by admin | April 25th, 2009
Small business needs are very different from large corporations. Small organizations (under 50 people) have needs for flexibility, high end result, yet value efficiency more then any other. To make sure that the expenses are kept to minimum and your company receives best results, you need to plan from the start of the year so that your marketing include certain percentage allocated to web site design, web site maintenance, search engine optimization and advertising. Many companies recommend 10-12% of total revenue, we believe that the number will vary by industry and by year depending on economics of each organization and existing market share. More importantly is knowing what percentage of our marketing budget will be allocated to what segment of advertising, what keywords and what industry. This will directly influence the leads and inquiries. Selecting a right design company to do website design for small business is more important then ever. When selecting a design company to create your web site for your small business make sure that you evaluate expertise of the company and review portfolio of how they handled other small business projects. Also make sure that the design company selected has expertise across wide range of services as best result for small business will be reached when a design company can ensure consistent visual style across different materials, not just website.
Important items to ask when selecting a design company to create small business web site
Industry Experience
Discuss if a company has experience designing projects in your industry. This is one of the most critical items. If you run a financial services firm, you’d be better off with somebody who has done dozens of projects for other financial companies so you don’t need to explain all aspects of your business.
Review portfolio
Its important to evaluate design company portfolio not from perspective of coolness or hwo YOU like it, but rather from perspective of how it performs for a typical customer.s Put yourself in the shoes of a prospect of a site and try to easily get from A to B.
Check experience in other areas
It’s more important to review actual design experience in various fields and across different media. Do not assume that if a sign shop or local printing company provides website design services, this will help to ensure good result. Print and sign design companies are rarely offering professional design services. Do not also go for organizations with many employees. Many account managers, staff flow and changes in personnel can critically affect your project. Small business web site design needs are very unique. Your business should in a way become a business of your design company. Your interest should be directly in line with their interests. Closest analogy is a relationship between lawyer, doctor, accountant and a client.
Collect references and check on similar experience
It’s still important to talk to other people yet references these days are not as valuable. Everybody has some contacts that can talk great about other company.
Be prepared
Most importantly, be prepared for your project. No matter what company you choose to design a website for your small business, if you d not have content and information prepared to go on your web site, good design will not help your marketing goals. Spend adequate time researching your direct competitors and creating initial content for the web site. Design companies can offer copywriting services, but from our experience we found that small businesses are best served when owners lead copywriting as they have best understand of market, operations and specific details.
nice explanation regarding web design, thanks a lot.
How much should a website cost? Maybe a range from very basic (1-2 pages) to more extravagant(say, 5 pages with some basic animation or movement)?
A simple site with under 10 pages without any back end components, excessive use of flash should take less then a week and as little as 2 days to design, go through reviews, approve, build and launch. Based on rate of design company it can range from $2 to $5k from reputable firm. Accurate accessment can only bedone thoruhg after discussing project in detail as many factors can extend timeline and sometimes are not obvious. Contact us if interested in frmal proposal. Thanks
This is great in terms of search engine optimization. Nothing appears to rag on them than that.