Heres how to avoid buying a costly and underperforming website.

I have found that the key determinant for creating a successful website is directly related to how much thinking is done BEFORE signing off on a website proposal.

And this thinking needs to be undertaken by both you as the client as well as your chosen website supplier.

Most companies approach the website purchasing process with the idea that the solution will emerge from talking to website companies first. While this is of course faster and easier (which is why it is the default response), it leads to higher levels of post-purchase disillusionment and website under-performance.

Now, you can approach this pre-purchase phase in a couple of ways you can do the necessary leg-work yourself or you can engage professional input. Either approach is good but if you choose to develop the necessary materials yourself, you do need to be sure that you have sufficient expertise or willingness to put in the research time to become more informed about the various aspects of website development and online business marketing tactics.

The following is a list of elements that need to be addressed as fully as possible before any work commences on your new website. This list doesnt include every single aspect that I cover when I start a website project but it should serve you to get the primary information framework established.

This list is not in a specific priority order as each business will place more or less emphasis on any given element depending on overall strategic objectives.

	Essential criteria for a new website development project
	Define the primary business objectives you want the website to achieve
	Define the key target audience that you are aiming to attract
	Define a small set of keywords or keyphrases that you want to win ranking with
	Define your key marketing message or offer
	List the functions you want people to perform on the site and then prioritise them
	Give consideration to the level of human resource available to support the ongoing maintenance and management of the website
	Create a detailed site map that reflects the above information

Once youve got some detail around the above elements you can then obtain quotes from selected website developers. In drawing up a list of website developers to approach its important that you first work out an idea of your budget. This will help you find suppliers that are within your price bracket.
 
Even though many website developers proclaim that they are a one stop shop and that they can work with most reasonable budgets, in reality each and every website company prefers working at certain price points. You need to make sure that you are not going to be treated like a second class citizen as a result of choosing a supplier whose systems are geared around higher budgets.

Heres a rough guide of the various price bands that apply to professional website suppliers. Please note that this price guide refers to a website project for a small to medium sized business - not governement departments or large corporate enterprises.

	New Zealand Website Price Guide for Small Businesses ($NZD)
	Low Budget	under $3,000
	Average Budget	$3 - $6,000
	Above Average Budget	$7 - $15,000
	Specialised Build Budget	$16 - $30,000
	Higher End Development Budget	$31,000 plus

What you want to do is ask prospective website providers what their average website projects cost. They shoud be able to give you an intelligent answer based. After all, its not difficult to calculate an average price based on past projects. Its a good idea not to reveal your budget in the first instance so that you can determine whether a genuine fit exists between their average project costs and your budget. If you detect a high level of evasion then move on to another supplier.

Once you get two to three suppliers who fit your budget you can move to the next phase of presenting them with the information that you have worked out as outlined above. Listen very carefully to their response so you get a clear sense of whether they are going to be good collaborators who are able to listen to your objectives. If they are asking relevant questions around the information that you have presented then this is a good sign.

If you get a website developer adopting any kind of condescending manner that serves to position them as the hottest-thing-since-sliced-bread, and they then go on to ignore important elements of the material that you have presented, then you should be very wary of commissioning them for your website project.

Another warning sign is if the website company starts offering you any additional modules or features or functions that dont really add to your central objectives. You need to avoid being up-sold things that arent going to really benefit your strategic positioning. Too many website companies take advantage of a lack of technical knowledge to push unnecessary and costly additions into a website project.

Its definitely OK to let your budget range be known to the two or three companies you have chosen to get a proposal from, but you dont have to offer up this information if you dont want to.

Once you get the two or three proposals back you need to evaluate them based on the following criteria first and foremost:

	Website Proposal Assessment Checklist
	Have they incorporated your information into their proposal or have they just used their standard proposal template?
	Is the proposal easy to understand and free of technical jargon?
	Is there enough detail within the proposal with clear deliverables?
	Is the price within your budget?
	Is the price within the same range as their first indication?
	Are the trading terms and conditions attached and acceptable?
	Have they added extra elements that are not a good fit for your strategy?
	Have they provided extra elements as optional costs or incorporated them into one take-it-or leave-it price?

There are other criteria but these should serve you to narrow down to the best supplier and reveal quite a bit about the approach taken by each supplier.
 
Ultimately what youre looking for is the tightest fit between your specified needs and the solutions being proposed by the various website suppliers. The best outcome comes when you have a relationship with a website developer that reflects their ability to listen and understand your business objectives. If all you get is pressure to adopt a bunch of features that dont relate to your strategic positioning then be very afraid.

Once you've chosen your website supplier there should be sufficient flexibility to the proposed development process to allow for refinement of the sitemap, development of user scenarios and more detail around functionality. This refinement process is essential to ensure that your website is optimised to achieve the best results. This may mean that the pricing will need to be reviewed but as long as what is being developed suits your core strategy and sits within your budget then this should be all OK.
 
If you would like a more comprehensive worksheet that will help you to work out your website objectives then you can request that via the following button:

Request a RedK Website worksheet. 
 
Here is more information about a couple of RedK website design projects:
 

		QUINNS MERIVALE - FASHION RETAILER Quinns enjoys substantial success as a the largest department store dedicated to women's fashions in the South Island. The company had recently engaged another website developer to assist with the launch of their first ever website but recognised part way through the project that the strategy that had been developed for them didn't meet their objectives. I was called in along with my colleague Robin Major to help steer the project towards a more compelling user experience. Robin and I took a detailed look at the situation and developed a fresh BrandPlan for the site that meshed more tightly with the Quinns service culture and reflected their specialist value proposition. We developed a unique concept that we named "The Quinns Lookfinder" which provides site users with custom designed fashion looks that capture the creativity and experience of Quinns staff. The looks are categorised around four activities: night, day, work, and play. Visitors to the site are introduced to many ideas around their particular needs and the website facilitates easy contact between the customer and Quinns. The new BrandPlan was used to get fresh quotes from the existing supplier along with a couple of other new suppliers in order to determine the best fit for the new implementation. The decision was made to move the build to a new supplier, which I supervised, resulting in a great new site that reflects the unique values that Quinns brings to fashion retail. www.quinnsmerivale.co.nz
		THE PULSE - CHRISTCHURCH LIBRARY TEEN WEBSITE RedK was asked to tender for a new initiative by Christchurch City Libraries designed to increase the level of engagement by teens with the library. It was great to win the tender as I was up against a couple of the bigger agencies in town. This was one of those projects that required a signficant amount of consultation and collaboration among a variety of stakeholders. A highly integrated approach was taken that included a number of key library staff which resulted in a design and engineering solution that served the multiple needs of various departments within the library. The final design solution went through a number of focus groups and came through with shining colours. Traffic numbers before the upgrade were about 5,000 unique visitors per month. A short time after launch of the new site numbers reached 30,000 unique visitors per month. A measurable success wouldnt you say? www.thepulse.org.nz

So let''s get started on your new website shall we?
 
Click this next button and before you know it you will be the proud owner of a shiny new logo. This next page will tell you more about the logo design process as well as my satisfaction guarantee.



 

Or would you like a chat first?

I''m happy to have a chat with you over the phone, or skype, or in person so that we can establish a clear sense of whether RedK is going to be able to help you to take your marketing communications to the next level.