You’ve just decided that your business, existing or brand spanking new needs a website to get your brand and your message out there.
So you ask yourself, what now?
It’s a complex question and a exciting time.
Before going to a Web Designer there are a few things you can do to help get the process started. Any business web designer you go to will need to know a few basic things about your business to begin the building of the site.
Here are a few of the questions you might want to consider asking yourself when your ready for a business website.
What is the goal of my website ? Is it for selling a product or service directly to customers ? Is my website better suited as an e-commerce business site?
Who are my customers ? What are the age ranges, locations, or other definable traits of my target market.
If I want to sell products from the businesses website how am I going to take payment ? Do I need a merchant account or will I use pay pal?
Is there a secondary goal of the website? For instance if a visitor to my e-commerce site doesn’t make a purchase then do I want them to sign up to a product newsletter, or have them leave contact details so a staff member can contact them directly.
Or is the website all about branding my product and providing information to potential customers? Many visitors to your website will be simply researching a future purchase or looking for a particular service and getting an idea of pricing, delivery times and other important ideas before committing to a final purchase.
Social media connections, do I need all the social media sites or are there ones that are better suited to my business, I.E Pinterest to display winning pictures of my product range?
Then there are the decisions about marketing the site, whether to push the launch of the site with online advertising and integrating it into Social media campaigns on a business Facebook page.
A website also needs to fit into and complement the current marketing and branding material your business organisation currently uses.
Being able to supply a current logo, and any other images or graphics you want you business website to display is also a must. Copyright permission on images that you don’t own need to be obtained. For instance if you wish to use images containing staff from your business you may have to obtain a release form from each person appearing in the photograph.
A landscape developer sells his work to a new customer based on work he has previously done, this is often through word of mouth from past clients who show the work they have had done to family, friends and people in their street. A previous client used to carry a photo album of his work around, both before and after shots. It is a very effective tool to not only show how something could look but acts as proof of competent work done by the landscaper.
The modern version of this is a website with images of the various gardens before and after on the site, in fact one very effective tool that can be used is for the landscaper to carry a tablet around to each new quote he attends. Calling up the website on the tablet and simply flicking through the before and after shots in high definition colour is an effective tool in showing proof of concept and work to clients.
Though with the photography being on the web, express copyright and permission in most cases are required to be held before displaying other peoples properties. And is one of the many things a web designer will help you walk through and understand if needed.
When it comes to it, building a new or revamping an existing webpage into a successful, attractive business website that builds your business brand and reputation takes time and a lot of questions. A good web developer will take the time to get to know your needs and your requirements and come back to you with a design that helps build and grow your business online.