Other Stuff
11 reasons to work with us
- We have been in business almost 20 years.
Between the partners, we have more than 50 years of experience helping businesses grow and succeed. That includes our own business.
- We guarantee we will provide a level of quality, service and professionalism you have never before experienced when working with a design or development firm.
We take our business seriously.
- This is what we do.
We are not designing web sites at night after the kids go to sleep or we’re home from our “real” jobs. This is our business—our real jobs.
- There are no secrets in what we do.
If you want to know, just ask. We’ll tell you anything you want to know. How else can you make an informed decision?
- We’re honest.
If we don’t think we’ll work well together, we won’t take the job. Sometimes we’re not the best fit and, if possible, we’ll recommend a firm we think will work well with you.
- After almost 20 years, we’re still enthusiastic.
We love meeting new people and accepting new challenges. We’ll bring a fresh perspective to your marketing needs (online and otherwise)!
- Our solutions work.
The results we achieve for our clients are quantifiable … you can check the results every day, or every hour, if you like. And if a particular program isn’t doing as well as we’d like, we change it.
- Most of our business comes from referrals.
We build relationships with our clients. And most of them recommend other clients. And so on. Most of our clients have been with us for more than five years.
- Our websites come with no maintenance contracts.
Why should you pay a monthly fee to maintain your website? If you make no changes, you don’t pay. We charge by the hour when we make updates and you’ll end up spending far less than if you had a contract.
- It’s OK … we understand that sometimes businesses want to hire someone else.
Businesses change. People move. Companies develop different philosophies or hire new people who have their own contacts. If we need to part company, we will gladly give you all the work we are legally allowed to give. We will even speak with your new creative team and bring them up to speed. We’re professionals and understand the need for change.
- We have never missed a deadline.
Ever.
10 things businesses should know (or do) before hiring a design firm
- Know your budget and make it realistic
For a start-up, it’s not outrageous to spend 10 percent of what you expect your first year’s gross to be on marketing. For an established business, 10 percent of net is standard. You should expect to spend more than $5,000 if you want to work with a professional design firm.
Don’t expect to see a design “exactly” like what you want in your firm’s portfolio.
If the firm has already done a design that’s “exactly” like what you want, you will be getting a “used” design. You want to be unique.
- When designing a web site, know that your site, not you, is the ultimate client.
A good design firm understands you need to get clients or customers to your site. Your site needs to appeal to them more than it needs to appeals to you.
- Do some research on your own before you speak to a design firm.
It’s unrealistic to think that an established firm is going to do all the legwork for you. Don’t expect to see sample designs or a full outline of the job before you sign a contract. For example, if doing web work, be prepared to show half a dozen sites that you like and the same number that you don’t like. And have some reasons why.
- Know how you intend to make money.
Just because you have a great idea doesn’t mean it will translate into a successful business or popular online store. Know ahead of time how you will earn money. Know how you will ship products. Know your costs. You can’t evaluate the effectiveness of a firm’s design ideas (and the costs) if you don’t know your own ROI.
- How will you deliver your message?
Copy is more important than the design, but for different reasons. You need more than a catchy phrase. Do you plan to do pay-per-click advertising? You will be charged different prices based on the quality of your copy. Writing is usually an additional charge. If you intend to write, make sure you understand how to write for the web.
- Who will provide your photographs?
If you sell a product or a visual service (interior design, house painting, pool installation) professional photographs are essential, not optional. The snaps you took with your cell phone will not be good enough. Be prepared to spend up to $1,500 per day for location shots. For products, it’s not good enough to put the item on a table and shoot. If you can’t get art from the manufacturer, use a professional photographer and a studio.
- Have realistic expectations.
Everybody wants a deal. Everybody wants to make a ton of money. Know where to spend yours. If you want a deal, let your local newspaper make you a site for $249. Build your own blog site for free. Get hosting from your service provider (Optimum online, for example). If you think $1,000 is a lot of money, or eight weeks is a lot of development time, you do not want to work with a professional design firm.
- If you’re already doing something that doesn’t work, let it go.
Don’t throw good money after bad, as the cliché goes. If you paid for a site or online advertising program that isn’t working, stop using it. Find a reputable company with good references and start again. You can update your web site as often as you want, and it’s a lot easier (and more cost-effecive) than reprinting 5,000 brochures.
- If you work with a creative firm already, and want to use a different firm (for whatever reason) for another project, make sure your original firm knows what you are planning.
Don’t try to keep what you’re doing a secret. Let your agencies speak with one another. Having campaigns that are coordinated will enhance your image. This is business and you aren’t going to hurt a company’s feelings. Companies don’t have feelings. Companies have satisfied customers or companies have former customers.
YOU
are the only client
that matters to us!
Without you, there would be no us. But if it’s important to you to know other clients for whom we have worked, here’s a partial list:
A Man With A Van Movers and More, Inc. |
House of Nutrition |
About AdWords
New AdWords clients receive a $100 advertising credit when an account is opened with Averill & Associates for a minimum of six months.
One of our biggest successes using Google’s AdWords has been with a Westchester moving company. More than 90 percent of all visitors who go to the moving website through a Google search fill out a form giving the owner the opportunity to quote a job. That’s right; more than 90 percent of the clicks through AdWords convert to potential customers.
A lot of companies promise amazing results overnight. They promise to submit your site to thousands of search engines. They promise to give you 100 new leads a month, guaranteed.
We promise results within a year. We promise to submit your site to the only search engine that counts when it comes to business growth: Google. We wish we could guarantee 100 new leads a month, but we can’t. What we can guarantee is that more people will visit your site than do now.
How do we do this?
We work in steps.
Step 1 is to look at your site and sites offering services similar to yours. We look at the coding and construction of your site, its wording and its ease of use. Is there a call to action on the home page? Is your service identified immediately? We act as if we were trying to purchase your service: Would we leave your site as soon as we got to it because the information we wanted wasn’t right there?
Step 2 is to update or repair your site, if necessary. This may involve creating new service-specific pages. For example, if you rented office space and warehouse space, you’d need two separate pages. Someone looking for office space will be frustrated reading about warehouse space, and vice versa. Your site may be built in outdated technologies, which makes extremely cumbersome (and sometimes impossible) to track visitor statistics. Note: Often we do not add new pages (unless we see an immediate need) until well after step five. We need to see how people respond to your site before we start changing it.
Step 3 is to research the terms your potential customers might use when searching for your service. If someone needed quick copying of a large document, they might type in “large document copying” or “overnight turnaround copying” or “Xerox large document.” We compile lists of terms your potential customers might use and group them in categories.
Step 4 is to set up a Google AdWords account. Using this account, along with a user-tracking system we watch (several times a day) how people are using your site. What words do they use to find you? How long do they stay on your site? From which page do they exit? There are more than 100 statistics available for us to fine-tune your account.
Step 5 is when we activate the AdWords account. Once your account is active, someone typing in one of the phrases we have purchased, “overnight turnaround copying,” for instance, will cause your ad to show up on the right-hand side of the Google results page, under sponsored links. Once clicked, you are charged. If the searcher looks but does not click, you are not charged.
Using AdWords, along with other tools, we can monitor your site usage and draw potential customers along a path (funnel) that will convert them to actual customers. In short, we pass you the ball. It’s up to you to make the shot.
We have found that it takes 8-10 months for the process to get into full gear. Along the way there is some new business, but a regular stream takes a while.
You can decide your own budget for AdWords. We recommend a minimum of $500 per month. You can spend more, or less. We will let you know if you are not spending enough to have an impact. During the first 2-3 months of using AdWords, you will probably not spend your monthly budget. This portion of your budget is paid directly to Google.
Examining your site, making repairs, setting up the accounts, tracking and monitoring incur fees paid directly to us. As you reach the 8-10 month period, your monthly costs will be around $250. In the first 1-4 months, your costs will be higher, depending on how aggressive you wish to be. Some clients spend $1,000 per month, some spend $4,000 per month, others spend $750. The minimum charge is $750 per month.
We also offer “mini” programs, in which we see if your website is in generally good order. We then focus on just one part of your business and create a focused campaign. Overall costs, and often results, are less than a full-blown campaign.
Give us a call at 845-896-4250 for more information on how to get started!
Case Study: PHD Products, Inc.
Initial task:
Increase awareness of foods and supplements in the highly competitive natural pet food industry. Educate consumers and encourage repeat buyers.
Solutions:
We needed to make pet owners understand why the PHD family of products is the best for their dogs and cats. We created print and online advertising campaigns, developed a DVD for sales staff, redesigned packaging, wrote an informative magazine and created an e-commerce web site. We also send a targeted blast e-mail once a week.
Results:
A new community of informed pet owners is growing. The web site brings hundreds of new viewers each week and orders come in every day. Growth is continuing.
Case Study: SKCG Group, Inc.
Initial task:
Create a new web site to reflect a merger that added a new set of services to this insurance agency. Reposition the larger firm to show its size and allow for continued growth on the new site.
Solutions:
We created a web site that focuses on offerings from this agency. We allowed for continued growth with a secure client log-in area, a document manager and flexibility for adding more services.
Results:
The site is providing information to potential clients and is being used to save time and resources by giving existing clients a place to exchange information securely. We continue to refine and add to the site.
Before & After
We don’t always have to be first. Sometimes a web site has been successful for several years and needs a facelift. If you put up a site five years ago and haven't touched it since, it's time for some reconstructive surgery! Call us for a quote.
Case Studies
Re-branding
Create a new web site to reflect a merger that added a new set of services to this insurance agency. Reposition the larger firm to show its size and allow for continued growth on the new site.
Strategy
Increase awareness of foods and supplements in the highly competitive natural pet food industry. Educate consumers and encourage repeat buyers.
Playground
We love new stuff! Cool new ways to display photos! Awesome new menu bars! We love all new technology so much, we want to use it right away. 
But some of us here at Averill & Associates think that users don’t keep pace with developers. Sigh. (And some of us think GET WITH THE PROGRAM!!!) So we’ve created this playground, where we can show you all the new stuff. If you want it, just call! We’d love to build you a cutting-edge site!