Getting a website designed for your small business can be a daunting task, you first have to decide what you want on your website then you have to get the photos in order and make sure you have enough to cover the designer's fees.
You search online or maybe ask some of your business friends who designed their website, you find a company that looks great, their portfolio seems excellent, all positive feedback, the prices seem competitive and you like the websites they have produced for other companies.
Your ready to part with your hard earned cash and get a nice looking site but have you made a mistake?
One of the most common issues with people who have websites for their business is that they went about it in all the wrong ways, they know they need a website but they don't really know why or what a website can do for them, they are just happy to have a page that looks nice, kind of like a brochure only digital.
If you want to take your company to the next level then the internet is one of the fastest and cheapest ways to do that, so before parting with any money make sure you have outlined an actual goal for your website, this goal might include the ability to communicate with customers on a regular basis, it could be to make or save you money, it could be to conduct surveys etc.
The key point is that your website must do something, it's no good having a nice looking site if no one ever sees it or it has no purpose, this is a concept that most website designers simply don't understand, they are not clued up with marketing or sales, they haven't really drilled down and advised you on what your website can achieve and they never really ask you what you want, instead they just try to sell you what they want.
This can lead to them creating a much larger project than you actually need, your motto should always be to test your site on a small scale and add to it as it grows, in the offline world you wouldn't rent a huge warehouse if you only selling a box of pens, the same principle applies in the online world.
Most website designers fail to listen to what their clients really want and the biggest problem is that most are simply not focused on results based websites, sure they can create fantastic looking online brochures but does that really make you money, if so how can you tell?
We'd be willing to bet that most companies don't even monitor conversion rates or the amount of people viewing your page, these are simple statistics but they are vital to surviving especially for small businesses.
No comments:
Post a Comment