Designing websites but targeting just one industry

[mdavies]

If you as a designer had to specialise and create sites for one industry, what would you pick? see the poll for types.

[kyber]

I voted for Restaurants as I think this is the area that is least well served with standardised offerings that offers a viable market for a small web design business to take on.

Many of the smaller private restaurants (outside of London at least) are only just becoming aware of the need to promote their business on the web. You would need to research the market of course. It may be promotion of special offers to fill tables during weekday lunch times or evening is critical, pre-booking of parties, etc. Some may not want to offer booking but promote the quality of their food.

Those that have had a first go (done by a friend/kid in the family) will perhaps be ready for a better proposition.

Good luck whatever you decide.

Stuart

[Rob Holmes]

Hi,

I went for restaurants because I know the industry a little (I developed a restaurant marketing system) and there are enough around.

I would say I've found they can be a hard nosed bunch!

By all means PM me if you want an explanation of the marketing system for restaurants.

BTW which industry do you know best?

Rob

[odeniyi]

None of the above until I researched the industry that gets searched for the most.

I know I'm not strictly answering the question but research before making such a decision is of paramount importance IMHO

[epiphany]

I thought about voting in this thread a few times but I keep resisting :)

I just wouldn't put all my eggs in one basket and particularly with your poll choices; there is too much cross over between some of your options to justify giving them separate categories. Just my pennies worth :D

[Rob Holmes]

on the debate of picking a niche or not...

Take a restaurant for example.

I wonder if there are 2 webdesigners speaking to the same restaurant owner... one that does websites in general and one that specialises and gears their business around providing websites for restaurants - which one would have more of a chance?

I suspect the business specialising in the restaurants would have more favour - they could 'say' they understand the industry more (which they would after a little time spent with multiple customers in the same industry) - they could talk about the industry and would probably be able to show and talk about common interests within the industry, as well as being able to share about being a small business.

Rob

[odeniyi]

Interesting debate.

I suspect a small restaurant owner would probably choose whomever he liked the best and the specialisation may not carry too much weight.

If I was the restaurant owner, I would choose whoever I thought could do the best job as I wouldn't want my site looking like all the rest.

Given how general website design is I think specialisation would would be most useful in terms of networking in a niche area.

To modify my comments above - methinks it's isn't so much which area gets searched for the most but rather which industry seems to have the greatest need wrt website design - such info will convey the greatest opportunity :)

[epiphany]

I think any web designer worth their salt would make an effort to understand the business they were making a web design for. As you say it is an advantage to be able to suggest relevant issues to the business owner but calling yourself a specialist doesn't mean you are going to be able to do that better than a well tuned webber. If you have done a few websites for restaurants then yes fair enough you can pitch that you are a specialist in some of your marketing material but don't get too hung up on it.

[Rob Holmes]

I agree, yes when I did web design myself I enjoyed learning the business I was going to do the work for. It certainly helped being able to communicate at ground level with the real 'lingo' with the customer - but we did websites for any business too (no point turning away the work) !

My experience in real life is that being able to share results of other businesses (with their permission of course) in the same sector that had benefitted from our systems dramatically increased my successful sales to other customers in the same sector.

Rob

Rob

[mdavies]

The polls suggest I wont be spending much time in pubs.........

Cheers everyone!