspective when putting a marketing communications plan together. Question everything from the customer’s point of view. Note common themes that come to mind – industries, trade associations, demographics, or anything else you notice.

Next, decide where you want to go.

Brainstorm ideas of how you can promote yourself to gain awareness of your brand as you advance through this process. Evaluate your brand’s strengths and weaknesses. Follow the basic marketing S.W.O.T. (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) formula by developing several bullet-point statements to define each section of the analysis. Create a list of competitors in your industry, region, or specialty. You may even wish to complete S.W.O.T.s for your top, three competitors as well. It’s good practice to spend the time getting to know your competitors and this will make you much, much smarter in the end. Everything you do should be viewed through your customer’s eyes. If you have more than one, majority-type of customer, include each perspective throughout your strategy.

Now map it out.

Now that you’re fully armed with detailed knowledge of your customer base, company goals, and strengths you are in a perfect position to map out the marketing venues that will lead you to success. Begin this process with what I call a ‘zero budget.’ Author your dream list. There are no monetary blocks here and this encourages you to consider all possibilities. Explore advertising paths, customer events, trade shows, associations and chambers of commerce. Refine this list with a dose of reality then put it into action. Remember to design your ad promos from the customer’s perspective. 

Try to have fun with this process and take some time to review these web sites for great tips and tricks:

More on marketing intelligence and considerations:
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newSTR_94.htm

Great tips for individuals looking to market:
http://self-employed-marketing.suite101.com/article.cfm/create_a_marketing_strategy

Marketing strategy formats with templates:
http://www.businessballs.com/freebusinessplansandmarketingtemplates.htm

For professional Las Vegas Marketing Communications consulting, contact Perkolate at 702.341.0085 or visit our website at www.perkolate.com.

I have been writing this free marketing blog in order to assist Las Vegas small businesses and Las Vegas companies with free articles, resources, tips and tricks for marketing their company or businesses. Just wanted to take a minute to shout out my own company, Perkolate Marketing and Design of Las Vegas, that can provide you with professional marketing, online marketing and design services in Las Vegas - just in case you can’t quite do everything yourself.

I started my company over 10 years ago in the heart of Silicon Valley (the internet epicenter back in the 1990’s) and have gained intensive in-depth knowledge about marketing, internet marketing and website design and development based on this experience to my Las Vegas Marketing and Design firm company, Perkolate.

If you have not already heard of Perkolate Marketing, please take a moment to review our website to find out more information on:

Las Vegas Marketing Services

Las Vegas Web Design and Website Master Services

Las Vegas Graphic Design Services

Las Vegas Powerpoint Presentations Design Services

Las Vegas Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Internet Marketing Services

Las Vegas Trade Show and Event Management

Las Vegas Pay-per-Click Advertising

Las Vegas Blog Design and Blog Marketing

Las Vegas Copywriting and Editing

Why should you hire a professional Las Vegas web design company?

There are some things in this the business world that you cannot live without. One of them is the fact that, if you wish to even survive on the Internet, you need to have a website for your Las Vegas business. Building a website could be a simple, especially considering the fact that so many resources are available on the Internet which will allow you to build a website for free or at a very low cost.

But is that what you really need? At the end of the day, your website is as important, if not more, than your business card, so wouldn’t you want a professionally custom designed website that completely fits your business and branding?

For this exact reason, you should be looking to hire a professional Las Vegas web design and development firm. Remember, building or designing a website from the scratch is no simple task, and is something that could add a few grey hairs!

Here are some reasons why you should hire a professional Las Vegas web design firm

• Technical knowledge – Writing website development on a piece of paper is one thing, and actually planning and executing one is another. 

• Content Integration along with the design of the site – The next time you see a website, observe howthe content is integrated and written. With each page, the content and links are strategically written and linked to one another. This is known as content integration, and requires an experienced web development company to do it professionally.

• Time is of essence – You may yet have a very good idea, and have an excellent network to launch a website for your company’s products or services, but do you really have the skills to develop a website, a professional marketing driven website? Even if you do, think of how much time you would be spending to design a website? By conservative estimates, all the development, coding and debugging would take you at least a week’s time. Would you rather develop your own website or free your time to do what YOU know how to do best?

• Cost-effective – Outsourcing this job of web development to a professional web development firm is always cost effective. This fact can be proven on two counts. Count 1 – Multiply the time to be spent by your company’s resources in building a website by the hourly cost. Count 2 – Add this time to the debugging and troubleshooting time for the website.

Think about these fact when considering hiring a local Las Vegas website design company? Remember, a local Las Vegas web design company knows the Las Vegas internet landscape and has the expertise to approach the design and development from a strategic perspective that is designed to help you gain website traffic and clients.

For more information, visit my company’s website (perkolate.com) for:

• Las Vegas Web & Graphic Design Services
• Las Vegas Website Development
• Las Vegas Marketing Services & Strategy
• Las Vegas SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

eCommerce websites can be highly successful business model and offer a wide range of benefits for a primarily online Las Vegas business. In preparing for your online eCommerce business, you need to take the time to think out a basic strategy.

Can you do it yourself?

Point number one, can you build your eCommerce website yourself? Remember, even if you’re building it yourself via a pre-packaged online storefront, like Yahoo! Merchant Solutions, you need to have a basic technical aptitute. Basic programming skills are required, but importantly, you would need to look at the design and the database integration aspect.

Do you need a professional web designer to help?

If you’re not confident that you can in fact build it yourself, you need a professional web design company like Perkolate.

If you already have your own web designer ask if they do database development integration as well basic web design. Remember, even the elementary eCommerce site requires a database to work well. The site should be coded and programmed in such a way that referencing to and from the database happens without any time lag at all.

Remember to Test Your Website.

After your eCommerce website is built and the database built per your specifications, you should give your website a test run. You obviously want to test the website to see if all the functionalities is working and would also need a tester or debugger who would troubleshoot errors in your website. In the end you want to ensure that your eCommerce website is error and bug free.

Building your company’s first website can seem overwhelming at first.  It takes a bit of strategy and planning and really should be something you find blocks of time to work on during your work week or on the weekend. Be pro-active, not reactive.

Just keep in mind these simple rules and ask yourself the following questions to keep you on track:

• Do your have an online marketing plan?
• Do you have a logo, colors chosen and a corporate identity?
• Have you purchased a domain (URL), and a hosting plan? (It’s best to consult with a professional first)
• Do you have a basic outline of what will be on your website?
• Do you have copy written for your website pages or do you need the assistance of an professional copy writer?
• Do you have product photos, corporate headshots?
• Do you have collateral (brochures, flyers, etc.) available as downloads on your website?
• Research competitors near and far for ideas and figure out how you can make your unique selling proposition stand out.
• Create a clear and appealing call-to-action for your website (i.e. Call for free evaluation, 10% off first time order, etc.).
• Will your website require any special functionalty (i.e. ecommerce, shopping cart, flash animation, photo galleries, forms, etc.)?
• Do you have a professional company in mind to build your website (professionals companies know what they are doing, won’t close shop overnight and can help guide)

Focus on one piece at a time, and create a timeline for yourself for completion.

Here are some resources to help you out:

10 Tips to Planning Your Website

8 Simple Steps to Planning Your Website

Ecommerce & Shopping Cart Tips

Perkolate - Las Vegas Professional Website Design & Development