Do you intend to create or redesign your website and entrust its creation to a web agency?
It’s an excellent decision!
However, before embarking on such a project, take the time to think about the following 3 questions:
1) What strategy do I want to implement?
Creating a website without defining a strategy beforehand is like throwing a sword in water…
It’s no use!
To define your strategy and make your website effective, ask yourself first about your goals.
Why do you want to create or redo your website?
Increase your visibility to attract new prospects, sell online or simply improve your notoriety to build customer loyalty and recruit staff?
Perhaps for all these reasons at the same time?
In any case, take the time to define as precisely as possible what motivates your project, what its purpose is, and to what extent it fits into your corporate vision.
Secondly, it is important to determine the results you want to achieve with your website and how you plan to achieve them.
How many additional calls or completed forms do you want to generate per week, per month?
This question is essential to help you define your priorities.
The third element of reflection: who is your target clientele? Have you drawn up the portrait of your ideal client (persona)?
What are his needs, the difficulties he encounters? What solution do you bring to his problems?
What are his expectations, his doubts, his objections?
Finally, how will your website help your ideal customer to take action and buy your products or use your services?
Here is a last strategic point not to be overlooked: do you know your competition?
Identify your direct and indirect competitors, in your territory or outside your area of activity, and observe their online presence: what is the strength of their website? What are their weaknesses?
Do you see opportunities, gaps in your competitor that your website could fill?
2) What content will I post?
Depending on your industry and your goals, you will need to determine the most effective and relevant types of content to engage your potential customers.
– Do you want to publish photos?
Where do you go to get quality photos?
Will you have to plan a photo session with a professional or purchase royalty-free photos?
– Are you adding a blog module?
Do you know what topics to cover, what keywords to use in your field?
Will you write your text content yourself or delegate the optimized writing?
All these questions are essential
– Would you like to upload videos?
You may need to delegate the animation creation or video editing to obtain convincing results?
Audio files, podcasts, digital books, online store, contact forms, submission, appointment booking, online training, etc. are all types of content to plan for in the future configuration of your website to properly assess the scope of the work to be done.
A word of advice: do not hesitate to list the websites that inspire you to give you ideas for new content to develop!
3) How am I going to do it concretely?
If you are starting from scratch, here are some essential points on which you should not make a hasty decision:
- the choice of a strategic domain name,
- the selection of the web host,
- the creation of the logo,
- the choice of design based on a guide of graphic standards,
- the budget to be planned for the project, including the marketing budgets to advertise your products or services,
- the schedule for the delivery of the website, to be determined according to your real constraints,
- the person responsible for the internal project for the design of the website, even if the creation itself is entrusted to a digital marketing agency,
- the person responsible for updating and publishing new content, if you plan to manage it internally.
In any case, if you delegate the creation of your website to an agency, be aware that it is reasonable to expect a period of 3 to 6 months for the delivery of a showcase site or an online store, depending on her size.
As you will have understood, the design of a website must be planned and structured before selecting a service provider.
This time for reflection will allow you to save time and energy, but above all to target your real needs and thus avoid spreading
