Too often, when a business owner is looking for a Website Developer, they focus too much on technical ability and the mechanics…
and not on brand identity, or how to convert traffic into paying customers through heart-felt connection.
It takes all of these elements to have a truly successful website for your business.
It is so important to understand who you are in business, what brand stands for and how you are going to turn visitors to your website into customers. Your business is often measured by your database, therefore it’s critical that your website is able to capture these leads so you can continually market and communicate with these existing and potential customers.
So if your business isn’t hitting the mark with communicating WHY someone should be doing business with you, and WHAT your points of difference are, and HOW you can make their life so much easier… then you may just end up with having a nice looking website that fails because it doesn’t create new business leads for you, or add to your database.
Another important feature of choosing a website developer that suits your business, is understanding how personal and detailed this could be. You need to have a good rapport and great communication with this person! There is a lot of strategy and research that goes into creating a successful website. Your Web Developer needs to understand you, who your target market is, how to reach them and what makes them respond to you. Your web developer needs to know what makes you unique and how to get the most out of your brand. If you aren’t having these kind of conversations with your web developer, then the success of your website is going to be left to chance.
In turn, a website doesn’t just function as a standalone marketing piece. There are many other elements that go with your online strategy, so if your web developer is also able to facilitate all of your communication pieces, from copy writing right through to advertising, printed material and social media, then you will be able to better maintain good consistency across all of your marketing material. Plus it will make your life easier and leave you to doing what you really enjoy, which is running your business!
Every communication piece you send out to your market about your brand and your company, should have the same consistent message and be flawless in execution. Think about how many messages your audience are bombarded with day after day. Consistency and getting straight to the point about what your website is about, and more importantly, how you can best serve a potential client… is just as critical as the technical nuts and bolts of building it.
The best way to ‘measure’ your prospective Website Developer, is to speak with the people they have done business with in the past. Ask for names and contact numbers, and visit the sites yourself. Test them out, see how they work. And then speak with the owner and what business it brings in. It’s too important a decision to rush.
If you want to speak with Melissa in greater detail about how to get a more functional website, blog, e-newsletter or marketing plan that will enhance organic SEO, then please contact us and we can have an obligation-free chat.