When businesses are looking to create or enhance a web presence, they go through the often painful process of choosing which web design and marketing team to handle their project.

When potential clients come to Blue Fountain Media, they always bring a host of questions about our experience, expertise and results.

One question that keeps coming up is: How much experience do you have in my industry?

This is a fair question, but one that often leads potential clients to make the wrong choice. The fact is, no matter what industry you happen to be in, there are web design companies that specialize in serving your industry. Some do nothing but healthcare and pharmaceutical companies; others choose to specialize in law firms, universities or restaurants.

The Advantages of Going to a Specialist…

There is no question that by going to a company whose entire business is based on your industry, you save the time and effort of having to educate your agency about your industry, your targeted client base and your competitive landscape.

This knowledge can certainly save you some time during the “discovery” phase of the client/agency relationship.

Secondly, there are also certain industries, such as healthcare and finance, where it is important to understand the regulatory aspects of the business. In these businesses, you often have to be very careful of specific claims made on the site and understand what can and what can’t be offered through the company’s website.

Thirdly, there is the psychological “benefit” of knowing that you are using the same company that created your competitors’ websites (evening the playing field).

…May be Outweighed by the Disadvantages

As attractive as some of those “advantages” might seem, they are outweighed by the disadvantages. Think about it. Web design and marketing teams that work extensively for a single industry have a tendency to create cookie-cutter websites, using the same templates and ideas over and over again.

If you are designing your 50th restaurant website or your 50th law firm website, how original are you going to be? How unique can your marketing ideas possibly be?
When doing virtually the same thing, over and over again, it is almost impossible to be original.

Let me give you the example of a friend who was a sportswriter. As a “beat” reporter covering the New York Giants, he spent over 80 percent of his time writing about football. While he had great expertise in writing about the National Football League, he explained to me that his best writing often came when he was called upon to cover other sports.

He explained that when he was taken out of his comfort zone, it forced him to ask better questions, be more creative and it allowed him to be more original both in content and stylistically.

When you have a fresh eye, he explained, you often bring fresh ideas.

The Blue Fountain Media Experience

At Blue Fountain Media, we have been fortunate enough to have had clients in virtually all major industries. When we approach our projects, we look at each client as an entity unto itself, presenting unique challenges and opportunities.

Even when we lack any experience in a specific client’s industry (which is a rare occurrence these days), we take the time and make the effort to learn everything we can about our client, the client’s corporate culture, their industry and their competitive landscape.

Our account managers are expert at asking the right questions, listening to the client’s answers carefully, and then creating a website and marketing plan best suited to the individual client.

While it is important to learn the client’s business, what is much more important when hiring a web design or marketing firm is to hire a company that understand how to best use the web to drive traffic to your site and to convert that traffic into customers, clients and revenue.

When hiring a website design and marketing team the most important qualities you should look for are:

• Does this company have a track record of producing positive results for its clients?
• Does the company have long-standing relationships with most of its clients?
• Does the company understand how to create websites with great messaging, clear “calls to action,” “stickiness” and social media integration?
• Does the company have expertise in both web design and online marketing? Building a website and then going to a marketing company is like building a house and then finding a plumber to install the plumbing.
• Does the company understand the difference between eye-popping websites and sites that actually deliver revenues?

If you can answer yes to all five of these questions, then you are in great hands.

In Conclusion

If you are looking to create a web presence, market your web presence or just jump start your online presence, please give us a call at 212-260-1978. We would be happy to discuss your business goals and online needs.

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