It seems relatively counter-productive to say things like this, but we only take on a certain few projects. We don’t take on every project where some-one's prepared to pay us money. It’s more important to spend time, effort, care and attention on projects we love than have a production line approach.
What kind of site do you need?
Before thinking about needing a new website, it’s important to check a few things, just to make sure you’re looking in the right place. There are generally two ways to go:
1. Getting an ‘off the shelf’ solution. These are generally cheaper, and quicker to set up but likely won’t include custom features specific to your business
2. Get a custom site built, where it’ll be perfect for your needs and do exactly what you want it to do. There’s a longer time to get launched because it all needs to be built, and inevitably costs more.
If you think an off the shelf solution is the answer, try some of these: Posterous, WordPress or our version, EasySite.
If you think you fall into the second category, lets continue.
...But do I REALLY need one?
It’s worth checking in with yourself to really see if you have a need. Ask yourself the following questions:
1. How many leads are you generating at the moment per month? If you don’t know, or know it’s a low number, that’s usually a sign that your site at least needs to be taken a look at.
2. What methods of marketing are working for you at the moment? If you don’t know, it’s probably about the right time to start a relationship with a results driven, web company.
3. Scenario: If you were looking for the product you sell, and you landed on your website, would you get in touch and do business?
What about the service?
If we were to work together, it’s worth you knowing a few things about the service that would come with your brand new website. In our years of experience, service is just as, if not more important to our customers than the end product itself. This is why we try really hard to make sure all our customers are raving fans of our service. Here are some of the things we feel are important:
- Price - Every project is different, but no-one ever seems to negotiate with us on price, or complains about it. I can only assume this is a good thing for you.
- Speedy - We’re insanely fast. We’ve found the sweet spot. We have the efficiency of a production line, but the care and attention of a home made cake maker.
- We never use templates - We know what works, so we repeat certain elements but it’ll always be a custom design with unlimited revisions.
- We agree a schedule and spec... and STICK to it! - The reason we can say this confidently is because we’ve built so many sites, we know what the potential problems can be. This allows us to ensure your project will run smoothly.
- We help you write your content - It’s a freebie, we don’t charge for it. Our years of experience have shown us that content-writing holds up the launch of websites, which doesn’t do either of us any favours.
- We build your admin panel first (the pages you use to edit your website) - Because while you’re loading the content in, we’re building the actual website. This shaves about 3 weeks off the development process.
We have this art-form known as “web development” down pretty tightly. We know where 99% of the problems are, we pre-empt them and rarely do any of our developments have holdups these days.
Tell me what I really want to know... How much will my website cost?
You probably have scanned the next paragraph, looking for a pound sign, and now you can’t see one - you’re disappointed. Sorry about that, here’s the thing... because every part of any future project we might work on together is going to be custom built, it would be impossible to give figures but you would be very surprised at how low our fees are. In-fact, we’re often told, by paying customers, that we should increase our fees. By exchanging 1 or 2 emails, or a 10-minute chat, we can give you a ballpark figure.
A lot of our customers tell us about the bad experiences they’ve had with other web companies. One of the most common things that happens, is these other companies take on any word they can get and don’t seem to know where their limits are. Because we only take on a few development projects at once, it’ll seem like you’re our only customer. This is because at the time, you almost are!
We’ll always give an exact start date with a timeline of major milestones such as:
- Edit section developed (Also known as a CMS)
- Design of main site (the bit people see) completed
- Tested - We test and re-test everything we do!
- Sort out minor aesthetics
- Ready to launch
How do you communicate with your clients?
Some people like to meet face-to-face, which is always nice. Other people like to just do it mostly on the phone, and we’ve even had a case where almost the entire site was done via text. We’re happy to work how you’re most comfortable, so long as we don’t have to compromise quality. If we’re going to work together, getting you results comes first! It’s important you understand that.
Of course we’d say this, but it’s always worth having a conversation about your project with several people (please include us), just to get different ideas. I’m sure we’re not the only great web developers on the planet. We might not even be a good fit. For instance, we won’t do logo design, or print design. We design great looking, very well performing websites. We are honest about what we can, can’t, will and won’t do.
So what next?
If you think it’s worth 10 minutes of you time to explain the problems you’re experiencing with your website, the number of leads you’re not generating, or any other host of issues then then fill in the form below and we’ll be in touch as soon as we get it.
If you’re still not sure about getting in touch, here’s a little insight into the timeline of a typical project with us.
- Quick chat over the phone/email, establish if we’re a fit and produce a rough cost
- If that’s okay we put together a full quote and specification
- Upon acceptance, 50% is payable as a deposit
- We quickly design the admin panel and get that functional. Meanwhile, we work with you to help you write content if you need help.
- While the admin panel is being coded, we work on the design of the main site with you.
- While your specific website software is being written, we continue to help you write your content and load it into the admin panel. Training will be provided if you need it.
- At this point the site will be functionally finished and tested. We’ll then sit down, or go through the site over the phone and find any minor snags, wording or aesthetic changes.
- Once this is perfect. You sign it off and pay the remaining 50%
- We launch your website!
- We’ll then closely keep in touch with you and monitor the situation, traffic, enquiry levels, etc and be on-hand to deal with any little issues quickly, the second we spot them.
Having understood a little about our approach to web development, and lead generation - You might have decided you definitely need a new site. However, it’s really just a case of, are we the right people to have a conversation with? For a lot of our clients, they’re learning more and more about the way the Internet works and how to market products and businesses online. We suspect, even just by starting conversations, you’ll learn a lot about how your business should be marketed online.
We’d love to hear from you, and give you ideas. Get in touch by filling out the simple form below and we can have a chat and see if our businesses are a fit. We’ve been in the industry a long time and often recommend so-called competitors, so if you need something we can’t help you with - we’ll happily point you in the right direction.
Hope to speak to you soon,
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