Get Your Vision on the Table, Effectively
It looks beautiful in your mind. The hours spent visually fashioning the perfect website to promote your small business have been constructive and exciting, as the details inch you closer to something you can practically reach out and touch. This website will bring you millions of new customers. This website will astound your competitors. This website will fill your heart with pride every time you come across it on the front page of a Google search.
This website will need to be built by real people.
And herein lays the challenge. Unless you possess the programming language savvy and graphic design skills to orchestrate the masterpiece that you have painted via the imagination, you are going to have to hire someone to do it for you. With so many options available for getting started on a new web design, how will you know who to pick? Will you go with the freelancer with no graphic design background or the marketing team of twenty-four various web professionals? Stick with a local company or seek out off-shore services?
Take the process of choosing a web design person/team as part of a serious decision that can greatly affect the outcome of your vision. Choosing knowledgeably can create an inspiring and positive experience as you watch your web project dreams come to life!
You should discuss making the most of your meeting time with your web designer. But I’d be getting ahead of myself if I didn’t first provide some tips that can help make the process of choosing a web designer/team easier:
1. Assess your needs
Are you hoping to incorporate a logo, graphics, and/or written content that you’ve already got? Do you need a complete redesign of your company’s brand? If you feel you are starting from scratch, consider going with a web marketing/design company that is within your community, or within travelling distance. If you’re hoping to participate in the production of the site, with your own background in programming/graphics/design, then you might be satisfied hiring a freelancer who can perform the specific tasks. Keep in mind that some web companies will be happy to fulfill a smaller role in the project’s development (that includes us here at Navigator!)
2. Get grounded
If only a web design company could provide you with the intricate 3D unicorn leaping out of the homepage onto the keyboard, with a scratch n sniff pineapple tree in the background that you had dreamed of (or is it just me that wants that?). Get a realistic idea of what different web companies can provide you by perusing their portfolio online. Any professional web company worth considering will offer samples of their work. You can gauge from these samples what level of quality and capability you can expect.
3. Meet your match
The portfolio also provides an awesome foray into the team’s stylistic interests. By scanning the company’s site layout, as well as the samples provided, you’ll get closer to finding people who have similar aesthetic tastes as you.
4. Make a date
Get in touch with the companies or freelancers that interest you, via email or telephone. Ask questions and arrange a face-to-face meeting, if possible.
