Look at any recent data on global advertising revenues and you’ll see one very clear trend – investment is shifting online, to the detriment of traditional offline mediums. But make no mistake, this isn’t just another dot.com boom like we saw at the turn of the millennium, where a handful of unsustainably large web companies pushed into the unchartered waters of an entirely new and entirely unproven marketplace. On the contrary, the current move online is more about all companies big and small switching on to a proven and cost-effective medium by which to effectively and comprehensively market themselves, where the term ‘target audience’ takes on a precise new dimension and the effects of every penny of spend is measurable right down to the last conversion or bounce. Having a company website is no longer just a ‘nice to have’, it’s now essential, and finding the right web design agency who can articulate your brand while at the same time exploit the technology at their disposal to best effect is equally vital. With this in mind, here are a few things you need to consider when looking for a web design agency...
What does the web design agency know about your market?
Finding a web design agency with a good knowledge of your market would be a real head start, so doing your research is essential. To track down a web design agency that’s got experience of your sector, find some competitor websites that you like the look of and that perform well (hint – look at the top of the Google listings), or other sites not in your market but that aren’t completely unrelated (if you’re a medium sized e-commerce business, then look at other medium sized e-commerce sites in general), and look for details on who designed them. Typically, a web design agency will leave a clickable link at the bottom of the homepage of the sites they design, so keep your eyes peeled.
On the other side of the coin, when you speak to any prospective web design agency they should be proactively asking you lots of questions about your business and your market, and not simply talking about your site and how it will look. 80% of the equation for successful web design is relevance and fitness for purpose – things like aesthetics only count for part of the remaining 20%, albeit and important 20%. But fundamentally, a pretty e-commerce website that fails to convert users is no use to any company. So, if the questions about your market and your competition aren’t forthcoming, then strongly consider talking to at least one other web design agency.
Ask the web design agency about running and maintenance costs
The initial design costs will be a one-off hit that you can budget for, but don’t underestimate the costs of running and maintaining the site. One way of driving these costs down in the long-term is to get a comprehensive Content Management System (CMS) built into the site at the start. It will bump up the initial cost but save you money over time, because you’ll be able to update and refresh the site easily without incurring the cost of getting your web design agency or another third party to do it for you. A CMS will also allow you to make website changes quickly and on your own terms, eliminating the problem of having to schedule the changes in with your designer, delays which could have a negative effect on the profitability of your site.
Find out how the web design agency prefers to work
This can sometimes be a cagey subject area to broach with a web design agency, but it doesn’t have to be. After all, you’re the client and it’s a perfectly reasonable request to want to find out how your prospective web design agency prefers to work. Even though noting how they communicate with you throughout the negotiations stage can give you an insight into their level of professionality, it’s not necessarily an accurate representation of how the like to work in ‘project mode’, so feel free to press them in detail about how they intend to run the project. An ideal situation would be if the web design agency had a dedicated project manager who’ll act as a conduit between you and the design and development team, because this will give you one wholly accountable point of contact who’ll manage your expectations effectively and ensure clear communication at all times.
Web Marketing Group – a leading UK web design agency
We’ve been building websites for companies of all sizes for nearly a decade. E-commerce, sales lead generation, content management systems, database-driven sites – you specify it, we’ll build it. Request a call back from one of our project managers today, and see how we can turn your idea into reality – click here.
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