10 Things You Need to Know Before Hiring A Web Designer
Getting excited to get your business on the Internet? Already have a website, but thinking of redesigning? Before rushing to construct the new website, here are things to get you to know before you spend thousands of dollar hiring professional web designer or developer to do it.
What are the things you need to know?
Thing #1 – Your Business Information
Proper understanding of your business and present it to your designer/developer so that they can understand what your business is all about. Tell them why you need a website. Designer/developer with proper understanding will be much more efficient since they can pin-point many vital information.
Business information such as:
- Company vision and mission
- Products/services that your company providing
- Explanation of each products/services
- Flow of business process
- Contact information
If you are looking into re-designing, these are the additional information you can give them:
- New pages information
- New idea
- New products/services
- Changes need to be done on current website
Thing #2 – Understand Target Audience
Think and define your business target audience, who coming to your website to seek related services/products, which will potentially become your customer.
Thing #3 – Understand Your Budget
Most important is you need to know how much budget you can allocate for the website, you can set it in range, from minimum to maximum. This allows you and your designer/developer to gauge what you will get for it, instead of spending a lot of time on a proposal that out of your expected budget.
Thing #4 – Logo and Brand
Every business has their own unique business logo and brand, so do yours. Prepare multiple format and shading for your business logo, best is to have transparent PNG, AI or PS file. Designer/developer can easily edit or re-size the provided logo to fit into your website.
Thing #5 – Quality Pictures
Showcase your products/services with stunning images. Visual content provides much more impact than texts. While purchasing stock photos will be much more convenient and much lesser cost, but it is better to have own customized photos crafted for your company. Consider hiring a professional photographer to take high quality photos for you. These high quality photos can be used in other marketing media such as brochure, magazine and others.
Thing #6 – Content and Copywriting
You will need content to delivers your message to your audiences. Proper content deliver the right message into the hearts and minds of your audiences. Increase the understanding of your products/services even more. Content should be crafted to target your intended audiences, engage them and lead them to perform certain actions. Consider hiring a professional writer to deliver professional and customized content for your website.
Thing #7 – Know Your Competitors
Getting to know your competitors in the same line of business. Know what they have to offer, what are the difference between them, did their website good enough and think of what they are lacking. Covering services/products and features that your competitors did not will give you an edge over them.
Thing #8 – Ideas, Website Features and Functions
List out the idea that you have. Let the designer/developer know what kind of elements and functions that you would like to see in the website. Changes during the development can increase the cost and have your website delivered to you later than expected. It is better to explain in details, so that the designer/developer do not under-deliver.
Thing #9 – Future Planning and Expenditure
Before finalizing your website, do ask following questions to your designer/developer:
- How to access the website control panel and CMS (if have any)?
- Who will manage and monitor the website?
- What if you want to make small changes?
- How much is the fees that involved every year – domain, hosting & maintenance.
After the website goes live, you may want to look into how to increase website traffic through various methods, some may have cost involved such as:
- Google – Cost Per Click (CPC)
- Facebook – Cost Per Click (CPC)
Thing #10 – Decide Your Lead Magnet
It is better to decide what you want to promote or highlight before even the website development started, so that designer/developer know that they have to reserve certain spaces at the sidebar or even slider to put your highlights or promotions. Lead magnet such as:
- Discount on your product/service
- Free product/service
- Free consultation
- Register and get discount
There you have it, things that you would need to know before hiring someone to start or redesign your website. It requires time, money and effort, so make sure you get what you wanted.
Head on our services to take a look on how we can help you to setup your website or contact us if you are looking for professionals to redesign your website.
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