PR: Behavior Modification Specialist

by Robert A. Kelly

While awaiting economic recovery, business needs to attract attention of its most important external audiences in a more targeted and focused way. Primarily to impact perceptions of those key outsiders so that resulting behaviors help those managers achieve their objectives.

This should be enough reason for recession-weary managers to take a closer look at public relations, America’s resident specialists in behavior modification.

The reason public relations finds itself in behavior business -- and of real use to those recession-jaded managers -- is because it’s firmly rooted in principle that people act on their own perception of facts. It strives to create, change or reinforce perception/public opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired- action those people whose behaviors affect organization.

It’s good news for business managers because, when behavioral changes become apparent, and meet program’s original behavior modification goal, a public relations effort has succeeded.

Truth is, at any time, when managers start looking for a return on their public relations investment, it’s clear as crystal that their goal MUST be kind of change in behaviors of key stakeholders that leads right to achieving their objectives.

Just think about some of perceptions out there, in good times or bad, that could actually hurt your organization. Perceptions that, if ignored long enough, could well result in behaviors that run counter to those you want.

At root of it all, is that simple truism we all know but tend to forget: people really DO act on their perception of facts and behave accordingly. But, if a manager is to have an effect on those perceptions and behaviors, he/she must deal with them promptly and effectively whether economy is down or up.

Imagine how many different audiences your organization may have to depend upon at one time or another? Would your list include insurance carriers, journalists, minorities, customers, prospects, employees, legislators, community residents and others whose perceptions of your organization, if left unattended, could hurt?

Plus, you need to have a clear idea of ALL costs that are part of getting a web site, not just cost for a web designer. You'll find guidelines and price ranges in this article for all services that you, as a new web owner, will need.

These guidelines for costs are based on assumption that you're a small business owner or a sole proprietor on a budget.

Here's a run-down of cost for basics you'll need:

1. How much will it cost to register your domain name?

You'll need to register a domain name at any of many domain services on web. Prices range from $12.95/yr - $35/yr for same service. See http://www.secure domains.com and http://www.000domains.com for $12.95/yr. Another low-cost registrar is godaddy.com.

2. How much will it cost to design your site?

Prices range all over place: for a 4-page site, I've been quoted from $400 to $5000 for same features!

Web designers either charge by 1) hour or 2) page. Some charge by project. Make sure you understand designer's pricing structure.

Reasonable per page charges are $85-150 per page for a good designer. Project quotes vary depending on complexity of design and layout.

Assuming a 5-page site, consider a $450-600 price range for a site with basic design elements. For special forms and other features, price will increase.

The key is to get a good web designer because you can pay same amount of money for someone who is mediocre. Just because person is an expert in html doesn’t mean they really know what they’re doing.

They may know html, but that’s only part of what a good designer knows.

You have two other options to consider if you don't want to hire a designer to start from scratch:

One option is to get a ready-made web site template. Choosing a ready-made template for your web site has some advantages:

1) Prices tend to be less when you choose among ready-made templates.

2) Ready made templates allow you to get your web site online quickly, often in as little as 24 hours.

For an excellent discount on professional web site templates, see Private Practice Marketing http://www.private-practice-marketing.com emplates.html. Ordering a ready-made template means that you are choosing a web site design from among a selection of pre-made designs.

At Private Practice Marketing, http://www.private-practice-marketing.com emplates.html, you get license to your design when you purchase template which means that no one else will have same web site design that you do. Not all sites give you license when you purchase template so make sure you ask.

Another option is to get only really good tool that does it all for you. No html needed. Beware of any fake imitations. Sitebuildit! really does all research, including right key words for your site plus other tedious steps that take excessive time when you do them manually. See it here: http://www.private-practice-marketing.com/marketing.htm.

The other design cost is frequent updates to your site to keep it fresh and interesting to your visitors.

When people visit your site again in a month or so, they expect a business to offer new content, similar to way a store changes its display windows and rotates merchandise.