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Perhaps you’re a fresh new startup looking for an online presence or a well established business looking for a new design for your existing website, either way you’re going to be presented with the daunting task of choosing a new web design agency and with so many options available, it may start to feel a little overwhelming. Afterall, your website is often seen as the face of your company and it’s likely to be the first point of contact for many of your potential customers.
Choosing the right web design agency can have an enormous impact on your business in terms of both growth and company image, and can be the deciding factor for many customers between choosing you over your competitors.
To help you navigate your way to finding the right agency for you we’ve compiled a list of several points to keep in mind when choosing a new web design agency.
Before you begin searching for a new agency it’s a good idea to have internal discussions to clearly outline your company’s aims and objectives, and what you want your new website to achieve. Are you looking to increase sales and conversions? Do you need to bring your website and brand image up to date? Are you hoping to expand into new markets and target new audiences? Spending some time early on to put together a project brief or specification will help you better convey what you want to accomplish to your potential agencies and help you determine which one is the best fit for the job.
The cost of a project is always going to be an awkward conversion and it can often be a deal breaker when it comes to hiring a new web agency. However, as with a lot of things in life the term “you get what you pay for” couldn’t be more accurate when it comes to web design. Defining a realistic budget for what you want to achieve is a good starting point but trying to cut corners to save a few pounds initially can have a negative effect on your long-term ROI. It’s easy to be setback by the initial price of a new website, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the industry, but this is the perfect time to put your business hat on and reevaluate your entire marketing spend, you may discover that you’ve been spending money elsewhere with little to no gain for quite some time. The price of a new website shouldn’t be seen as a cost but more as an investment and choosing the right web design agency should help you see a speedy ROI and more.
It’s important to identify precisely what your potential agencies are offering. Do they outsource any of their work? Are they a real agency or a collective of independents with a virtual office? Identifying an agency’s strengths and capabilities will help you better determine that they will be the ones carrying out the work and not a third party. Afterall it’s their expertise and their ability to deliver which you are paying for, not a third party’s. Now, if you find an agency who you think would be great to carry out your company’s rebrand (logo, brand guidelines, etc) but feel they lack the technical and UI abilities to design and build your website, there’s no harm splitting the project between two agencies. However, from our experience splitting a project between more than 2, or at a push 3, can lead to some issues and increase the project timeline.
To achieve the best possible result you should be hiring an agency who is considered an expert at what they do. If you’re a niche industry, for example a car leasing broker, you should look for an agency who has worked within this industry and delivered similar solutions in the past. It’s also important to look at how your potential agencies market themselves. Are their websites up to date? Do they release frequent blog articles? Do they have examples of their work and client testimonials? If they have a good mixture of customer service and results driven testimonials you can be confident you’ll be working with an agency who values you as a client as well as the end result.
Perhaps one of the most important things to keep in mind is to clearly communicate and discuss your project with your potential agencies. Setting up face-to-face meetings allow you to get a better insight into the people who you may potentially be working with. New website projects can last several months, and that’s not including the aftercare (ongoing marketing and support), so if you struggle to get on with someone in a 1-2 hour meeting then perhaps they’re not the best fit for you.
When discussing your project with potential agencies don’t be afraid to ask technical questions about their process and why they’re making certain recommendations, a good agency will be able to answer these with confidence. If your meeting is with an agency salesman or account manager try to ask to meet one of their web designers or developers as well, after all these are the people who will be carrying out the work on your project, not the account manager.
If you have a new web design project you’d like to discuss, please don’t hesitate to get in touch on 0115 837 2880 or email us at contact@jacit.co.uk. Here at Jacit we specialise in creating bespoke and tailor made websites, and although we’re a Nottingham based web design agency we frequently work with companies throughout the whole of the UK.
