Designing a website for your small business isn’t just a technical activity. It’s not just about knowing how to build a site and write code.
Your website reflects your vision for your business. It reflects who you are and to many people (hopefully very many) it is THE representation of who you are and how they interact with you and your service or product.
So getting that design right isn’t just a matter of hiring a techie who can build websites. It’s about finding someone who will listen to your needs, understand your goals, and build your vision.
I hate to keep using that word “vision” over and over but there is no better way to describe it. You have a vision for your company, you have an image you want to project to the customer that reflects your values and your unique value proposition.
Communication is Key in Website Design
The keynote of website design and of ALL marketing is one word: communication. You are trying to get an idea across to your potential customers (or your existing ones). You want to tell them who you are and you want to tell them to do something—let’s be honest, you want to sell them something.
The Internet offers an amazing variety of ways to get that communication across: words, images, sounds, colours, videos, all in one package called a website. But it comes with a drawback: the space is very crowded and you have a very limited time to get your message across.
Everything on your website, not just the words but the background colour, the font, the layout, the images, everything has to be carefully chosen to match the message you are communicating and impart it in mere seconds.
Internet Marketing IS Marketing
At KIAI Agency, we always put the importance of marketing first in our web design. There are a lot of sites out there that look real fancy but totally miss the boat on putting a message across.
When I evaluate an existing website design or am creating a new one, I always ask two important questions: 1) what do I want the viewer to know? And 2) what do I want the viewer to do?
A good design answers those two questions. A bad design might look great but totally miss on these two points.
So just getting a site built isn’t enough. You have to work with someone who can communicate both ways. They can listen to what you say—the things you need and want—and communicate those things to the customers.
Before you hire yourself a web development service, ask if they can listen and really deliver on what you truly want…for your vision.
