Who Are We
Founded in 2015, 99 Media is a small web design & development agency based in Bournemouth, UK. Over the last few years we’ve made a reputation for building websites that look great and are easy-to-use.
If you like what we do, and think we could work together, thenget in touch .
Our Mission
WHY choose our
web design AGENCY?
STUNNING DESIGN – WITHOUT DESIGN AGENCY FEES!
We are honest web design company that believes passionately in itself and the services we provide. We strive to create websites that look and function to the highest standards every time, and we offer all of this at a fraction of a cost that many businesses would expect to pay.
What We Do
99 Media CAN BRING IT TO LIFE!
Why choose us?
1. It’s not good for branding.
Wix is known for cheap, but you own nothing for yourself. The domain, the template or even the content. People will feel that you are not actually in business if you are using a domain like xxx.wix.com.
2. Wix Websites Use Flash Technology
A lot of Wix websites are built on Flash technology (they’re trying to push HTML5 now so they do have that capability now), which is the enemy of web prosperity. Flash is so frowned upon that many phones don’t even display it, and some tablets don’t either. This means you’re already excluding a portion of people who might want to see your website. People who are perusing the web on their phones will have a hard time with your site.
3. People online might not find you
What you see isn’t what Google sees. Although Google does take user experience into account it’s mostly about content and mobile friendliness and things like that. One of the most basic elements Google cares about is how your page titles are structured and what they tell about the page, yet for a few Wix websites I’ve seen, there is no attention paid to this despite Wix supporting SEO settings for pages.
Google doesn’t really care if your button looks nice, or your image is stunning. The search result below is quite typical when you don’t know what to do. There’s no call to action in the result, and the description doesn’t say what the page is about. If this is one of ten similar results I’d probably click on a more enticing one.
Google is not a fan of Wix. Part of it is because of that Flash it uses. Your website will not rank well, which makes it harder for people to find. This will affect how much traffic you can potentially get because your site will not be search engine optimized. In 2014, that’s an expensive mistake.
4. Your Website Will Load Slow
Wix websites load slower than those built on HTML (like WordPress) and this will lose people who do want to read about you. Why? We have very little patience and having to wait 10 seconds to see a website is something we’re not used to. We will just click off. Slow loading sites will turn visitors off, and first impressions on the web can be everything. It can keep someone from visiting your site again.
AND with a slow loading website, you will be further penalized by search engines because they know that your site provides poor user experience and they won’t want to vouch for it. That goes back to Google not liking it. See? It’s a cycle of meh.
You deserve better than that.
5. When your business outgrew Wix, you got nowhere to go
When you develop your website using Wix you have no place to go – they host your website and you can’t go elsewhere. You cannot migrate your WIX data elsewhere easily. So you get lucky and your website is performing well and you want to add features to it that aren’t supported by Wix, or want a major overhaul. Essentially you’ve outgrown your website.
If this happens it is very difficult to move your content away from Wix. If you had a WordPress based website you can keep all your content and apply another theme, or a customized theme (which is effectively a layout). Your website looks completely different but you don’t have to re-enter your content. There is still work to be done when you switch themes as they all have their own way of working, different image sizes in different slots, but you can keep all your content.
If you think you may outgrow Wix, maybe a full web development is outside of your budget right now, but remember to factor in that potential cost in the future.
6. Wix Isn’t Free – It May Be More Expensive Than You Think
Wix is a very attractive initial platform as the base offering is free. It’s a very effective sales technique that gets customers in the door. MailChimp uses a similar technique but even Mailchimp doesn’t allow you access to automated email sequences in their base offering – this is an essential part of email marketing.
With the free plans, you have Wix branding on your site, and the little icon shown in the browser bar will be a Wix logo. You also can’t add in Google Analytics tracking until you get onto a premium plan.
Premium plans start at a mere £8.50 or so per month so it’s not expensive by any means, and they go up to £18 per month. When you start adding functionality Wix has an ‘app store’ so you can choose which apps to use. There are loads of apps to choose from and many starts with a ‘freemium’ offering with more functionality provided at a price so head back to that website brief and factor in what you want into your costs.
The largest cost of using Wix for many people is a hidden one. It’s the cost of websites built by users who may not know what makes a website really work, therefore it doesn’t get found, or it doesn’t function well. That lack of functionality is probably costing your business.
So if you would like any help with your website, or want a health check done on your online presence, get in touch today.
The essential elements of a modern, successful website:
A mobile-friendly, responsive design that’s compatible with all modern browsers.
Rich content that enhances good, basic SEO.
Secure with an SSL certificate (https) and software that protects you and your visitors.
Fast-loading in 3 seconds or less in all browsers.
Uses effective Calls-to-Action that are targeted and provide a return on your investment.
We make sure that your site has all of these elements upon launch, and that they stay in place and updated after your launch.
Your website starts with a plan. A framework that’s a good foundation for your success. And while everyone begins with that basic foundation, everyone finishes with something tailored specifically to their customer needs: a results oriented website design.
That’s right. Your website is not about you…it’s about your customers. Of course, you’ll have an “About Us” page, so there’s a little room to be “corporate”; but it’s more important to engage your visitors in what you can do for them rather than just what you can do. That’s the best way to convert your visitors to customers!
When it comes down to it, there’s one factor that matters more than any other when it comes to an online marketing campaign: your return on investment (ROI). If you can maximize your ROI, and sustain it over the long term, your marketing campaign, by definition, will be an unquestionable success.
So which online marketing strategies tend to have the highest ROI?
Initial Considerations
Before I can hope to answer this question in any objective or meaningful way, I have to clear up a few initial points and establish a foundation for my reasoning:
With those considerations out of the way, let’s take a look at some of the most popular marketing strategies around today and how they compare with each other.
Paid Advertising
Most business owners who have tried it will tell you that paid advertising offers a good ROI. However, there are a few considering factors that complicate paid advertising, making it difficult to pin down an objective conclusion about the strategy. For example, the price per click on a Google search ad can vary wildly depending on what industry you’re in, sometimes up to $50 or more per click. Plus, you’re not “building equity” with a paid advertising campaign, no matter what platform you’re on; it’s more like paying rent. Once you cut funding to paid ads, they instantly turn off, and the only lasting value you get from it is the sales you made while the ads were active.
Content Marketing and SEO
Unlike with paid advertising, it’s technically feasible to get started in content marketing and SEO with no monetary investment. However, if you want to scale your strategy to a meaningful level, it’s going to take significant time and/or money. When you first start out, your results will leave you wanting more, but the true power of content marketing and SEO is their ability to scale exponentially over time; rather than giving you linear results, as with paid advertising, every new piece of content you produce will hold a lasting, semi-permanent value for your brand in terms of web real estate, referral traffic, and domain authority.
Social Media Marketing
Social media marketing is another area where it’s technically feasible to pursue with only an estimate of time. Depending on the scale of your efforts, social media marketing could cost thousands of dollars per month. As for the value–that’s trickier to measure than the results you’ll get from SEO or direct advertising. You can measure engagements, traffic, and conversions, but it’s hard to accurately quantify the reputation value your brand has generated. Plus, there’s wide variation between industries when it comes to social effectiveness, and the price of paid social media ads.
Email Marketing
Email marketing has been described as the highest-ROI online marketing strategy, when implemented properly, with 67 percent of businesses listing it as their highest earner. Part of this is the low cost of creating a list and sending out emails; it won’t cost you much in the way of time or money. There’s also something of a growth factor, as the value of your email campaigns will increase with the size of your list. However, email marketing is dependent on a number of other interrelated strategies to be effective–and actually getting that email list built up in the first place, which can be very expensive.
The Final Contender
Out of the significant online marketing channels I listed, it’s tough to pick a clear winner, especially after acknowledging the considerations I outlined above. In the short-term, paid advertising can give you a strong return, and email marketing seems to work best for the majority of businesses once they have a strong email list built up. However, if I had to pick one “best” strategy when it comes to ROI, I’d choose content marketing and SEO–thanks to its multifaceted range of effects, permanent value, and potential for compounding returns, there’s just no better way to spend your marketing budget (though ideally, you’ll be pursuing all these strategies in one form of another).
8 qualities of a web Design Agency that will work effectively for you
1: EXPERIENCE IN YOUR INDUSTRY
This is a good beginning point because it quickly eliminates web designers that you don’t want to use. When a web designer has experience in your industry, it means they’re familiar with what you consider to be important. While their experience may vary, even a single project with a business similar to yours can make a web designer a potential candidate.
You could also go with web designers who don’t know your industry, but the whole design process could take longer with the planning, back-and-forth, editing, and more. In general, using a designer who’s worked with businesses like yours is just easier.
#2: APPROPRIATE PRICING
This goes right to the heart of the matter — what does a designer charge for their services? The price to hire a web designer varies wildly depending on a huge range of factors, including their location.
The key to finding agreeable pricing is to set your budget before you start looking for designers. Then you just have to stick to your budget. Every designer needs to prove they’re worth what you pay, but that goes double for designers that ask for more than you’ve budgeted.
#3: KNOWLEDGE, METHODS, AND STRATEGIES
Regardless of how you found a web designer, it’s important to ask about their knowledge, methodology, and overall strategy when they’re creating a website. If they have a hard time explaining any of those qualities, you could have a hard time working with them.
On the other hand, if they can quickly and succinctly answer your questions on these issues, then they most likely know what they’re doing. The people who can tell you what they know, how they operate, and how they set goals are also the people who can methodically work to improve your website.
#4: PORTFOLIO
While it’s sometimes fine to hire a start-up web designer, it’s also a gamble. New web designers may have talent, but they don’t have a track record or experience. With that in mind, it’s generally smarter to hire a web designer that can show you a detailed portfolio of their experiences with past clients.
Portfolios don’t have to be flashy — they can just be a collection of different links that show you what the designer can do. This also gives you the chance to ask the designer why they chose to lay out a website they way they did, or what they wanted to achieve with a certain design. Overall, a portfolio can tell you a lot about a designer, and an impressive collection of past work is a good sign that a designer is a good fit for your needs.
#5: THE EXTENT OF THEIR SERVICES
If you’re looking at web design firms, it’s possible that they do more than just create websites. They may also make content, work in SEO, run social media marketing campaigns, and more, all of which are perfect complements to your web design needs. If that’s the case, they may also have packages you can choose to get a more holistic approach to creating a strong web presence for your company.
If you’re using a solo web designer, you probably don’t have many options aside from the overall look and layout of your website. SEO, development, social media marketing, and other disciplines don’t often come with one designer since they’re all so different and elaborate. When you choose a solo freelancer, you almost always get what’s on the box — web design.
#6: A REASONABLE CONTRACT
To start work with a web designer, you’ll have to sign a contract. But that’s the kind of thing that you want to read before you sign it. Get a copy as soon as you can when you’re interviewing web designers, and read it carefully.
Contracts should stipulate payment, deliverables, contingencies in case of unforeseen problems, refunds, and more. It’s a good idea to have your lawyer read through the contract to ensure you’re protected, especially in the event that your site isn’t made to your specifications.
#7: WEBSITE MAINTENANCE
Some web designers offer continued services for website maintenance to keep your site functioning properly as you use it. Similarly, you may be able to maintain your website yourself, if you have the time and know-how.
Either way, it’s important to know what to expect after your website is created. Most of the time, freelance or agency web designers only make your website, and then it’s up to you to do anything else. In rare cases, you may find agencies that offer an affordable maintenance plan.
#8: YOUR CONFIDENCE
At the end of the day, nobody knows your business better than you do. That means your confidence is the ultimate decision-maker for any web designer. If a candidate sounds like a good fit, think it over and consider how much you trust them. If you have any misgivings, don’t go forward — it’s better to spend your money on a designer that you can trust instead of taking a risk with your company’s finances.
