You don’t want to hire someone who is just happy to have you as a customer, and you don’t want to hire someone who is just happy to make your site look good. You want to hire someone who will understand your vision, and work closely with you on that vision.
There are plenty of companies out there offering web design services. But which one should you trust? Which one will ultimately help you achieve your goals? Which one will be able to help you with your goals more successfully than the competition? Which one is willing to take the risk and give it a shot?
Well, that’s where we come in. We at Web Premium have been working with dozens of clients over the past few years and we can tell you how we came up this far
What to look for in a web design company
Finding an awesome web design company is no easy task, but it is critical. The design industry is littered with thousands of companies that all claim to be the “best”, but which are all in the same boat: they are either a little better than the next, or a lot worse.
In order to help you find the right web design company, let me help you out by giving you some pointers on what you should be looking for in one of those “best-in-the-business” companies:
1) Design expertise:
A good designer will know how to make your site look great. They should also be able to tell clients which type of content works best on their site (which can help prevent them from wasting time). They can also tell you whether your site looks good or not (while writing code), which can save time and money later.
2) Good reputation:
You don’t want someone who knows way too much about your business but also doesn’t know a thing about yours, because they might just make ridiculous assumptions about what’s “good” and “bad”. If they don’t know your business well enough to avoid making silly assumptions then they probably won’t do anything at all for you at all
3) Open communication:
There are always going to be trade-offs when it comes to communication, but these aren’t trade-offs that matter if you get everything right the first time around. Your designers should be able to talk openly about what’s going on without being afraid of criticism or causing offense. Furthermore, if there’s any project where open communication is really important then it’s when communicating with other internal teams. The worst-case scenario here is that your designers don’t understand how some product feature works (or doesn’t work very well), so if the team needs extra help then there may be issues between you and the designer (and not just because he/she doesn’t understand).
4) Feedback loops:
This is probably the most important factor here, more people working on your site means more feedback loops between yourself and the designers working on your project. Getting realistic feedback about your product/service and then working on the loopholes to constantly get towards its improvement is what every company should long for in order to sustain in the industry
The need of identifying the right website design company
Here is a list of some of the things you should do before you hire a professional to design your company’s website:
Examine your past experiences with web design. Ask yourself, where have you made mistakes? How did they look? What were the problems? Who was involved in the project? Was it done well or poorly?
Check out the costs. Are there any hidden fees (website hosting, domain registration, etc.) that could be hidden in plain sight?
Find out if your company is using a “developer” or “designer” agency. Your company may have as many as three different people working on its website, one for each phase of development. That will matter for solving problems in different ways and getting results faster.
Check out their experience level. You want someone who knows what they are doing and can get results quickly; someone who will be able to learn on the job and make mistakes (that aren’t costly) instead of trying to fix them. High-level experts tend to try to solve problems quickly, but don’t know what they are doing well enough to do it well intact; low-level folks tend to do the hard work but don’t understand enough about what they are doing well enough to do it right.
Ask yourself if your company really needs a professional website at all, and if so, how much time and money would be saved by avoiding having to go through this process again in the future (and spending less money).
Finally, check out their references: Have they worked with other companies before? Do they have solid reputations for work (or bad ones)? We don’t think anyone should ever hire someone solely based on their references, so make sure you check those out too.
Importance of the right web design company
In light of the recent recession, we believe that web design is an absolutely critical skill for any startup, particularly for one that is growing. Here are a few reasons:
- There is no startup without a website and there’s no website without a web designer. So when you’re talking about scaling up your business and you’re looking for someone to help build your brand, you need a professional who can create a website that speaks to your audience, conveys what you want to say, and serves as a guide to where they should go if they want more information or ask questions about your product. You need someone who can tell the stories behind your product and show how it will solve problems for people (and not just through technical solutions). You might be able to find this person by searching the internet or even getting referrals from friends, but chances are you won’t find exactly what you want because many companies put their marketing dollars into advertising rather than actually creating an amazing product or service (or both).
- If you aren’t creating content (either online or offline), then your website will be one of the first places people go when making decisions about whether or not to use your product, especially if there are competing options (especially if those competing options come from random sources such as blogs and press releases). This goes double if there isn’t much content yet; it really puts an emphasis on how well-written and compelling it is, because how else would people find out more about it?
- You need at least some way of measuring performance and monitoring demand; something that makes it easier to judge whether things are going well or not. There are many tools available that will do this already: A/B testing; analytics tools; tags; tools like Google Analytics which allow you to track traffic for specific keywords/phrases/etc.; etc.. These things don’t have to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars! And some of them are free too! Here are three free tools I recommend:
- Whether we like it or not, web design companies have become integral parts of our communities in recent years, so much so that we feel compelled (if only subconsciously) to refer our friends here who might be interested in hiring us.
How to find the right web design company for your business
There’s a lot of debate around how to scale your web design business, and it’s not always clear who is right and who is wrong. In the end, it’s all about finding the right fit with the right amount of support and resources.
It is a fact that what matters most for web design business success is not the competition, marketers are all about metrics and revenue, but rather making sure you are working on an “opportunity-driven market,” meaning that you have an aligned financial model with a clear focus on customer value. If you don’t have that kind of alignment, then you will struggle to efficiently manage your team and grow your business.
The best way to find the right fit is through doing market research. You can use tools like Quora or Reddit as well as traditional methods like surveying customers (think of it as a qualitative first step to find out what kind of people you want to work with). But I think the most important thing is simply finding out what people are saying about the products they use in the marketplace. That process should be accompanied by more engaging marketing: email outreach, blog posts, content marketing, etc.
What you should do while hiring the right web design company
The first question to ask when thinking about hiring a web design company is: “Who is your customer?” That’s right, you can’t go wrong by looking at the people who are using your website today. For example, if you’re building an e-commerce site for yourself, you certainly want to start with the people who are buying off your site.
If you’re building a venture-backed startup, you want to get your eyes on the customers who are choosing to use the product or service you provide. But it goes much deeper than that because when it comes to choosing someone to work on your website, there isn’t just one customer in mind, there are many like-minded individuals (and perhaps even competitors).
You need a Web Design company that has experience working with all these groups (and maybe more), or else it will be easy for them to charge more per project than they really should.
It doesn’t have to be this way, but everyone can benefit from doing their homework before they make the final choice. We often get to hear companies saying they don’t know what they need, or that they have no idea what kind of web design company they should hire.
The internet is full of websites that do exactly what we’re describing above – helping businesses streamline their sales process and enable their customers and prospects to buy more products or services, all from one screen! These sites are called “eCommerce” sites, which clearly tells us how powerful this technology platform is, and most of them are built by small companies with very small budgets; usually less than $1k for development costs.. These guys make dozens of these websites every day; this means that there’s plenty of competition out there for any job opening, even if it’s just one page! It also means that if someone wants something done differently from others in the market, like being able to create multiple eCommerce sites without having programming skills, then they’ll generally have the chops needed to pull it off.
Conclusion
Choosing the right web design company can be a tricky decision. There are so many things to consider! The first step to choosing the right company is to make a list of what you want your website to do. For example, do you want a blog? Do you want to sell products? Do you want a mobile-friendly site? Are you looking for a full-service agency or just someone to build a website for you?
Once you have a list of what you want, you can begin to shop around for companies that can fulfill your needs. Don’t be afraid to ask for references or a portfolio from potential companies. When you have a few potential companies in mind, the next step is to meet with them to see if they are a good fit. Many companies offer free consultations that can answer all of your questions. The final step is to choose the right company! Choosing the right web design company is an important decision, so take your time and make sure to choose the
If there is anything thing we can help you with your website design need, you’re most welcome to ask for a free consultation session with us
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