If you are reading this, you are most likely thinking of having your very first website built or looking at revamping your business website in the near future.

Building a new website can be a very daunting task, but luckily, we at Banter see this as a chance to reevaluate your business, trim some fat and sharpen it’s overall image! You’ll learn a lot about your brand, and might even have some fun doing it!

These 6 questions are the basis of every website design and should be considered carefully as it will minimise time wastage, grey hairs and keep you on track.

1. What do you want your website to accomplish?

As a part of understanding your business, you need to figure out what it is you want out of your website, what do you want your website to do? This is the most important question to answer before you embark on this journey. Think of the “big picture,” what are the top three things you need or want from your website? Who are you talking to? Your website’s top priority might be one of the following:

  • Information – You may wish to simply provide information about your business and your industry.
  • Drive to Location/Shop – You may want to direct customers to your location and show what you have in stock.
  • Sales/e-Commerce – You might take it a step further and create a storefront that enables the customers to quickly browse and purchase products directly from your site.
  • Portfolio – If you have a project-based business, you may need a place to display your portfolio.
  • Drive to Newsletter sign-up – Customers might also like to sign up for a newsletter for more frequent content.

Jot down your needs and prioritise them. What is the most important thing to you?

2. How much can you afford to invest?

Consider your budget and evaluate all costs before engaging with a design company. Be sure to have a list of your business needs to launch a website and any other forms of marketing. It might happen that your budget makes a lot of your decisions for you. After all, when you are ready to purchase a car, you have a predetermined budget in mind before walking into a dealership, so be prepared to answer this question when it is asked.

If you are working on a tight budget, list the top needs first so that they are prioritised. You may need a simple landing page, a products or services page and a contact form to start with. However if you are looking at a far more complex website with custom backend features, you’re likely to be forking over more cash due to the many hours of development that may be required for this complex website. If you want the frills and spills of a BMW, be prepared to pay for the price of a BMW.

If you want your website to have the frills and spills of a BMW, be prepared to pay the price of a BMW. Share on X

3. Do you have a clear brand identity?

To build your dream website, you should have a clear idea of what you would like your brand to look like so that customers can recognise and relate to your website. This clarity is essential in building up your brand for long-term success. For example; your logo, header images, menu styles, color palettes, typography, images, and content all contribute to your brand image. These should be consistent throughout all of your branding.

Thankfully, our team of brilliant visual designers do the hard work for you by scouring the web for good examples of consistent branding and styles from which you can find inspiration. You’ll see how a website’s tone differs because of a company’s color, font, and other visual choices. Be sure to clarify your company’s ‘look and feel’ in your own mind to help guide your website design choices. Banter specialises in digital design and UX development so that you can help achieve your desired brand identity.

4. What content do you need?

Content is King. Content Marketing is all the rage these days and it’s easy to see why. It delivers results. But gathering content can become a bit of a nightmare. Delays in content creation can push your website launch dates far behind schedule. Your web designer or developer won’t write your copy, select your portfolio photos, or put together your video testimonials. The onus falls on you. So make a list of all the content you’ll need to gather or generate and have it ready before you begin building.

If you are not able to create excellent content yourself, Banter will assist you in supplying the best copywriters and content creators to get you started. We also suggest you get a sitemap and an SLA agreement that will make sure everyone is on the same page with regards to the process, what to expect and a commitment to deliverables.

5. What is your timeline to launch your website?

As a general rule, the shorter the lead-time for building a website, the higher the cost. So if your website is more complicated than an average 3 page profile, you’ll want to make sure to set up a reasonable timeline and launch schedule to be able to meet your deadlines and of course, stay on budget.

On average, a website takes anything from 5 weeks to 4 months dependent on how simple or complex the project is, and most importantly, how fast you can move as a client and how much content you have ready. As a digital agency, Banter can meet tight deadlines, so long as our clients are prepared to move just as fast and efficiently as we do.

6. What are your biggest frustrations?

This may come as a surprise question, and there is method in our madness. Banter work with many clients that have had really poor past experiences with website developers. From freelance developers disappearing in the dark of night with your investment and no website to show for it, to having free websites built by a family member on “what you see is what you get” website creation tools that never get traffic. Sometimes your frustration can be as simple as your website never reaching launch status, or not being found on Google.

It’s hard to bounce back once you’ve been burned once (or more!). But it’s important to get back on the proverbial horse and try again. Or do it right the first time! To make sure your past frustrations are not repeated, work with a company that has a proven track record of building excellent websites.

Time and time again, Banter provides the creativity & flexibility in our work approach and deliverables. Our highly responsive and quick turnaround time have ensured many a business has met their deadlines, launched on time and effectively seen an increase in ROI.

Conclusion

Once you have figured out what your goals for your website are and what your budget is, you can launch right into making a cohesive brand identity and gathering or creating the rich content you need. And when you are able to dust yourself off from any bad experiences, it’s time to find the right company to make your website vision into reality.

What makes Banter different to other agencies? Our design & digital capabilities fulfil the gap that clients are desperately trying to find in an agency – a full end-to-end service offering. From initial conceptualisation and design, to implementation and production of all marketing materials, straight through to digital delivery. Our focus is to place your business on the map both locally and globally.

Have you had a bad experience in web design? Let us help turn that around! Contact Us.

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