Friday, November 18, 2011

What matters more...Time, Quality or Price?



It is one of the laws of the universe that when it comes to producing goods and delivering services somewhere somehow something has to give. Wouldn't you agree that when price and quality matter most it typically takes more time to get what you want? This is where some individuals get confused by the own impossible expectations. Although everyone wants the highest quality for the lowest price in the fastest turnaround time the reality is that one of the three value components that add up to create the final product must inevitably be sacrificed so that the other two higher valued expectations can be met.

Whether building a website yourself or paying a professional to develop your site you need to think seriously about the following. What are the two most important elements to consider when planning and developing a marketing media strategy?

Within every service industry the Cost-Time-Quality matrix can be applied to the people that are providing exceptional service to their clients. When time and price demand the lowest cost delivered in the shortest possible time you can bet that the quality of the final product will suffer.

The fast food industry is a perfect example of this. You are hungry and you want some cheap food you will get what you pay for, just don't expect a fine dining experience when you hit the drive thru window. By the same token a seven course meal in a fancy restaurant may be served up within a reasonable waiting time after ordering, but there is a premium that is paid for the quality of food that is prepared to order.

Simply put if you expect quality at an affordable price then you should expect the project to take some time to complete. If you prefer a fast turn around and want a fair price the quality of work might suffer from where it could be so that a demanding deadline can be met. And finally if you put speed and quality ahead of pricing you can expect to pay a premium for the services you request.

Whether developing a website, building your online reputation, or maximizing your SEO strategy you must to consider what you are willing to sacrifice to get the results that you really want. For most of us the quality of backlinks that are being added to a website are more important than the time it takes to add a massive amount of poor quality links over a short time. Because SEO offers the best ROI of any marketing effort available it is already a high priority for every business and website owner.

So the question is what is more important--building a lot of backlinks in the shortest time possible and hoping they will affect the SERPs (Search Engine Results Page) or adding quality links over the accepted 9 to 18 months that will lead you to the top of the search engine directories for many years to come?

Although social media content requires a certain amount of speed in developing and a video, the quality may be compromised to meet a low budget. This is where the quality of the final edit might lack the visual effects or sound clarity of a professional production, but the cost will be worth the sacrifice. On the other hand a high quality piece of film is worth the added cost if its produced for an audience that appreciates the high end finish of HD picture quality or the audible quality of professional sound mixing.

When considering your optimization efforts and social media campaigns think about the intended audience and what they are expecting as you choose between the quality of your work and the costs involved in developing quality links and posts that will be added to the Internet forever. If you remember that what you end up with comes down to your choice of picking from the three values of Time, Price and Quality your expectations will be met and you can have exactly what you want when dealing with service providers in online marketing or any other industry.

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