Some words give the illusion of grandeur and expertise much more than others, and nowhere is this truer than with titles and job descriptions.
It amazed me to hear recently that anyone (you, I or a 16 year old straight from school) can call themselves an accountant and go into business. In a similar vein, I am pretty handy with a drill, but I’m sure you would prefer a dentist to attend to your teeth; and I also know lots of people who ‘do’ websites…
Clearly there are different levels of ability in any field; from the cheap and (not-so) cheerful through to the premium, all-singing, all-dancing versions, and everything in between. The choices you make are usually based on two main factors: Cost and Requirement. The alignment of these judgements, for each individual, is usually the best solution.
When it comes to websites, cheap is rarely a good option for anyone, but the really good news is that neither is the most expensive. In fact, you should always start by asking the question that will find your perfect answer and lead to the right solution for you. Then you can decide if the cost of the solution is worthwhile to achieve your goal.
Most web designers / developers don’t understand this!
I have met and chatted with hundreds, if not thousands of business owners and the same old story pop ups. My web guy or gal, just don’t get it, they won’t change the website because they don’t understand what I want to do.
96.3% of the web developers I talk to have not studied marketing and, whilst they might be technically capable of creating a website, they will simply follow the brief… not help to develop the right solution. In other words they are ‘able’, but not ‘qualified’. This means they might be competent to ‘do’ the work, but they may well ‘do’ more damage than good in doing so (just like the accountant or dodgy-dentist). Without a foundation of knowledge in: beautiful design, buying psychology, marketing, brand development, optimisation, headlines and creating great offers… all you will ever get is ‘technical’.
Asking the right questions gets the very best answers….
Most people believe that their website should be ‘all about them’ and what they do. It is emblazoned with their logo, colours, self-penned content, self-centred message, haphazard design, unplanned flow and created to look just like their competitors’ sites… That is why most of them are wrong! And the sad thing is that it isn’t the website owners fault (well not directly anyway) because their web developer didn’t ask them the right questions. Instead, they simply built them the same site that everyone else in their marketplace has got. If it wasn’t a template then it might as well have been – it would have been cheaper.
The best websites, like any piece of great marketing, are those that are centred on the needs of the people they are trying to attract. Because they are built upon a foundation of the right questions, they give their visitors (the readers, viewers, buyers and action-takers) the information that they have actually gone out of their way to find out. This creates engagement, trust, enquiries and sales… Surely that is the ultimate purpose of any company’s website!
You don’t know what your web designer / developer doesn’t know until you speak to those who are truly in the know…
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I hope this helps… If you need any help understanding what your website need’s to be doing please feel free to download one of my free guides
