11 replies to this topic

[cre8pc]

With a limited budget, what is your choice?

Marketing or conversions driven design?

Or a combo? (And for $500, would a combo be possible in your opinion?)

[DonnaFontenot]

It seems to me that the "proper" answer is combo of all 3, but the $500 is limiting, so since this is a "what would i do" question, I'd choose to spend the whole $500 on social media marketing. I feel like I would get the most bang for my buck with that option, but that's partly because I think I could pull off covering the other options on my own well enough. If I had a much larger budget, I'd definitely split it between the 3.

[cre8pc]

Yep. This is why I chose $500. I already know that companies with money to spend will choose marketing first because this is tradition. UX is still last, even for the largest companies who should know better.

Does this follow through to smaller biz? Will they opt for marketing first and ignore UX?

Or put another way...if you're smart enough to want to user centered site design, what are you willing to invest?

[Ron Carnell]

I'm in the "None of the Above" bucket.

I'd hire a programmer to help me implement the other three. Finding out what needs to be done is always important, but making time to actually do it is always my biggest bottleneck.

[AbleReach]

Content is missing from your equation. Without good content, what is there?

The web is content + delivery system + interactive capacity.

I would not put SEO, Usability, Social Media or even programming above content.

I'd like to see some of SEO packaged with usability, as a standard practice. There is overlap.

[MaryKrysia]

All of the options are important these days, but I am doing very well with SEO which is my specialty but can use guidance with Usability.

[EGOL]

(And for $500, would a combo be possible in your opinion?)

I think that $500 could buy a checklist.... that the buyer marks off the items that have already been accomplished and then the service provider gives back a "to do list" of what they think are the most important targets.

My answer to this question would depend upon which one of my websites I was thinking about. A niche retail might benefit the most from a usability but a large info site might benefit most from social. Depends what I have already done and where the next increment of impact might be most valuable.

[test-ok]

I'd put the 500 back in my pocket and do what ever was needed myself. lol
$500 bucks buys a lot a beer.

[nuttakorn]

You should spend few hours to identify the issue by using analytics tool to find what is current issue, traffic issue, or conversion issue then you can maximize that $500 to whether SEO to bring more traffic or UX to increase goal conversion rate.

[A.N.Onym]

It depends on a few things:
- whether the site is new
- how competitive the niche is
- how bad the site will be, if you do it yourself (or get it for free)

Now, you asked about *my* site. Since I don't promote it, currently, I'd put $500 in my pocket and consider them to be profit or at least, not a waste

However, if I had an ecommerce site, esp with traffic, I'd invest in usability.

If the website is new (ie, no traffic), however, and is the only means to make profit, I'd invest in SEO to get the initial sales, then re-invest in usability.

If a site, for one reason or another, has traffic and good conversions, but lacks horizontal coverage in terms of traffic sources, then social media is the way to go.

Mix and match, depending on how the site is feeling.

I'm afraid there's no rule to reign them all, Kim

If you are really quirky, you can also add good design, content, accessibility and other things to the list. It all depends. Also, I'm not sure the small biz is different. I'm sure they'll either look at the best ROI or what they are the most familiar/comfortable with. If your clients don't know their weaknesses, you might want to tell them about them

Edited by A.N.Onym, 09 June 2011 - 05:17 PM.

[Michael_Martinez]

I picked "None of the Above". With $500 I might be able to buy some decent articles to launch a site. Almost everything else could be done for free (except hosting, but that is cheap).

I suppose, however, that it DOES depend on what you're trying to accomplish.

[SEOigloo]

I chose 'none of the above', mainly because it's hard to gauge pricing these days. I like the suggestions of copywriting in others' comments, but I'm kind of on board with what EGOL is saying - I'd use the $500 to get an assessment of what steps I should be taking next.