Why Hire a Web-Design Company

Provided by Hall Marketing, Inc.
Scarborough, ME
www.hallme.com

Why Hire A Web-Design Company To Develop Your Business’s Web Presence?….…and other answers to your web-business questions

What Type of Web Site Do You Need?

Not every business needs an online store. But even if e-commerce isn’t part of your business plan, there are plenty of other ways to use the Web to grow your business.
Some options and ideas available to your business website…

Create a Brochure Web Site

Like the name suggests, this type of Web site exists to promote your business and to educate customers about your products and services. You can use your Web site to publish background information about your business, provide customer references
and testimonials, link to media coverage related to your business or simply cover the latest news about your company’s products and services.

Brochure sites don’t have to be especially large or complex; in some cases, a single page with a few paragraphs of text and a couple of images will do. But you should always keep the site as up to date as possible. A stale, outdated Web site will reflect
poorly on your business and discourage potential customers.

When you advertise your business in other media, such as newspapers, television or the local Yellow Pages, be sure to include your Web site address. This is a great way to keep customers up to date on the latest news about your business and provide additional information to potential customers.

Set Up a Customer Service Web Site

You can’t always be available for your customers — but your Web site can. Many businesses use their sites to publish their hours of operation, phone numbers and other contact information, and return, exchange and delivery policies. You can also include links to forms or email addresses customers can use to provide feedback. If you give customers a way to provide feedback, however, be sure to read and respond to their messages promptly — within 48 hours if possible.

Some Web sites provide customers with information about the status of their orders. This could be something as simple as a form where a customer can enter a tracking number from an overnight delivery service and get an update on the location of their
order. More advanced systems actually link to a company’s internal inventory and order-tracking systems, giving customers a real-time update of the status of their orders.

Post Your Newsletters Online

Firms often publish their own newsletters or magazines as a way to market their products and build customer loyalty. A Web site makes it much easier to publish a newsletter; you don’t have to pay printing costs or postage, and online newsletters are easy to update and post. Give your customers the option to provide their email addresses if they want to receive the latest news about your company’s products and services. Doing this allows you to push information out to your customers instead of relying on them to revisit your site.

Again, make sure you don’t bite off more than you can chew with an online newsletter. Far too many businesses allow their Web sites to languish for months or even years without adding anything new. If a customer sees a “ghost site,” they might assume the company has gone out of business. Keeping your online newsletter fresh, timely and relevant is a great way to reap big marketing benefits at a reasonable price.

Post Your Contact Information

Your customer service contact information (or a link to it) should appear on every page of your site. If people get confused or need additional information, they should be able to easily find your phone number and email address.

Along with your company’s address, phone number, fax number and email address, list your hours and days of operation. The Web gives people 24/7 access to your business, but that doesn’t mean you can answer their questions and ship their orders around the clock. It’s also a good idea to let customers know how long it will take you to process their orders or email requests. Don’t leave people hanging: Fast response time is an important feature of any Web site.

Hone Navigation and Search Functionality

If you expect people to transact, you need to have a Web site where customers can find what they want. Make your site’s hierarchy logical, and base it on your customers’ wants and needs, not on your company’s organizational structure. Make
it easy for consumers to find prices and information about products, payment methods, and return and exchange policies.

Improve Checkout

Creative Good concludes that nearly half of all e-customers abandon their virtual shopping carts without making purchases. In fact, the research firm identifies checkout as the No. 1 obstacle on Web sites. Why? The reasons are myriad, but it usually comes down to frustration: Customers get aggravated and abort their
transactions.

To close more sales on your site, determine these points of frustration and fix them. Security remains a primary concern for many Web shoppers, so post your security and privacy policies. And remember, consumers don’t like surprises when they shop
online. They want to learn about products before they buy them and see the total taxes and shipping and handling charges before they complete the transaction.

Set Up an FAQ Page

The goal of a frequently-asked-questions page is twofold: It gives people on your site an immediate answer to some of their more straightforward questions, and it cuts down on the number of support requests you’ll get. Cover the basics, and base
your FAQs on real questions your customers have had in the past. If you don’t have customers yet, enlist friends to peruse your site and record questions they have about your company, its products or anything else they want to know.

How to Choose a Web Design Company

Once you decide you need a Web site, it’s time to decide who will build it. If you have the technical know-how or the money to hire a full-time Web staff, you can develop the site yourself. But if you’re like most small businesses, you’ll want to outsource the work.
Be careful who you hire, though. A poorly designed Web site can cost you money, drive away customers and hurt your reputation. Follow a few basic steps to increase your odds of hiring a creative, technically savvy and cost-effective design firm.

Assess your needs. You can hire contractors to create, implement and maintain your site. If your site will serve only as an online brochure, consider outsourcing the creation and implementation, while handling future maintenance – like fixing broken links – in-house. Be realistic about your own goals and growth plans so you know whether to hire a long-term or a short term contractor.
Research each candidate’s work. It’s essential that you research a Web developer’s work so you can evaluate their potential. Once you’ve found a few developers you like – through recommendations, Web directories or competitors’ sites – evaluate their online portfolios and fees. A site doesn’t have to be flashy to do its job, but you must appreciate the developer’s design sense. Also, consider hiring a firm familiar with your particular industry.
Evaluate their services. Decide if the developer meets your needs. If you want to sell your products online, look for proven e-commerce experience. If you’re considering a one-person firm, does the developer have the skills necessary to create everything you need? On the other hand, will you get lost in the shuffle at a larger firm with lots of other clients? Determine what extras the firms offer, such as copywriting, marketing and other services.
Meet face-to-face. . Your Web design firm, whether a one-person shop or a multinational company, is going to present your Web persona to the world. You must be able to work collaboratively. Ask yourself these questions and rely on your gut reaction:
- Do they listen to my needs?
- Do they explain issues in ways I can understand?
- Do they know my industry?
- Do they share my vision for the site?
Check references. Browsing a company’s work is helpful, but you also want to know how they work. A Web design firm can be the most creative in the world, but if it never finishes your site, it won’t do you much good. Call past clients and ask if the design firm:
- Adhered to deadlines.
- Met their requests.
- Was responsive to suggestions and questions.
- Fixed problems promptly.
- Worked within the original budget.
Think ahead. Over the past year, hundreds of Web design firms of all sizes have merged, cut back their operations or simply closed. Although it’s impossible to know for sure whether or not a firm will be around in the future, you have a right to ask questions if you expect to build a long-term relationship. You should also ask whether a design firm will accept payment in stages or whether they’ll demand most of their payment up front. Firms that aren’t willing to link payment to their own ability to deliver might not be
worth the risk you’ll take to deal with them.

The Cost of Building a Web Site

Determining how much it costs to build a Web site is a tough job. On one hand, you could do the job yourself or hire a couple of college kids to put together a low-budget site. On the other hand, the average business Web site is a lot more complex — and
harder to build — than it used to be.

If you need a truly professional Web site, you’ll want to hire a professional firm. Web developers do more than just code HTML — they help you decide what information to place on your site; create graphics, logos and other marketing collateral; connect your site to databases and e-commerce systems; and add
multimedia and other types of content. A typical Web development team can include a dozen or more people, each with a particular specialty.

How much will a professional firm cost? Here’s the bad news: Building a Web site is expensive, and it’s going to stay expensive.
Why do Web sites cost so much? Although many Web design firms are finding it harder to land new customers, many of the costs associated with Web development — hardware, software licenses, database administration and custom programming —are as expensive as ever.

Even so, there are ways to save money. Try these five tips to get the most out of your Web development dollar:

Use a firm that provides one-stop shopping for site
development, hosting and maintenance. You’ll get a better deal from a company that sees you as a long-term partner and a source of continuing revenue.
If you’re going to build more than one site, such as separate Internet and intranet sites, consider awarding both projects to one firm in exchange for a volume discount.
Developers might give you a deal on cutting-edge projects, such as intranets and online stores. The same rule applies to up-and-coming Web firms that want to establish themselves.
Do your own advance work, such as scanning images, and use existing marketing collateral. Also consider training yourself or one of your employees to maintain the site.
Control costs by controlling your expectations. Do you really need streaming video or an industrial-strength database? Is that fancy Java application worth the price you’ll pay for it? Set your priorities, decide what you can afford and resist “feature creep” in your Web development plans.

What Do You Need to Know to Hire a Web Builder?

Broadly speaking, you’ll need to know two things: what you want and what a particular Web builder can give you.
First, assess your priorities. Do you want the equivalent of an online brochure? Do you have a catalog or product database that you’d like to put online? Are you planning to open an online store? You don’t have to know how to do these things — just whether you want them and how much money you have to spend on them.

Next, think ahead a little bit. Do you have the knowledge to host your own Web server, or would you like someone else to worry about that? Can you maintain the site once it’s built, or will you need help? Web developers offer a variety of long-term
service and support options, including Web hosting and maintenance agreements.

Do your homework before you approach a Web development firm. Many Web sites include links to the companies that built them; if a particular site catches your attention, find out who created it. As a rule, you’ll want to deal with firms that have a local office. Even though the Web is an international medium, you don’t want to
pursue a long-distance relationship with a Web builder.

Once you’ve selected a few candidates, check their work and their references carefully. Don’t judge a Web builder just on the size or importance of its clients — decide whether a firm has experience creating the kind of site that you need.

How Do Web Design Firms Differ from One Another?

Web builders come in all shapes and sizes. As the medium grows, so do the opportunities for niche and specialty shops to find a place in the market. Here are a few pointers on what to expect from different kinds of firms.

Small “sole proprietor” shops: These include firms with a few employees who have a good general knowledge of HTML, scripting and graphic design. Small firms may also hire freelance employees who provide database, programming or ecommerce services on a case-by-case basis.

Pros: More value for your dollar and more attentive customer service. Some professional shops offer one-stop shopping for web hosting, development, and marketing.
Cons: Some firms stretch themselves too thin, but professional firms will be easily recognized.

Medium-size Web development shops: These firms employ up to a few dozen employees spread across several technical specialties. They can handle most projects in-house, and they may also provide marketing or advertising services.

Pros: These firms can provide one-stop shopping at a reasonable price.
Cons: Many Web firms are growing too quickly, and they may not be able to provide consistent service or support. The personal, friendly customer service smaller firms practice to is often lost.

Large interactive firms: These shops provide end-to-end planning for even the most complex Web development projects. In addition to first-class technical expertise, a large firm can offer marketing and brand management services, develop online advertising campaigns, and provide custom systems integration and consulting. Some of the largest firms, such as USWeb/CKS, have morphed into international franchises with dozens of branches and hundreds of employees.

Pros: These established firms can handle any project.
Cons: You’ll pay dearly for their services. Expect to become a number. Expect little personal customer service.

Why Can’t You Build Your Own Web Site?

The question isn’t whether you can build your site in house, it’s whether you should. It’s easy enough to master the Web development basics — a few hours with an HTML book or a Web authoring tool is all you need. In fact, most Web sites, including any number of business sites, are do-it-yourself projects.

As businesses raise the bar on what makes a “good” Web site, however, homegrown efforts are becoming both more complex and more expensive. A no-frills Web site requires some knowledge of HTML, graphic design and perhaps a bit of scripting. More advanced sites require skilled programmers, multimedia developers, user interface designers and even database administrators. If you want a full-scale online store — the top of the Web commerce totem pole — you may need some heavy-duty
programming, design and systems integration experts to do the job.

When you think about building your own Web site, consider what it will take to keep your site running. Can you afford a full-time database administrator to maintain your online catalog? Will any of your employees know how to create additional graphics
and images for your Web site? Many sites cost as much to maintain during the first year as they do to build — are you prepared to invest in the staff to handle the job yourself?

Wouldn’t It Be Cheaper to Hire the Kid down the Block to Build Your Web Site?

Hiring “the kid down the block” certainly would save you money in the short run. If your goal is to publish a basic Web site with only a few pages and no special features, you might indeed benefit from paying a student or a novice to create your site.

For more advanced projects, however, cut-rate Web developers may not be able to do the job. Large Web sites require developers who understand how people will use the site and how best to set up the site’s navigation tools. Scripting, multimedia and other advanced features can wreck a site if they aren’t used carefully — for example, a script that works perfectly on one user’s machine might crash another’s. Graphic design issues raise another challenge: It is surprisingly hard to prepare images that
download quickly but still look good, or to select color schemes that make your site attractive and easy to read.

Don’t forget your competitive situation. If your competitors offer sloppy, thrown together sites, you’ve got a great opportunity to wow customers with a professional design. If you’re competing against first-class Web efforts, can you afford to offer anything less?

Who Owns Your Web Site: Your Company or the Web Design Firm That Built the Site?

Common sense suggests that if you hire a Web developer to build your site, whatever they create belongs to you. But that isn’t always the case.

According to U.S. copyright law, if you hire a Web design firm as an independent contractor, that design firm owns all of the content that it creates. In a case such as this, the law treats the contractor as an “author” and automatically grants them
ownership of the work. Even if your business works together with a design firm on your Web site, the design firm might be able to claim joint ownership of the site’s design and content. Obviously, this could create a major problem for your business.

Make sure your contract or agreement with your design firm includes a clause that assigns the ownership of the firm’s work to your business. This agreement must be in writing — oral copyright assignments aren’t enforceable. Most standard Web
development agreements assign the copyright to the client, but you should always make sure the assignment clause gives you complete, unquestioned ownership over every aspect of your Web site.

Are You Liable for Others’ Products That You Sell on Your Web Site?

Even though the Web is still a very young medium, the law is fairly clear: Your business is liable for the products it sells online — just as it would be if you sold the same products in a physical store. Therefore, you should take special care when you repeat another firm’s claims about products that you sell, and you should be aware of any characteristics that might target a product for legal action. Ignorance is not a defense — nor is a disclaimer on your Web site.

In fact, your best course of action is to prevent product liability problems before they happen. Deal only with reputable merchants who sell quality products. Know what you’re selling, and carefully check your products against the descriptions or claims published on your site. If a product includes a service agreement or a warranty, make sure that it is legally sound. And if a product presents a possible safety hazard, or if it makes health or dietary claims, consult with a professional before you sell the product or repeat its claims on your site.

How Much of Your Web Site Should You Copyright or Trademark?

Generally speaking, copyright is a form of ownership that applies to the text, graphics, design and other content on your Web site. As long as you have an ownership claim on all of the content on your Web site, you also automatically hold a copyright on that content. You don’t have to register your copyright with the government to protect it, although doing so is necessary to take legal action against others who violate your copyright.

A trademark or service mark is a particular symbol, name or phrase that identifies your business and helps consumers to recognize it. Your site’s name may qualify as a service mark, for example, and the names of the products on your site may qualify
as trademarks. In addition, if part of your site has a unique, distinctive appearance — a very recognizable graphic design, for example — then it may qualify for trademark protection, because that part of your site basically serves as “packaging” for your product or service.

To protect your trademarks, conduct a search to ensure that your mark does not infringe on an existing one, and then register your trademark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. This does not guarantee that no one will ever challenge your trademark, but it does strengthen your case if there is a problem. Copyright and
trademark registrations can get complicated, and you may want to hire a legal professional to help you with the registration process. If you’re serious about protecting your company’s intellectual property, however, registration is a wise investment.

Do You Need Another Web Site’s Permission to Link Your Web Site to Theirs?

No, but it’s a good idea to get permission anyway. If you do link to another Web site without permission, be sure to link to its home page. There have been some disputes about links that bypass a site’s home page, because this practice may cut into the linked site’s advertising revenues.

Web site publishers have also objected when other sites go beyond linking and use framed content. For example, a site may use three frames on its page, one of which displays text and images from another site. This practice confuses viewers about who owns what content, and it may violate copyright laws. In addition, you should never use a linked site’s trademark on your site without permission.

Finally, you should always avoid direct linking — the process of taking another site’s graphics or multimedia content by embedding its URL in your own Web page. Direct linking allows a site to use another site’s copyrighted material without attribution — a clear violation of both Internet ethics and copyright law.

Hall Marketing, Inc.
7 Oak Hill Terrace, PO Box 6877
Scarborough, ME 04070-6877
207-885-0694 (tel), 801-659-2818 (fax)
www.hallme.com