How to talk to your web designer about your business goals
Are you ready to take the plunge and create an awesome new website for your business? If you are, then it’s highly likely that you’ll be looking for a friendly and talented web designer to help you out!
In this blog article, we’ll take you through five key points to discuss with your chosen web designer, so you can make sure that your brand-new website is fully aligned with your overall business goals!
- Be clear on your objectives
Before you even pick up the phone or ping off that email to a prospective web designer, make sure that you’re super clear on your objectives! What exactly is it that you want your website to do for you? What is its purpose? Is it to increase brand awareness? Is it to generate leads? Is it to sell products? Be super clear on this before you book a consultation as it will save a lot of wasted time in the long run!
Understanding your own objectives can save you resources in the long run. A website can do many things for you as we’ve mentioned above, if you haven’t really thought about it you might find your designer/developer goes off in one direction and that you come to a clearer understanding about your business later on which means that the new website is no longer functional. This can be a costly mistake!
- Have an open and honest discussion
Once you’re clear on your aims and objectives, it’s time to have an open and honest chat with your web designer, and let them know precisely what it is that you’re looking for. This is the perfect opportunity for both parties to get to know each other a little better. You can also learn more about your designer’s experience of the web design process and take a look at some of the websites that they’ve built in the past.
Having a designer walk you through their previous work is an excellent way to gain a better understanding of the type of websites that they build, and whether they have the experience to create something to your specifications.
- Talk about what kind of website you’re looking for and what you need it to do
If you’re a product-based business, then do you need an e-commerce website? If so, what payment gateways do you use or do you want to use in the future? How many products will your website need to house? All of these are important questions to raise so that your web designer can advise you on the best possible options.
In addition to this, come prepared to the discussion with your own research, what websites do you love and which have features that you’d really like to avoid. It’s difficult to express exactly what you might want on paper but you can show examples of the designs that you are drawn to.
- Define your target audience
This is a super-important issue to discuss, as your designer will need to ensure that your website is appealing to your target audience. Whilst this may sound obvious, it can all too often get overlooked. You get carried away with how YOU want the website to look that you forget the needs of your ideal client. Please don’t fall into this trap!
It doesn’t matter if your new website is going to look amazing for you and your designer; it needs to be created with your target audience in mind. It’s always worth doing your research before you reach this stage of the process so that you can find out what your ideal clients are looking for.
Part of the design process is working out where your customers/clients or readers will go on the website. If there is more information about who these people are, it will be easier to build the website that suits them.
Remember: Overall, you don’t want your website to be for everyone, you want it to work for those people that are more likely to buy into your products, services or values.
- Discuss your calls to action
If executed properly, calls to action can be extremely valuable when it comes to conversion rates. Talk to your web designer about your aims for each of the pages. Too many CTAs can be confusing, so get clear on what you would like to include and what you would like the user to do.
If a designer has the background information on your business, your target audience and your goals they will be able to help your with best practices for your calls to actions.
We hope this blog post will help you go into discussions with your designer with more confidence. If you’re looking for a new website for the 2021 or just want to talk about the possibilites, send us a message to hello@sero.digital so we can set up a meeting to chat!