Web Design As (part of a) Marketing Strategy - Part 2
February 11th, 2006
This post assumes you read part one of the series.
If you are a small business contacting me for Web design services, you will receive different treatment than a corporate client who comes knocking (by email of course!). Why is this? By experience, I have learned that I need to make some assumptions about types of clients.
Assumptions About Corporate Clients
- The first assumption I make is that a corporation knows its marketing challenges and that it has already set a direction for advertising/marketing/promotion that is working. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have the budget to call me.
- My second assumption is that my feedback to a corporate client will deal with content suggestions and design approaches exclusively.
Though these two assumptions may not prove to be universally true, they have been a relatively reliable guide. Usually, if a corporation has a marketing challenge their budget allow an expert consultant to advise them in a particular area. This takes the load off of me in regards to their success and failure and allows me to focus on my core competency, which is after all, Web design!
Assumptions About Small Businesses
- What small businesses usually need is a marketing solution. While I can’t offer all pieces of this, I can help them think through their product offering, their likely allies, and we can research together what experts might need to be consulted to reach their goals.
- Small business clients (at least those just getting started) rarely have clearly articulated, measurable goals. I will try to determine if these goals are in place and how a Web site might help reach those goals.
Once we have an idea of what goals are set and what challenges there will be to their achievement, we can begin working on a small business Web site.
Without very clearly articulated goals, most small businesses do not continue to maintain a Web site and will not likely gain much from having one. Since I am invested in the success of my clients, this is something I want to avoid.
I love working with small businesses, it is where the greatest rewards can be had … and the greatest heartbreaks and losses. This is why, potential small business client, when you open a dialog I am likely to tell you hard truths as I see them and ask you tough questions before I ever design a Web site.
Entry Filed under: Internet Marketing, What's Happening Here
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