Before you do, here are some useful points to consider to help you save time (and money), so you go into the project knowing more of what you want from your new website.
1. First, let's start with the most important factor - your customers
Knowing your target audience properly is important since different trends and designs effect different audiences, so pinning down your target customer is vital from the outset. To help, ask yourself a few questions:
- What age bracket is my target customer? - Will my customers be purchasing for themselves or will they be buying for someone else? (Example: your products are gifts for women likely bought by men - husbands, partners etc). - What interests do my target customers have?
2. Know what your unique selling point is
What is it about your product or service that makes you stand out from the others? It's important that you can explain what this is so it can be interpreted through your website. To identify your USP spend some time comparing your competitors features and benefits with your own - then make a list of all the ones unique to your company.
3. Look at past achievements and failures
To avoid making any of the same mistakes again, make sure you take time to look through your company's past projects to determine what turned out to be a success and what didn't work, so you can use the former in developing your website.
4. Know your company tone
Having a consistent writing style builds trusts by letting customers get to know a brand. It's a way of expressing the values and personality of people behind the company, plus, a unique tone of voice can also set you apart from the competition.
Your company tone will hugely effect your website design. If you're a humorous brand then your design and website structor could be made quite fun, but if your business is quite serious then you'll want a more classic, sleek feel from your website.
To help you find your company's tone of voice, ask yourself the following questions:
-Why did you start your company? -What are your company's core values? -How is your company different? -Are there any other companies who's tone of voice you admire? (Make a list of these for inspiration) -What sort of language best represents your company?(I.e formal vs informal)
5. Know what you don't want
Make a list of everything you don't want from the website. Sounds negative, but this will equally help you decide what you do want from your site. For example, maybe you definitely don't want any red on your website because this has negative associations with your industry, but this might make you think of colours you would be happy with, such as a nice sky blue. Letting the designers know exactly what you don't want from the start will help to avoid any wasted time.
So, remember the key takeaways:
Know your customer Know your unique selling point Look at past achievements & failures Know your company tone Know what you definitely don't want
The point is, the more your know your business, the better you can relay this to the company you employ and the better job they can do of designing your website. Being prepared will save you a lot of time, energy and money.
We hope you found this useful. If you'd like to get in touch with us about a new design project then just use our contact form below - we'd love to hear from you.
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