How to make a plan

First, think about the goals you would like to achieve through the use of a website. Are you trying to reach a new audience or better communicate with an existing one? Are you trying to create a call to action by compelling website users to buy a product or service? Regardless of why you want to build a website, the important thing to remember is that you create a clear goal and communicate it to your web designer.

Next, consider your brand. Do you have an existing brand that needs to be consistent with the new web site project? In such case, it will be necessary to be able to document your branding effort and provide those materials to the web designer. Things like logos, corporate colors, mission statements and business philosophies should all be provided to the web designer, so he/she can create a synergy between your current effort, and you new one.

Gathering your customer intelligence. At this point you know your customer a lot better than your web designer does. Whatever demographics or customer behavior profiles you have on your existing customers should be communicated to your web developer. What kind of people are they? What are their age groups and buying habits (if applicable)? Your design and functionality will speak to these groups most effectively if we know who we are targeting.

Budget Planning is crucial. Most web projects can be done in stages making it affordable to get started adding more features later. It is a good idea to know how much you are going to spend at stage 1 as well as down the road. Having your goals already put down, it will be easy for you and your designer to break the project down into stages and discuss pricing at each stage.

Lastly, it is important to plan the upkeep and maintenance of the web site. These days, most websites come with a CMS (Content Management System). This makes it easy for a non-web designer to add, edit and maintain content on the website. Beyond that it will be necessary to create a budget for the upkeep of your website.

What’s the big deal you say?  As many of us know, web design is a form of marketing and unless you are an international company, you will need to penetrate the local market.  Hiring a web design firm outside our market is about as useful as a football bat (local expression).  The web design company you hire should be knowledgeable about the local market and be able to effectively bring your brand to it.  A web design company in California will say they know your market, but do they truly?

Only a local web design company can create a synergy between on-line and off-line marketing.  Off-line Hudson Valley marketing has many nuisances that can only be understood by us Hudson Valley folk making it easier to join the two levels of marketing.

I can go on and on about why to hire a local web company but really one face to face meeting will give you all the information you need to make a decision about who will design your next site.