With the ever-increasing volume of web-based competition, the days of hastily slapping together a website to give you a web presence are long gone. These days, in order to stand out from the crowd, you need a website design that delivers your brand message effectively, while making it easy to find and use for visitors.
So, let’s take a look at a few things you should know before you actually make contact with a website design Adelaide based company.
Know Your Target Market
Take a step back here for a moment, and consider this fact. A website is just another piece of marketing material. Sure, it is an important one, and also one which can do more than bring in customers. But it’s very basic function is to let your current and potential customers know who your company is, and what it does.
So, it makes good sense to begin the first part of a recipe for building a great website, by taking some guidance from the marketing cookbook. Specifically, know who your customers will be. In marketing terms, this means identifying key customer personas.
Once we know the type of customers we are seeking, and the types of products/services they are going to be looking for, we can start to map out the scope of functionality for a website.
Think About Brand Image
If you are a company selling organic vegetables, you are not going to want to produce a website that makes you look like a high-tech service provider. The look and feel of a website needs to be driven by firstly our own brand image, and secondly the customer personas who we intend to attract via the website.
For example, when it comes to website design Adelaide business who are providing products or services to the local community, would be well advised to create a brand image and website design that instantly reinforces this value proposition at first glance.
Only once this brand image has been defined, can we start to actually develop a website. Most website development firms are happy to assist with the stage of the project, but it is best to have some idea of the required brand image you wish to portray before involving a designer.
Defining Website Design Core Functionality
What is your website going to be used for? Is it simply a digital equivalent of a storefront? Will you be using it to sell products? Does it need to have an online store capability? How about customer support and self-service?
Before you make contact with a website design Adelaide based company, it is a good idea to have some form of a plan with regards what you actually want the website to do.
When it comes to ecommerce website design it is also worth considering how you want to present your products. The structure of product types, categories, brand names etc. This will help you to communicate your needs to your site designer more effectively.
Draft a Scope Document
By now, you should have a pretty good idea of how you want your website to look, and what you need it to be able to do.
In order to formulate these ideas in a way that will help you brief a web design firm, it is a good exercise to produce a scope document. This lays out all of the requirements you will have uncovered through previous exercises such as defining your customer, deciding on functionality, and creating a brand image.
This doesn’t need to be a deeply informative document, it can be a simple list of needs. You can use this document as the initial point of discussion when you contact a website design Adelaide company.
Website Designer or Website Developer?
Probably the most common mistake that a business makes when setting up their first website, is buying in the wrong skillset. There are significant differences between a website designer and a website developer, thus:
When you look for a website design company to build your new website, you need to find one that can offer both types of skills. As they are both needed to create a fully functioning, great looking modern website.
Ready to Roll
Now you have all the preliminary preparation done, it is time to actually find a website development company to action your project.
You will need to discuss all of the considerations we have outlined in this article as part of the initial contact, they are going to ask you questions that are based on the kinds of things we have covered. If you have followed the steps above, you will have every answer ready.
DGreat Solutions is a web development firm that has been providing website design services to the Adelaide area since 2014. We have the internal skill set to provide and end-to-end service, delivering full website design and development of effective and attractive websites.
