Web Designers and Marketing

[RDlaw]

In our company we provide marketing data which we can provide all sorts of criteria.... one thing we all target is web designers because we think they tend to favour/prefer new businesses as they wouldn't already have a website ? is this true ?

 

[AllUpHere]

No, decent web designers won't buy new business data.

 

[fisicx]

No. Most of my work comes from people who have a site but need it fixing. Usually because they built it themselves.

 

[RDlaw]

ahhh right I see, I personally have never tried targeting web designers but with the new year I was looking into it and I don't want to try and sell a dead horse.... thanks for your input guys much appreciated

 

[AllUpHere]

Just because web designers in the know won't buy your data, it doesn't necessarily mean web designers are not a decent target for you. You can write what the vast majority of web designers know about marketing on a Post it. There are huge numbers of web designers scrabbling around for work, and I'm sure a good proportion would consider buying data as a good idea.

 

[RDlaw]

I don't know if they are or not because ive never targeted them, just people in are office talk about it and how start up data is what we need to promote but I thought id ask you all to see if its true

 

[fisicx]

Start ups are the worst people to build websites for. They have no idea of the cost of anything and want the full bells and whistles for 50p because that's how much a 1and1 website costs.

 

[makeusvisible]

I would second the above regarding start-ups. Many years ago, when I was a one man band, I used to target start-ups. Experience very quickly taught me how wrong this strategy was. The issues....

1. Often startups have no past experience of websites. This leads to unrealistic expectations for an unrealistic budget, on an unrealistic timescale.

2. Often startups do not have any form of marketing budget. Many startups fall into the trap of considering their website as their entire marketing strategy, and budget £0 towards generating traffic to the site...and thus they fail.

3. Many startups base their decision of developer on price alone.

4. Sadly, many start-ups fail...which means trying to be competitive on design prices is counter productive, as the chance of a long term relationship with a start-up is reduced compared to the chances with an established business.

That said we try never turn business away, but I do always ask a startup if they have a business plan for us to gain an understanding of the business. From past experience, if there is no business plan, there is unlikely to be a long term relationship.

 

[ASAP Marketing]

I can say, categorically, that many web designers are interested in brand new business data. The key is being the first in your catchment area to contact the new firms.

 

[AllUpHere]

I can say, categorically, that many web designers are interested in brand new business data.

Only the ones who don't know any better.

 

[Alan]

We used new business data when we started in web design business. We got it from Michrome, dead cheap.

We did get a couple of initial leads, and in fact one from 4 years ago has grown in to a significant client.

However, this is the exception, and we certainly didn't bother after a couple of months.

The reasons very much as Fisix says, that most startups have absolutely no idea and no money.

The best clients, are what we called third generation web site owners.

The first generation, they have spend ages struggling with a builder like Wix themselves and then ..

The second generation they have got a friend/relative that 'knows' web design, or a discount offshore cheap web design co, to build a site on the cheap - but now they can't get hold of them / get what they need, don't understand why the site doesn't get them business. and then ..

The third generation, they now have a serious business and an understanding of the value-add that a website can bring and are prepared to pay thousands of £ for the level of expertise that they want as they now understand some principles like you get what you pay for.

 

[boring-friday]

2. Often startups do not have any form of marketing budget. Many startups fall into the trap of considering their website as their entire marketing strategy, and budget £0 towards generating traffic to the site...and thus they fail.

Definitely this, most think if they get a pretty website the sales will be flowing. I remember chatting with a family member who works a good job etc a while after starting my business and they said 'oh right so when I search for **** your website shows up?'
Well no because I'd be the richest person in the world in a few years if I could click my fingers and get google to put me first just because I'd made a pretty website

 

[fisicx]

Agree with that. There is a tenders thread at the moment where all the OP wants is a nice looking website. And there are plenty of other threads where the OP is struggling to convert despite having (in their eyes) a pretty website.

Pretty doesn't convert. Content converts. Pretty is just the bling you put round the outside.

I had a client whose site didn't convert. I pointed out the lack of calls to action anywhere. But they didn't want to change the site because they had spent a fortune making it look pretty and adding a call to action to the page meant it wouldn't look pretty. They went bust soon after.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

I agree startups are not the target market for a seasoned developer 2nd and 3rd generation clients know the difference between a good and a bad developer and once they find someone good they want to hold on for dear life due to past experiences. Plus start-ups generally are a nightmare to schedule into a studio as they don't have their sitemap, content and even feature set defined and finalised so you can be waiting months to get the job moving and then they want a ridiculous turn around once they are ready. They also don't want to pay someone to create the content for them.

However, that doesn't mean it is a complete bust, bad or inexperienced developers (which there are many of) may want to buy the list. So I would target new web design companies or new web designers. Pair the two and they can learn the hard way together, leaving the people that can actually make a difference to pick up the pieces on round 2 or 3.

 

[Charlibombarli]

As a start up this thread has made me feel nervous getting in touch with a web developer.

 

[AllUpHere]

As a start up this thread has made me feel nervous getting in touch with a web developer.

Just make sure you have a marketing strategy in place along with a suitable budget, before you contact them.

In my experience, most problems are caused by clients thinking web devs and designers can help them with their marketing.

 

[serendipitybusiness]

Awe I am sorry if we have made you feel this way. The first time hiring a developer and creating your first website is a nerve wrecking experience as it is without us lot adding to it.

Finding a good developer is hard, I have 15 years experience and even I couldn't find someone I could trust to hand over my clients to when I stopped working on client projects and I know what to look for. However they are out there. What myself and the other posters meant is that start ups are not our sweet spot market. It doesn't mean that we reject start ups looking for help, we are just more cautious in the initial stages. I have worked with many start ups in the past and I can't speak for others but I am happy to hold their hand through the process as long as they are willing to listen and take direction.

Firstly by reading this post alone you have made a good start. You can save yourself a lot of headaches and money by following my 'golden rules'.

Before you even speak to a web design company or developer do the following things.

1. Have a look at websites you like, take screenshots and notes regarding why you like the site and what you don't like about it.
2. Have a look at the websites of successful businesses in your industry or trying to reach your market, this will give you an idea of what they are doing right, take notes.
3. Think about your target market, who are they, what will they respond to, think about what they need from you and the questions they may ask, answer them.
4. Create your sitemap ie home, contact us etc
5. Create the page content for your site map or if you are planning to hire a copywriter get them to create it or if you want your chosen developer to refer you to a copy writer make notes, remember nobody knows your business better than you, so give them the information and let them work their magic and turn this into content that is SEO friendly and gives you a better chance of conversion.
6. Get your images together, if you don't have any make a note of the kind of images you want with the content, what do you want your images to say.
7. Think about the functionality, imagine the website in your head what do you need it to do.

Then and only then should you start looking for a development team and send all of this too them in one document a 'design brief'. Don't go for the cheapest, good developers don't work for peanuts. Make sure you look at their portfolio and that they respond to your actual brief. If they don't respond in direct relation to your brief, they haven't read it. The devil is in the detail in briefs, something that is tiny conceptually can be massive in terms of programming needs and schedule. A good developer will do due diligence at this stage, an average one will look at it once you have reminded them mid development and add time and money onto the development or tell you it can't be done.

Once you have agreed on everything and initiated development don't start changing things, think of building your website as you would a house, you start moving walls mid development it is going to cost you in time and schedule.

If you follow these rules you will have a better end product, you will have a cheaper initial quote as there is no added costs to the initial quote for unknowns or finger in the air pricing and your development will be faster and hassle free.

Hope this helps