So you decided to enhance your business by making a website to grow a new market for your brand and attract new customers. You did your search and contacted a designer and you’ve agreed to set up a meeting to discuss how things will be going as of course you need to be sure as you will be spending money.
Let’s state some facts, your designer won’t understand things like “I want a good website” and “You need to make sure my website is special”. To make sure that the first meeting is successful, You need to know 10 things to tell your designer before starting a project website.
10 Things To Tell Your Designer Before Starting A Project
1- The purpose of the website
The goal or objective of the website, is to attract more clients? organize an event? laying the foundation for a new business/product? sell more?
You need to make it clear to your designer and he will change the design based on the objective.
And Remember, your website serves your customer and not you, so keep them in mind when creating your website.
2- What kind of website does your brand need?
Do you need an eCommerce where you sell your products (digital or otherwise) just like Amazon and other online eCommerce websites, or maybe you need it for education and want to make it paid online education where people pay to view educational videos or take an online course
Maybe you enjoy writing and want to start your own blog, or you want to attract clients to think you’re trustworthy by providing free information that will increase your selling points. You could also think of presenting your company expertise and need a portfolio, or presenting a new product or a discount/sale thus you need a landing page.
3- Who is your target audience?
Do you target other business owners to be able to strike out good deals or are you an individual-focused business?
Is your business targeting recurring consumers or one-time buyers?
4- How will you measure success and how to improve that?
Is it by knowing the traffic for your website, or is it by sales volume, or maybe by the number of subscribers applying for your newsletter?
There are things to consider early on or it will later cost you pretty big money to implement later on such as SEO. On-page SEO is better performed early during the construction of your site whereas off-page SEO is basically marketing and link building.
5- What kind of (feel) do you want your brand website to portray?
Do you want your website to look professional? maybe you are a lawyer, an accounting firm, or a dentist where you need to display your serious side to make clients lay their trust in your professionalism.
Do you need it to look loving and inviting, you could be a psychiatrist, life coach, or any other type of business where your main job is to deal with a person-to-person relationship and you need your website to appear warm.
Maybe you need your business website to look luxurious as you could be a car dealer, suits and gowns shop, jewelry business, etc… and want to attract a certain type of customers.
6- Have you checked your competitors’ sites?
If yes, what do you like and don’t like about their website
If not, I guess you better check it out and analyze it carefully
If you don’t know-how, You can go read the article on the link under the image to get a better idea.
7- What’s the scope of this project?
And by scope, I mean the budget you are ready to set for this project and the timeline you’re bound to. That’s because you need to know that if it is an aggressive deadline you set for your designer (and he actually accepts that), it will usually result in either lower quality or outright failure to deliver on time.
8- Which functions are necessary to have and which are nice to have?
More functions usually mean more money spent, so for reference here are some functions to give you an idea:
Pages like About us, Gallery, Contact Us, Blog. Forms such as contact forms, newsletter signup, and online appointment booking. Functions as site search, social integration, multilingual, Animation, or accepting payment through different ways like PayPal, Coins, or Credit card integration.
9- How much extra work will be involved, which part can you do yourself?
Creating a website goes beyond designing and building, it takes work and time from both you and your designer to create a great website for your business.
Here are some things you can provide to speed up the creation process:
- Formal brand guide with logo, colors, and fonts
- Content and messaging you want to deliver clearly
- Imagery
10- Will multiple levels of access be required?
This is especially true in corporate brands with a strict hierarchy but could be the case with any brand.
Since access is programmed into the backend, it cannot be a simple afterthought. Be prepared to tell the web designer so that it is included in the scope and features.
Once you go through these 10 questions to tell your designer before you start a project, you are ready to build your website and bring your brand to a new height. And if you are ready and want to start yours now, you can always contact me to get started.
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