If you're currently working with a web design agency, take a few minutes to question whether they truly understand your business.
You probably asked questions about their web design experience and the projects that they’ve worked on in the past when you first started working with them, but how much time did they spend asking questions about your business?
If it wasn’t long, then you may want to ask them a few questions now to judge their true investment in your business, or to decide if you need to start looking for a replacement.
Why Is This Important?
Your website is a valuable tool that you want to leverage in order to dominate your market. Research is showing that consumers are using the Internet to research, compare, and purchase products more than ever before, and you want to make sure that they find your brand when they're searching for information, comparing prices, and identifying professionals to answer their questions.
If your website is inferior to that of your competitors or simply can't be found in search engines or through social media, then you will miss out on many opportunities to secure new customers and retain current customers.
Your web design agency is in charge of creating all aspects of your website, but how can they do that effectively if they don't know every little detail about your business? Without a solid understanding of your goals, target audience, and existing competition, there’s no way they can design something that will address all three. You don't want to build a mediocre website today and spend money rebranding or redeveloping in the future. You want to partner with the right agency to create the perfect website for your needs right from the start.
10 Questions Your Web Design Agency Should Be Able To Answer About Your Business
1. What do you expect to accomplish with your website?
Every business starts a website with different intentions. Whether you want to capture leads to pass on to your sales department or educate consumers so they understand your product line, your web design should be created with these goals in mind.
2. What demographics will use the website, and what will drive them to visit repeatedly?
If they don't know who you're talking to, how can they create quality content that speaks to your target market? If they don't know what that target market wants and expects, how can they create a design that will appeal to your audience?
3. What is the best tone and style for content on your website?
If your target market is college students, you will strike a different tone than if your target is business executives in their 40s. Your agency should be aware of who you want to reach so they can create a website that is visually appealing to that market.
4. What is your value proposition, and how does it propel you ahead of your biggest competitors?
If they can't even tell you who your top competitors are, you're in big trouble. You have to know who you're competing with and what makes you different, and then you have to make that value proposition clear throughout your website.
5. What branding elements should be implemented into your web design?
This goes much further than just slapping your logo in the header. Your probably have a clear brand strategy, and that needs to be implemented in all aspects of your web design. Your agency can't do that if they don't understand your branding message in the first place.
6. Is someone making sure that you deliver a consistent message across all virtual platforms?
Your agency must understand that you want a consistent message and tone on across all platforms. Consumers now jump from websites and blogs to Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest like children flying across streets on their bicycles, and you want to make sure that they clearly identify your brand on all of those platforms.
7. Is your website designed for the level of interaction that you want to have with site visitors?
Do you want to reply to every comment that you receive, or do you prefer to automate as much of the interaction as possible? Do you want to add your own content and blog posts whenever the urge hits, or would you rather create an evergreen site that someone else can update as needed? All of these considerations should be well understood by your web designer.
8. Considering your estimated budget for maintaining your website long term, is the site designed to make hitting that budget feasible?
There are a lot of fancy features that you can add to websites these days, but they aren't all suitable for someone working with a small budget. Make sure that your agency clearly understands your current and future budget so that they aren't designing more website than you can financially handle.
9. What measures are in place to ensure that your website establishes your credibility and authority within your niche?
You don't just want to slap together a website and throw in some keywords to strike it rich with the search engines. It simply doesn't work that way anymore, and you want your website to serve as a shining example of your expertise and authority.
10. Is your website designed to transition as your business grows?
Do you have projections for future business growth, and have you discussed what that growth will mean for your website? If not, now is the time to have that conversation because you need your website to scale along with your business.
The process of selecting a web design agency to partner with is tough enough as it is, so it’s daunting to think that your final choice still might not be enough. By using the questions outlined above, you can take the temperature of your relationship with your agency and determine if it’s worth continuing—or if it’s time to move on.
