Choosing to get a website created is a big and often daunting prospect. A professional and bespoke website should be an investment, and therefore a lot of time and thought should be put into making sure that the decisions made are best for the long-term success of your business.
The successful collaboration between a company and a web design agency lies in a few vital points.
Picking the right web design agency
The first step in order to start what will potentially be a very important business relationship is choosing the web design agency to work with. When starting a business and taking the leap into getting a website, budgets can often be tight. However unfortunately a lot of companies choose to waste their money by getting a template website. There are many disadvantages of website templates.
Many web design agencies and online companies claim to create fantastic websites but actually use website templates or outsource the work to very cheap overseas companies who normally produce very out of date and poor code. The company you choose should offer bespoke website design which complies to the latest W3C standards. There are many questions to ask your web designer before you can be assured that they can help create the best and most professional website for your company.
Initial Brief
The initial brief that you give your web designer is of the utmost importance. It needs to be specific enough for your designer to completely understand what you are looking for and the needs of your business in order to give you a bespoke and accurate quote.
- Give plenty of background information about your company; who you are, why you started, who your target market is, who your competitors are, and where the business is going.
- Be clear what the objectives and goals for the website are, whether it is a brand new site, or a re-design, what are you hoping to achieve?
- Ensure that you think thoroughly about each page; what content you require, and what functionality is needed. For example if you require a sliding image banner, this takes longer to code into the site and therefore may cost extra. If you are having an image gallery, do you want static images, or a functional gallery where the images become larger when clicked on?
- Think about who your target audience are; who you want to appeal to will make a major difference to the way the site will be designed.
- If you already have a logo, business stationery and other marketing materials, make sure you provide these to the designer as the website may be designed in-line with these to keep your business identity consistent.
- If there is anything you definitely do not want on your website, make sure this is clear from the very beginning.
The initial design brief is important as it usually serves as the guiding document for the whole process that the web designer will keep referring back to again and again.
Budgets
This can be a tricky subject as often small and start-up businesses are on a tight budget, and can be tempted by companies who offer very low priced web design services. In this industry, you really do get what you pay for. If someone is offering a website for a low price, they are probably cutting corners somewhere; if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
When starting your project, be open with your web design agency what budget you are hoping to work to, they can then offer the best possible solution, and most companies may offer a payment plan to split the cost and make payments more manageable. This also goes hand-in-hand with the project brief; you may be looking for a certain level of functionality which may not be necessary but could cost you a lot – the agency should be honest and advise where you can cut back on some aspects to save money without compromising the quality of the design.
After a quote has been given and agreed to, ensure that the cost and payment plans are confirmed by both parties before starting the design work. Any costs that may occur later on in the design process should be explained to you by the agency e.g. stock photography, or any additional functionality added.
If you are paying a monthly or yearly fee for hosting and/or maintenance, double check exactly what this includes. If you choose to host with another company, the same rule goes – you get what you pay for.
Deadlines
Very often companies have deadlines for when they need their website launched e.g. an event happening with their company or industry. If you have a deadline that needs to be met, make this clear at the very beginning and the agency can advise whether it’s realistic or not. Good design and build takes time, as well as allowing time for you to make revisions, so if your deadline is flexible let the designer know. A professional web design agency should be expected to be honest with you if something can’t be done within your budget or schedule and offer alternative solutions. A good way to manage a deadline for a website is to agree to a few milestones to help assess the progression of the project.
Communication
One of the most important aspects of a successful relationship with your web designer is communication. Beginning with your initial brief, the clarity of communication and feedback between yourself and designer can be the difference between seamless web design development or a long, confused and frustrating process. The first thing is to decide the easiest method for you to provide your feedback; some find it easiest to write their thoughts down in an email, whilst others prefer to discuss their feedback face to face and bounce ideas back and forth. Whatever you choose, your project manager or designer should be able to accommodate both. With regards to feedback, the one thing that designers ask of you in return, is to be constructive. Be completely honest, if you don’t like a design then say so, but be constructive by saying exactly what you do and don’t like about the design and possibly make suggestions where you can. Don’t be scared about offending the designer, your website has to reflect you and your company, and it has to be perfect. Most agencies are perfectly happy to keep tweaking the site until you are satisfied, so don’t compromise on the design if you aren’t happy with it but feel bad for taking up their time.
If you don’t understand anything technical that your web designer is talking about, don’t be embarrassed to ask them to explain, many people in the industry don’t notice when they are just speaking in Web Design Jargon.
Long Term Support
Many web design agencies offer a long term plan to host and support your website for a monthly or annual fee and consider their relationship with you as a long term commitment. If anything goes wrong with your website, you should be able to rely on them to help fix the issue. As your business grows, you may require new features and pages on your website which your web designer will be happy to help you with.
As well as general hosting and support, any decent web design agency will know the work does not stop once a site is launched. Designing and developing a website is the first step, the real trick can be in the marketing of the site to get high quality traffic and of course, leads and/or conversions. There is no point designing and building a website and just ‘hoping’ it will work. You need to plan with your web agency how you are going to get the traffic and sales. Your website is an investment and you need to make a return on that investment.
The most important tips for establishing a great working relationship with your web design agency are to be crystal clear on your budget and requirements. And of course, make sure that communication and expectations is always honest, clear and realistic.