With your business registration done (or maybe before so that you can gauge the viability and direction of your business), its time to communicate what you do to your local market, or to the world.
By now you should know the importance of a website. It gets your name out there, it shows off your products and services, acts like a 24hr salesperson, and creates a sense of community and authority if done right.
Considerations before building a website:
What is it that you want to communicate?
What products and services do you offer? What do you specialize in? How do you normally interact with your customers?
Do you want to launch in phases, or launch the entire entity at once?
What are your competitors doing?
Keep some notes on what your competition is doing. See whats working for them. Or what isn’t working for them. What can you do better in order for people to understand more about what you specialize in? How can you make your user experience a clean and productive one for visitors?
What do your website visitors/customers want to see?
Your customers obviously need your products or services if they are visiting your website. What it is they are after? Specifically? Is it to see more case study and installations of your products? Do they want to see your track record of selling homes? Testimonials? Or do they want to see what other types of products you carry in a clean and organized fashion? Get out and talk to your current customers, or those that might be interested in your business. Get a feel for what they want to see on your website.
Website costs to keep in mind:
Domain name. Domain names usually float in the areas of $8 – $20 depending on the extention. (.com, .ca, .co, .org) These are paid out on an annual renewal basis.
Monthly Website Hosting
Think of a web server, or web host, as a storage box that houses all of your website related files. It is what customers call into using your domain name in order to reach your website. Monthly fees are required in order to manage, update and keep that web server in working order. These can range anywhere from $5/month up to $100 and more depending on the size of your business and the type of content you wish to serve. Small and mid sized businesses should expect to pay anywhere from$15-$30/month for website hosting. Remember, you get what you pay for.
Stay tuned in for what comes next!
After we have a background on your business, the products and services you offer, and a look at what your competition is doing, we can start looking into the user experience of your website. How content will be laid out and communicated in the best way for your visitors and potential customers. This is the basis for your web strategy.
After we have compiled a rough walkthrough, wireframe and site map for your small business website, we can then journey into the look and feel area where we play with colours, fonts, layouts and imagery.
