| Date post: | 29-Nov-2014 |
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25 Questions You Need to Ask Your Website Designer
www.CalgarySalesAndMarketing.com
And
www.SalesTipADay.com
Prepared By:Chris Hamilton
andKersten Kloss
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When you are getting a website built, it can be very confusing for someone in charge of this process to understand if a website designer will accomplish what you want to get done.
In most cases, a website designer will be good at one of 2 things; graphic arts or technical competence. The one skill that most website designers lack, which is an important piece of the overall equation, is marketing skills and how they relate to creating sales leads.
The following are 25 questions that you need to ask your web developer. These questions are ones that will let know that the web designer is capable of building a great website that will also creates sales opportunities for you and your company.
The first 3 questions that you should ask are:
Apart from the 25 Questions you need to ask your web designer, there are 3 questions that you should ask right off the bat. They are:
How long have you been in business? Do you have customer examples to show us? Show me a site and tell me how many sales leads it generates and how you did it.
Your website designer should have been in business for a while (a couple of years) and they should have several examples of past clients to show you. The last question is important because it shows that the website designer has a methodology and a process that they use to generate sales leads for you. It also shows that they have been able to generate sales leads from a web site for a past client.
Please contact us to see how we can help you either:
1. Create a website that generates sales leads or 2. Help your current website designer incorporate proven
marketing processes that create sales leads
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You can email us by clicking here
or contact us toll free in North America at:
1-877-782-2864
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The 25 Questions You Need To Ask Your Website Designer
Here are 25 questions that you should ask your website developer so that you have a better understanding of what you will or will not potentially get with your new website.
1. What technologies does your website design use to build your website - Graphic designers often rely on Adobe products to create their designs. Inside the suite of Adobe produce lies Dreamweaver. This has become the standard in "design" but the world of web communication has introduced a new layer to this called "A Content Management System" or CMS. Ask your web developer if they use one of these. You will learn more on content management systems throughout this document, but some of the more popular systems include; Joomla, Drupal and WordPress.
2. What CMS System Does Your Website Designer Use - When choosing a CMS, pick one that has an open platform that many "web guys" understand. Best choices include "Open Source" platforms like Word Press, Joomla, or Druplal. Be very wary of proprietary systems as these tend to be limited in scalability and may be very difficult to integrate into a collaborative website initiative. In addition, finding support for proprietary systems is often tough to find. This is a trick that some web designers use so that you are stuck using them for any updates no matter how big or small.
3. How Does Your Web Designer Drive Website Traffic - Creative types and Sales types rely on very different skill sets. Their brains are often wired differently. Make sure your web developer has a "sales hunter" on staff who understands how to draw business to and through your website. In order to get sales leads from your site, you should look at utilizing a web strategist or web marketing expert to help you implement web based marketing tactics.
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4. What Tactics Does Your Web Designer Use to Convert Traffic into a Sales Funnel: Let's face it, if you spend money on a website, their should be an ROI associated with it. Your web designer should be using different tactics to take visitors into a sales funnel. Ask the web designer this simple question: "What call to action do you propose on the website?". If they stumble with this question, they don't understand the concept of "conversion". Your web developer need to entice visitors into a marketing process so that you can convert them from a prospect into a customer.
5. Is Your Web Designer Aligned With Your Sales Plan - A website is part of your overall marketing plan and as such your marketing has to support your Sales Goals. Does your web developer understand your sales plan? Are they asking you process questions like, "How do you find clients now?" "What works now?" " How are you presently drive new business to your product?" The web is not so different from the real world. Someone can print you 1000's of pamphlets and business cards that look great, but, do these point of sale promotional tools actually make people walk in the door, or ring your phone? Ask your web designer how the web site will support the sales goals of the company.
6. How does your web developer promote their own business? Google them. More importantly, google some of the common titles and tags on their website. Do they show up online? If not, they lack the skills to self promoter, and will likely not have the depth of experience to deliver you a well rounded web strategy. Ask them for a couple of sites they have done and do the same. If they are creating websites, but these websites are not showing up on the specific terms that they should be, then this is no different than putting up billboard in the desert - No one will see it.
7. Who writes the copy for the website - The copy on your website is important as it showcases your company, products, offerings and so much more. Make sure that you have a good copy writer who can also add keywords that help get you found online for
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what you need to be found on. Good website copy coupled with a way to convert visitors into sales leads is a deadly combination. Just a tip - Every page on your website should have a call to action to get someone to do something that will put them in a sales/marketing process. Check out your competition and see what their web pages do. See if they ask the reader to do something.
8. Always ask for a portfolio and referrals. Web development is like home improvement. Trust only those that offer qualified referrals. See if you can find other companies on your own that may have done business with your web designer and call them up and see what they say.
9. Ask your web developer about analytics. Website analytics tells a compelling story about your traffic. Do they include this in their quote? If not, then you will be missing a very critical tool to help you in understanding your clients and potential clients that visit your website. Ask the how they might use analytics to make changes to your website and how often they might make suggestions. By looking at your analytics results, you might be able to find slight changes that can have a significant impact on your website. A key point here is that you can not change what you do not know - analytics will let you know. Tip: Google Analytics is a great tool and is free to install on your site. It takes all of 5 minutes, so don’t let your web developer charge you an arm and a leg to add this.
10. Ask their opinion on marketing and sales - marketing helps create demand for a product, sales fulfills that demand. If your web developer can't answer that, then look at using someone else.
11. Does your web developer offer content in the form of imagery, text and video? Ask them. If they answer YES to everything… "Red flag" If they explain that they work with you to create the content and can offer skilled trades who can either help you write your articles, or create imagery and videos that fit your message…you are on the right path. Avoid the "Know it all" web
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guy. Web developers need to be listeners and interpreters of your business.
12. See What Your Web Designer Does to Increase Sales: Ask your web developer for their suggestions can how to increase sales. Ask them how they drive business now. Find out how they grow their business online.
13. Who controls your website and the domain name? Where do you do hosting? - Believe it or not, there is a rather large directory company in Canada that will build a website for you, but you have to give them the domain for your company. What ever you do, do not give anyone your domain name. Own it and hold onto it. Also, see how much Web Designers charge for Hosting and a Domain - Compare it to the prices on a reputable site like www.GoDaddy.com. We have seen instances where a web designer registers a significant (and unnecessary) amount of domains for a client and charges a 100% mark up. This process often takes 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t pay someone $300 to $1000 extra for 10 minutes work. Our suggestion, tell your web designer that you will buy the domains and hosting and he can work on the site and then transfer it over.
14. Will you get a backup copy of your website? Website developers go out of business or loose steam on a project. All you need is someone "taking off" with your website and you not having the keys, and your project, and money, is gone.
15. Get Control of Your Websites: Web Guys may also silo your website into their own process. Be careful of this. If you don't hold the master key, you are just renting your web space, and your brand online. This does not mean you have to know how to run the site yourself, but if you are being delivered a website that is built on a platform that many others understand (see point above on Open Source systems) then you have control over your web guy. GET CONTROL!
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16. Will Your Site Be Mobile Ready: With the proliferation of mobile devices and the ever increasing connectivity of cellphone networks, people are consuming web content on their phones and mobile devices. Will your website be mobile ready? You may not think you need it now, but you will likely require some form of mobile ready site in the near future. A lot of content management systems have free or low cost plug in’s that allows you to have a mobile ready site. Be prepared because in the future, your potential clients will more than likely find you on a mobile device.
17. How will your web developer support you once the site is complete? Is your project manager going to be there to support you after the site has been delivered? Websites are no longer brochures. They are a living extension of your business, a live communication portal that helps you project and broadcast your message out. Is your web developer going to support you with this ongoing communication? Make sure that you negotiate a price or support package and see what is included and what isn’t included.
18. Scalability - Is your website going to be expandable? Can you easily add a shopping cart? What if you want your clients or agents to log in? Can you create a small community on your site, or a forum? What if you want to host a customer service system on your site? Can it handle it? Websites need to be collaborative online environments that enhance and simplify trade. Will your web developer be able to include these enhancements in the future?
19. Are You Able to Update Your Site? A trick of may web designers is put you on a software system or platform that you can not update. This way they can get a continual revenue stream from you every time you want to update your site. Ask the web designer if you will have access to the site so that you will be able to update it. Get them to show you how to update your site on a current website with the software platform that they are using. Until recently, websites have had a shelf life and needed to
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be update, about as often as laptops, every few years. This is no longer the case. Websites need to evolve end update regularly. They need live interaction with you, and your audience. In order to do this, you need to be able to update your site yourself. Either through a blog, or through a comment system tied to a social network or email. Make sure they include this.
20. How Easy will it be to completely change the look of the site? Can you change the site design without completely redoing the website? You will need to revamp the look of your site to keep up with the web. Your website will need the ability to change your livery without a complete "re-do". Content Management Systems are great for allowing you to change the look and feel of the site without loosing the content or costing you an arm and a leg.
21. Does your web developer offer you website education? If they don't, and this is fully understandable, can they recommend online tutorials, or college courses that you and your staff can attend? Simple updates to a website should be easy to do, so make sure that you find out how to do this.
22. How will your web developer incorporate Video into your website? YouTube is a fantastic video tool for video delivery and many web developers simply post videos on YouTube and embed those videos on your site. But there are some drawbacks. Simply embedding a youtube video on your site can open up your competition to stream video right on your site. Make sure they know how to turn this off. To see what we mean, go to a site with a YouTube video on it. Watch the video to the end. Sometimes your competitors videos show up as suggestions. Also, if you double click on the video, it will take you to YouTube where you will see a list of suggested videos down the right hand side. This is also a spot where your competitors videos show up. Make sure that you videos are embedded such that competitors videos won’t steal your thunder.
23. Video also needs to tell a story and draw people in. Just "Having a video" is not enough. Is the message instilling an
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emotion, response, tightening awareness of a need or crisis… Is it tied to a call to action in order to "get more". Make sure you have a plan surrounding your video.
24. Does Each Page of Your Website Have a Call To Action? - Do you want sales leads? If so, then each page of your website should have a specific call to action. Not only that, the call to action should be in the top part of your website so that it get's seen and clicked. As mentioned previously, go to some of your competitors sites and see if they have calls to action on their site for the different products and services they offer. A call to action is something that
25. Do not allow your Web Designer to put up advertising on your site: First off, this cheapens your website. Secondly, your competitors ads may display. For the few extra dollars you may make a month, it’s not worth it. Another trick that web designers play is the one where they add their website company name and a link to their website on your website. Don’t let them do this. Your website is yours and you are not there to supply advertising for your website designer.
After interviewing a web designers, you should feel confident that they will be able to build a website that aligns to your marketing and sales goals. You should also be comfortable with how it will bring in visitors to your website and that these visitors will be able to convert into either a sale or be brought into a sales funnel.
If you want to see the right way to implement a website that brings traffic to your site and converts visitors to potential clients, then contact us at:
or call us at:
1-877-782-2864
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Like what you see? Then why not contact me to show
you how to pull your marketing together to Create a Sales Lead Machine!
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