Define what do you want your site to achieve?
Write a short description of what you want this web site to achieve
for your business. In general the site should focus initially on
a primary objective.
Some key objectives that business employ for web developments are:
- Increasing sales by marketing via the web. - Increasing company
and product profile by using the web to reach prospective customers.
- Increasing customer sales service by providing product information
directly via the web
- Increasing customer support satisfaction by providing product
help information and a path to product service staff via the web.
- Reaching new markets by using the web to expand your reach.
Build customer loyalty by providing new versions or variants of
existing services for existing customers. For example allowing
customers to order or make product enquiry via the web.
- Improving relationships with business partners by allowing
them to interact with you via the web.
- Lowering costs by decreasing demand on high cost sales or service
processes.
- Or even just ensuring your business keeps up with the rest
of your industry.
What amount of investment are you willing
to make in a web site?
An initial business web site could consist of one page and cost
about $A500, or it could be made of tens of pages and cost $10,000
or more. An idea of cost boundaries allows your web designer to
balance quantity and quality in their estimation. It is best to
have a range in mind so that your designer can provide some options
to help you decide the best value for your investment. Remember
also that web sites will generally be hosted on a Service providers
server, and therefore monthly costs for hosting need to be included
in your budget.
What qualities do you want to project via
your web site? What do you want the site to say about your business?
Web sites are very visual. Each site projects or infers various
qualities about that site and the business it represents. For example
a site that projects fun would use different colors and approaches
to one aimed at projecting quality and professionalism. As web design
is a blend of both creative and mechanical tasks, an understanding
of the amount of creative input required is also an important element
of accurate estimation.
What examples of your companies 'look' and
image do you think best project what you want to see in your web
site?
For one company, the design of their crockery was the key to the
look and feel of their web-site. Review your company's brochures,
logos, products, menus, catalogues, store-front, business cards,
etc to find those colors, fonts, qualities and images that best
represent what you want to project via your web-site. By providing
tangible models for your site, the development costs will be reduced
as the developer can start immediately on appropriate concept designs.
What things have you seen in other web-sites that you really like
or see as fitting your web site?
Again, by providing a list of the web sites or pages that have
features you like, the creative process can be streamlined. The
focus here should be on specific features of a site you like. Try
and think through how this web-page would come together as it must
work as a whole as well. It is very easy to create a totally forgettable
web site that is full of gadgets. Specific features will come with
specific price tags. For example, including direct database access
in a web site is more expensive than using just static content.
Where do you want your web site to go
in the future?
It is important to discuss what you want your web site to ultimately
provide with your designer. It is prudent to provide structure in
sites to support future extension. For example, if you want to eventually
sell product via the web, it may be cost effective to allow product
enquiry initially via e-mail.
What volume of data/information do you
plan to be placing on web?
As noted before, web site development is both a creative and a
mechanical process. Clearly it will take longer to develop ten pages
of 100 words each than one page of 200 words. Quantities of information
also impact the size of the site and potentially the hosting costs
associated with the site. So a clear quantity scope will improve
the accuracy of estimations.
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