5 questions to ask before you talk to a web design agency

So, you're thinking about going on holiday. You walk into a travel agency and you tell them how much money you've got to spend, what type of holiday you want, what sort of hotel, whether it should be near a beach, how many people are going, and what time of year you are planning to travel.

Having probably been on holiday a few times, you must have had good and bad experiences, giving you have a fairly clear idea of what you want and don't want on your next holiday.

If only asking for a website was as straight forward. Chances are it's only the first or second time you've decided to work on your website. So what questions do you need to be asking yourself before approaching a web company to make sure you are getting exactly what you want?

Question 1: What are your business objectives? If you can't answer this question, then we advise you to learn more about what your business needs and what you aim and hope for. Without understanding your business objectives, your hard earned money will be wasted on any website you invest in. Don't invest in a website just because everyone else is, don't invest in a website just because you want to get it ticked off your to do list. Your website is an open book about your business and you/your ethics etc. Its such a powerful medium for any business to use; whether it be to generate publicity, test new services or products, generate more interest, boost branding, to use as part of marketing campaigns, to generate sales, a steady client base, and much more.

This is why we urge you to figure out what it is you need as a business and then have the website developed in a way which will meet your business objectives.

Question 2: Who are your users? Do you really know who is using your website? Could you sum up their characteristics in a paragraph? Are they mainly male users? Females? Parents? Students? Smokers? You need to know who your users are before you can understand what to your website needs.

When you learn more about your users you can then begin to make good judgments about what their needs are. You can then look at how these fit in line with the business needs and find a way of building something that meets both parties' needs. For example, one of your needs may be to capture email addresses for future email campaigns to people who visit your site so that you can update them with perhaps a promotion or new product.

One of your visitors' needs may be to keep an eye on any sales or promotions you have--without having to randomly returning to your site to check for such promotions. So, in your website you could make sure visitors can sign up to, say, a short newsletter or bulletin informing them of promotions, requiring them to leave their names and email addresses. Bingo, the needs of both parties are met beautifully.

Question #3: What do your users get out of your website? Once you do know and understand who your users are, ask yourself if you understand why they are using your website and what they get out of it. This will help you understand the gaps your website, and business, presents. Locating gaps in your business website can often open up the potential to sell services and products or enter markets which you otherwise wouldn't think of. So, put yourself in your potential customers' shoes. The important thing here is to also mention that it will be very helpful to your business if you also think about what your users expect to find/do on your website.

Question 4: What return are you going to get from your investment? Ok, so this may seem a little obvious, but at the same time, often complicated to work out... but it's important for you to ask yourself what return you are going to get from the website, and is that return going to be a plus for your business as a whole. Most people make the mistake of thinking that a return on investment has to be monetary. Don't make this mistake. For some business the investment is more than worthwhile if they can generate publicity, showcasing products to a global audience, perhaps generating more enquiries from Public Relations people than customers. For other businesses a good return is about covering the money spent through sales generated via their website. What do you expect and what kind of return would make you happy?

Always remember that even the best website won't bring a return on investment, instantly. Some business websites (most actually) are like vitamin supplements, taking a few months to kick in, before generating those wonderful results.

Question 5: What timeframe are you setting? 9 times out of 10 when we've run a website project in the past, a tough deadline has been the killer factor which gets everyone stressed out. However, this is often because it's rarely discussed early on in the project by the client.

We advise you to put it at the top of your list--ask yourself when do you really need this website to be live on the world wide web, and also why. Is it to coincide with certain marketing activities you are doing? For the launch of a particular project or product/service? Build all of these thoughts into your time frames for your website, and then be sure that the web design company you are dealing with know and understand your wishes.

It's the web designers' responsibility to be realistic as to whether they can do it in your time frames or not-yet you must bear in mind that sometimes what you think is realistic, often may not be the case with simple or complex website developments. Don't worry though, any good web design company will be as realistic as possible, allowing you to either work around it, go forth, or find someone else.

If you have a website project looming on your mind, Freshblood Websites can help. Visit us at http://www.freshbloodwebsites.com. We have lots of practical experience and we can guide you all the way, helping you define your website needs to matching you up with an approved web design agency.

About the Author

Freshblood websites are a team of team of business minded web consultants who have grown passionate about helping businesses get their websites right. We offer free access to a network of top web agencies, hand picked by us for their skills, expertise and value for money.

Source: Web Design Articles on ArticlesTree.com





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