(This article is one of twenty-five(25)
contained in Tayo Solagbade’s Ebook titled "25
Articles/True Stories On Self-Development, Entrepeneuring
& Web Marketing To Help You Succeed More Often")
1. Size does not
equate to competence
People sometimes assume a company with
more money, employees, office space etc will be more capable
than one with less. This is not necessarily correct. In fact
much smaller businesses (or individuals) if they apply themselves
intelligently/effectively, are often likely to be able to
deliver better quality-and more personalized-services than
bigger ones. My advice it that you get authentic proof of
competence in form of past web design projects (website addresses)
the individual or company you want to choose has handled.
Go one step further, if possible and request for client contact
details so as to verify the claims made.
2. Do they have a business philosophy
that protects you, the client?
Customers naturally often complain
about unreliable service providers -including Internet-related
service providers. The “newness” of the website
concept sometimes can lead to uninitiated business owners
getting less than they pay for. For instance, websites could
be built with little or no effort made - by the designer -
to help the owner understand how to use it to reduce advertising/marketing
expenses while increasing sales leads generation. Such costumers
would subsequently lose faith in the use of websites for low
cost, high impact marketing saying “It doesn’t
work!”. Ask the designer for details of what they will
do for you, to help your website succeed, that others will
not. Use the responses you get to compare with others you
are considering - it will not be difficult to identify who
is offering you the most tangible benefits.
3. What can they do to make managing
your site easy and convenient for you?
Is the individual or company you are
considering willing to (search for and) incorporate useful
tools/resources(e.g. relevant and appropriate automation)
that will equip your website to deliver the results you want
at less cost, in less time and using less resources? Ask them
for examples of useful automation they have setup on websites-and
specific ones they can adapt to suit your biz needs.
Without the intelligent integration
of appropriate automation on a website, the challenge of using
the website to achieve increased business productivity will,
over time become overwhelming. The website should make it
cheaper and easier to put information about your business
in front of a wider range of prospects almost effortlessly.
Website automation using server-sider custom CGI(Common Gateway
Interface) scripting is one of the most common and effective
ways to do this. Ask your prospective web designer if s/he
is conversant with the use of this technology - or has reliable
access to someone who does. If you get a “No”,
MAKE SURE you find someone else who can take care of that
aspect.
4. Do they have a web marketing
strategy for you?
This is the most important one. A competent
web designer must demonstrate the willingness to study(and
aptitude to understand) your business - including the goals
you aim to achieve. Most importantly s/he must be able to
tell you - in simple, non-technical English - how the website
can be used to further your business goals and objectives.
So, ask if s/he has a Web Marketing Strategy in mind to enable
you maximise the Returns On Your Investment in the website.
If s/he struggles to answer, be very worried.
What is a Web Marketing Strategy?
A web marketing strategy is basically
a step-by-step plan(that should be developed) based on an
understanding of the ultimate purpose you intend to use your
website to achieve. If well conceived, it will guide you on
the specific things to do - daily, weekly etc - in order to
leverage your website to get the intended results.
Without a web marketing strategy, you
will soon find yourself struggling to justify the money you
have spent(and will spend) to keep your website online. I’ll
be a bit blunt here. Traditional methods can no longer satisfy
today’s business marketing needs. If you do not have
a web marketing strategy, your business WILL become extinct
- and that’s putting it mildly too!
One of the many performance metrics
currently used by serious business website owners is the Website
Conversion Ratio(WCR) computed by dividing the total number
of visitors to your website by the number of those visitors
who eventually take action subsequently to do business with
you. The WCR will vary from one website/industry to the other.
For instance on the net a typical target WCR is about 3.0%
- which means for every 100 visitors to your site, you will
expect only about 3 persons to eventually do business with
you.
This is why you must have a good marketing
strategy to ensure that only the “right” visitors(i.e
who fit the “profile” of your target audience)
visit your site. The “right” visitors will constitute
your “pre-qualified target audience” i.e people
already interested in what your website offers. A web marketing
strategy makes more of the “right” people visit
your site giving you a greater chance of getting contacted
by more of your potential customers, so you get a chance to
“close the sale” and record an increased WCR.
Another way of looking at the WCR is by seeing it as a measure
of what I like to call the Return On Your Investment(ROYI)
in a business website.
One Analogy: A website featuring a
product that makes hair grow on bald heads will not interest
a person who regularly visits the barber for a full hair cut!
The process involved in developing a web marketing strategy
will help you craft marketing messages that make those who
NEED your product or service recognize the unique benefit
your website offers - and therefore subsequently visit it.
Summary - Start with these, but
learn some more..
The above is not an exhaustive list.
I have only highlighted four of the most important issues
which if properly addressed should make your adoption of a
web designer end up making you look good in the long term.
You might want to visit the www.google.com and type the question
“How to choose a good web designer to build my website”
or a similar query. You will come up links to other useful
articles written on the subject. If you think you’re
too busy, get someone to do it for you. The time you spend
on this preparatory stage could save you from making costly
mistakes! 
Related
Article: Zero
Cost Methods To Boost Your Business Marketing And Cut Your
Costs Using Your Website
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