Team Selection :

The principles of web design operate on many different levels, with standards to match. Everyone seems to know someone who can 'do a website' for you, usually with predictable results. A cheap, amateur-looking website will almost always cost more in the long run, and if not created properly, will negate the effects of any additional printed media awareness campaigns.

Many companies would usually expect to spend a considerable amount of money on their printed media marketing over the course of a year, only to reserve a tiny proportion of the marketing budget for the development of a website. In most cases this is misplaced thinking, as it is often better to have no website at all than a poorly designed, out of date presence that could be affecting your brand identity and image worldwide.

If you adopt the approach that the idea of the website is primarily to generate revenue (directly or indirectly) and focus your thoughts on ways that can happen, you will discover that an effective website will not only generate income with little extra effort, it will also free up staff resources and create opportunities around the world that you may not have even considered. For example, organisations in other countries attempting a similar enterprise may want to contact you to share ideas or create partnerships, which may generate additional exposure and revenue generating opportunities.

A Proactive Approach:

If you are a professional organisation and care about protecting and promoting your brand, you need to be comfortable with the team who are creating your website. Are they simply happy to operate reactively and regurgitate your ideas and create a site that you are happy with on the surface, or are they prepared to go further and provide a solution that truly caters to each element of the audience you wish to attract? Do they have ideas for retaining visitors, and for creating incentives for them come back to the website on a regular basis? Can they provide advice on setting up additional campaigns via email and other websites to drive visitors to the site? More importantly, can they clearly identify ways that will benefit your organisation whilst minimising the risk in terms of initial costs or ongoing fees?

A proactive web designer will be of much more benefit to an organisation with little knowledge or time to dedicate to web based marketing, as they will be able to provide initial ideas, and advise on the best and most cost effective approach to developing the ideal web solution for your organisation.

We have a number of examples to demonstrate our 'low risk' proactive approach - please ask for details, as we may be able to apply such a strategy for your own website development.