Questions to Address When Building a New Website

Here are some questions we came up with a while ago when re-doing a website, many of these are applicable to other industries and other websites, it is a good list to review as you map out building a new website:

• What emotions are your potential customers feeling?
  • Anxious – need to get the website up fast
  • Frustrated – technology is confusing, updating website is hard, current website is poor at marketing.  Current web provider not responsive and low quality
  • Confused – at who would be the best solution and how to know/make a decision on who to go with
  • Anxiety – poor experience with previous web design shops, burned by others in the past
  • Excited – those who are getting their first website are excited at growing their business
  • Apprehensive – don’t have knowledge of website design, what is involved, who to choose, etc.
  • Mistrust – they assume we are ‘just another company who can’t solve their problem or pull through’
  • Concern – about reliability, timeliness
  • Skeptical – previous experiences were not good ones

 

• How can you develop trust -> credibility -> confidence?
  • Size of Company – year founded, number and types of employees, employee profiles, # of websites we have done to date
  • Showcase clients – medium to large types of business range
  • Explain pre-design process and work, planning, scoping and how it avoids future common issues
  • Highlight our Q/A process
  • Use very specific case studies that is about  a 5-liner explaining who the client was, what their problem was, and the results
  • Give enough free advice away to establish that we are knowledgeable – such as the free SEO reports we give out
  • Emphasize how our scope of work and proposals are very detailed to avoid future issues
  • Use references from current clients, testimonials, etc.

 

• How can you be relevant & address needs/values/beliefs?
  • Address the belief that websites are cheap and easy to do
  • They are looking for ‘professional’, ‘business’ websites
  • Look at current trends such as podcasts, videos, social media, seo, ppc, facebook, twitter, etc. and examples of how to use these technologies to the client’s advantage
  • Note that we spend some time researching every client before delivering even a proposal so we understand their business more – no cookie cutter approaches
  • Don’t upsell, just cross-sell

 

• How can you encourage them to take an action?
  • Make it easy for them to contact, offer different contact methods
  • List phone numbers of specific people in different departments
  • Throw in extra services for free if they act within a certain time frame

 

• List all benefits and motives of your client.
  • They want an easy way to update their website
  • They want SEO friendly websites, marketing tools
  • They want a website that encourages people to contact them or make a purchase online
  • They want a website that will be done quickly
  • They want to use one vendor for all online needs
  • They want someone who will be reliable in developing a website for them
  • They want someone who knows about cutting edge technologies and marketing strategies
  • Want a CMS that has constant updates for free

 

• What information do they need to make a purchase?
  • Price, timeframe, quality, communication methods, processes
  • Make it easy to contact us, several different methods, different people, emphasize no sales people, preferred return communication method, form short and takes little time
  • Any guarantees, warranties, service plans, future relationship issues

 

• Customer: “How can this solution solve my problem?”

1. By you utilizing a team of 50+ professionals who will all be working together in areas of emphasis
2. Website will drive more leads/sales, positive ROI, re-enforce your brand

 

• Provide hard evidence:
  • Before and after shots/case studies
  • Case studies that have dollar amounts associated with them
  • Case studies specific to different problems/issues
  • Screenshot of a page and suggested persuasion architecture improvements

 

• Customer: ”Why is this solution best to solve my problem now?”

1. We will actually deliver – prove with examples
2. Will get you a proposal within x days
3. Can talk to someone now about your needs
4. We have lots of experience with working on many projects and knowing how to overcome common issues
5. Make it easy to contact

 

• Address immediate needs with relevant and credible solutions:
  • Explain the first phase of a project which is industry, competition, and company research

 

• Customer: ”Who has used your solution to solve our problem?”

1. Client logos and quotes
2. Client list emphasizing larger companies, case studies
3. Classify case studies into types of problems and solutions provided

 

• Testimonials, case studies, incentives:
  • If possible use specific quotes, photos, videos, screenshots, before/after, analysis, reports, graphs, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

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