What’s Matthew on about now? Actually, in his spare time he makes guitars and the One Basic Rule of woodworking is “ Measure Twice – Cut Once”.
In other words, before you make a cut you need to be damn sure that you are cutting in the right place! This needs to be the central plank of your website development strategy.
Translated into marketing strategy, and especially creative web design, you must get the thinking straight (the measuring) first before you start spending money (the cut). Simples!
Like many of our current clients, you are thinking about a new website. That site you had done is now looking out-dated and you are looking at the options. Friends and colleagues give you loads of advice – and it all conflicts! You have read our article on the difference between the various web sites on offer – but where do you start?
Really think about what you want before going to design, or before you brief your web design or creative agency. Have a plan, written down on one sheet of A4 on what you want the web site to do for your company and your business. Think about objectives – what do you want to achieve with the website – and this principle applies to any marketing really.
Think about what you are trying to achieve – are you looking for more sales in which case your focus should be on lead generation. Or are you looking to create better awareness of your brand, to disseminate information about you services or products – to seek information, are you looking for feedback?
Or perhaps you are looking to develop a website that sells on-line in which case there are many other issues to consider such as the shopping cart technology but most importantly SEO – to be successful, you will need a constant stream of prospects visiting your site –and they need to be converted.
Write it all down as a draft design brief and discuss and agree it with your web developer – in advance. He/she will thank you for it and you will get a better result and thinking about it we might just develop one for you to download – good idea?
Let us know!
Author Matthew Simmons
