What You Need To Know Before Hiring A Web Designer
Starting your own business is exciting. You have a product or service that you really believe in, and you have hundreds of great ideas fizzing around inside your head – you can’t wait to take it out into the world. The best way to do that? Find someone to design your website. Sorted!
You might be supercharged with excitement, but it’s important at this stage to take a step back and really think things through. Sadly, great ideas are not enough to build a website on. There are some key things that you need to know before you talk to a web designer, otherwise they won’t be able to build your site – or they’ll build it, but it won’t be anything like the site you’d imagined.
What Do You Need To Know Before Building Your Website?
There are some important things about your business that you’ll need to define before you can put them on (cyber) paper. They may sound simple and obvious to you, but they are essential to communicate to your web designer so they can build a user-friendly, beautiful website.
If there is anything on this list that you can’t answer right now, it may be too early to hire a web designer.
The big one: what does your business do, and how does it do it? How exactly does it work? It’s important for a web designer to have a detailed understanding of your business and how it functions so that they can design a flow that works for you. It also helps to know your overall business objectives.
Who is your target audience?Who is the website being built for? What is your target audience looking for when they land on your website? What do they need? Knowing this will help the designer make your website more relevant for your audience.
Do you have written content? If not, you will need to think about what your message is, and what you want to say. If there was only one thing you could tell your target audience, what would that be? What is your unique selling point – what makes your business different? And how do you want to communicate – are you friendly, casual, corporate or edgy? A nice design is fantastic, but useful, relevant content is key. Your web designer will need some copy to put on the site (more often than not, the content of your website won’t be part of your design package).
What photography and/or videos do you have? Great photography can make all the difference to a website.
What is your call to action? What do you want people to do when they visit your site? Do you want them to make a purchase, sign up to your newsletters, book an appointment or give you a call?
The five things on this list are essential to building a great website. There are also a couple of things that are useful to know:
Who are your competitors? What do you like about their websites, and what would you want to do differently?
Do you have any existing branding?
A good web designer will work through a design brief with you before they start to build your site. That way, they’ll have all the information they need, and you’ll both have the same expectations as to the functionality and content of your site, as well as how you’ll work together.
If you’ve never put pen to paper with any of this, have never been through this business process or if you simply need someone to talk it through with, I can work with you and provide support. You’ll have the answers, it’s just a matter of getting them out and making them concrete and tangible!
A good website is one of the most effective small business marketing tools – it’s the beating heart of your business, and it’s one you have control over. The initial outlay to have a website designed and built may seem daunting at first, but it is cost-effective even in the short term.
If you need a new website and business support and are interested in working with me, please get in touch!
LUCY RAVENSPOINT20 DECEMBER 2018
