If you’re an adept business person, your website should increase sales by presenting your business in the best possible light. No other advertising or marketing medium has the capability to give your audience more targeted information about you and your business ... as much as they want, when they want it.
BUT – and here’s the caveat – a website is not a magic portal that summons customers to you like an enchanted piper. Instead, your website is one piece (albeit an important one) of your marketing toolkit. Great website content and design go hand in hand with a strong marketing campaign.
If you want to attract new customers, consider an integrated communications and marketing strategy that encompasses not only a progressive website, but also makes use of emails, e-newsletters, on-line ads, printed media, and more. To increase website traffic, also consider a pay-per-click campaign (e.g., Google AdWords) that targets your audience with an online ad at the precise moment they’re searching for what you offer.
So how does your online marketing campaign measure up? Ask us for a free evaluation.
Dollar for dollar, a website is the most cost-effective way to promote and market your business. A basic informational website typically costs less than advertising in your local Yellow Pages. And you pay only once for a website, instead of an ongoing directory listing billed monthly.
We offer several packages each with a competitive price point, depending on what you need. All of our website services include:
Content management system installation and configuration
Modular platform for easy expansion
Administrative control panel for website management
Professionally designed theme
Website search feature
Content optimized for Web search engines
Google Analytics
Are you a small business on a budget? We have a recession-proof package that gives you a lot for your money. You get a powerful content management system website, a professionally designed template customized with your logo and images, and up to seven pages of content from your supplied text.
With a CMS-powered website (also called a “dynamic” site), your content is stored in a database instead of in static page files. A content management system allows you to take control of your website. With little training, you can make content updates yourself without the need to go to the “web guy.”
A CMS helps you manage every aspect of your website, from adding content and images to updating a product catalog or taking online orders. You don’t need a lot of knowledge of HTML code. If you know your way around a word processor, you can maintain the basics of your own website.
Here are just a few of the types of websites that can be created and maintained by a content management system:
We typically build websites with “Joomla,” an award-winning, open-source content management system (CMS) designed for powerful websites and online applications. But we also use WordPress and Drupal, if appropriate. Open source platforms are written in PHP, stores data in MySQL and include features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for multiple languages.
Many aspects, including ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla one of the most popular website software available. This platform is used around the world for corporate websites and portals, corporate intranets and extranets, online magazines, newspapers, and publications, E-commerce and online reservations, government applications, non-profit and organizational sites, community-based portals, and school and church websites.
Safari Multimedia, LLC uses only open-source platforms for websites, versus a closed development environment. Open source is rapidly gaining worldwide momentum, and is embraced by companies with an eye on the bottom line, including Google, Yahoo, Amazon.com, Apple and even Microsoft. Open-source software is more cost-effective, increases productivity, improves efficiency, facilitates interoperability and encourages innovation.
Benefits include:
Cost: Open-source platforms, such as Joomla, are easy to install, use, update, and come without the heavy burden of licensing issues, and proprietary upgrades.
Support: Open-source platforms like Joomla offer a vast knowledge base of support, including tutorials, downloads, and live customer support and assistance through forums, help lines and sites, and chat rooms.
Quality: Open-source solutions are popular not only because they are cost-effective but also because they are reliable, resilient and adaptable. The distributed nature of open source encourages good habits around maintenance, transparency, simplicity, modularity and portability.
Security: Security is a major advantage to open-source software with the system architecture much less vulnerable to attacks from Trojan horses, viruses, and malicious spyware than closed-source systems.
Interoperability and Standards: The purpose of open standards is to promote interoperability between different applications on different operating systems. It also provides a clean intersection between different software and hardware implementations. Open standards also allows a user to be platform, vendor and software independent.
A good designer will give your website a credible and prestige look that reflects the personality of your business. The appearance of your website should allow your existing and potential customers to understand the direction and purpose of your business at first glance.
Here are a few things to consider when hiring a website design firm:
Look at their portfolio. Do their website designs project the sort of image you would like for your product or company?
Is their fee structure within your budget?
Determine if the website design firm is reputable by contacting a few of their previous clients for a referral.
Do they offer testimonials of their work?
Make sure they understand your marketing objectives. You need to work well together to create a site that will draw clients to your business.
Finally, keep in mind that a five or six page website is a great place to start advertising your business on the web. But make sure the design firm gives you a solid platform that can expand and grow with your needs.
Safari Multimedia Founder and CEO Joe Massucci has been doing company communications and marketing for nearly 30 years. He maintains a carefully nurtured core team of professionals with a variety of top-notch skills to provide the best value for clients. His team delivers the right skills, at the right time, to the right job. You pay only for work delivered – not overhead.
Safari Multimedia uses the most up-to-date design and Web technologies to make your website stand out from the millions on the Internet today. Our websites are not only exceedingly functional, but fun and interactive for your visitors.
Did You Know?
Smart businesses are getting 10 times the website they could afford just three years ago at one-tenth the cost. Yet most are still hosting first-generation sites they put up at the turn of the millennium.
Testimonials
“Joe, I want to commend you on your great efforts in launching and managing BP's first crisis communication website. The site is brilliant, and has proven indispensable....”
-Tony Hayward, BP Chief Executive
“Not only is Joe a talented writer and editor, but he’s an effective manager who gets the job done while being extremely easy to work with. I recommend him highly.”
-Cindy Martin, Principal, CM Communications, Chicago
“Joe, thanks for the great work creating the U.S. edition of bp.com. Without a doubt a very professional, and importantly sensitive and caring performance.”
-Ross Pillari, former President and CEO, BP North America
“Your Planet BP website for employees is the best on the BP intranet. It just looks better – it’s more attractive and inviting than any of BP’s websites. And it meets all the BP visual standards.”
-Clarence Jeffries, BP Procurement & Transformation Systems
“Joe, my new website looks awesome. Thanks for the great work.”
-Bryan Wood, IPACS, LLC., Cambridge, Wis.
“Joe, my new website is fantastic! It's so much more dynamic than my old one, and it really sells! Thank you for your hard work.”
-Marianne Massucci, Founder/Owner, Cherry Court Studios Art Education, Pittsburgh
“I want to say what a useful and informative communications tool you’ve created in the ‘Round-Up’ e-newsletter. I really enjoy reading it each week!”
- Brian Miller, Senior Director, US Government Affairs
“Without Joe’s commitment, vision and hard work, this global website would never have happened. A very special thank you. Great job!”
Web Design
Case Study: Intranets
Multimedia
Editorial Support
e-Commerce
e-Learning
Print Production