Question: What should go on my website?
Answer: The content of your site should depend on the visitors you want to attract. Web People Media will work with you to determine who you are trying to reach and how best to reach them as a part of our process. One thing that is helpful, though, is to gather up all the information you currently have that is relevant to you and your business, and that your customers might want to know about. In the early stages, it’s better to err on the side of inclusiveness. Items you include in your preliminary list might not all make it onto your site, but some of them might inspire ideas that help to brand your business, or to narrow the focus on your market. Both of these are important aspects of the process.
Question: What items do you expect from my company to complete the website design?
Answer: This depends on what you want from us. Web People Media will work with you to define your needs on multiple levels, involving possible time, budget, and creative constraints, as well as considerations pertaining to market and organizational needs. This can be as much or as little as you want it to be, given that the end result will vary depending on what information and content you are able to provide. Very often clients initially do not know exactly what they want from a website, and this is fine, but it means we will need to engage in an iterative dialogue with you to define what’s important to you and to your desired visitors. Only then can we say for sure what else we might need from you to complete the project.
For this reason, we like to start by asking you to bring to early conversations everything that is important to you, and anything you think might be of interest to you or your prospective visitors. These items and concepts become talking points for discussion of where your site can go.
Question: Can you use my company’s existing logo, brochure design, and other materials for my website?
Answer: In most cases, the answer is a definite Yes. In some cases, however, you might want to consider beautifying your corporate image specifically for the web, since the web offers features such as interactivity, animation, and computer graphics that can greatly enhance your image. In all cases, you will need modifications to your provided content to format it for the web, and to make it appropriate for a web audience. So even when there is a lot of material you can use for your website in the other marketing materials you already have, be prepared to adapt them for a new environment, and keep a flexible attitude about how your materials might be used, and you will go a long way toward getting the optimum leverage out of those materials.
Question: How long will it take you to design my site?
Answer: This depends in part on how clear your vision of your site and intended visitors is. If you know exactly how your site should look and be organized, this will greatly speed up the early, more iterative portion of development. It also depends in part on how quickly information is provided to us. If you supply us with all of your content—the writing, photos, graphics, etc.—the latter half of development can also be very fast. However, many larger projects can take several weeks to a few months. If time is a critical factor, be sure to mention this early in our conversations so that we can plan and adjust your site development optimally for the results you hope to achieve. It might be that a staged approach will work best for you in this case.
Question: How involved should I be in the creation of my own website?
Answer: If you already produce your own promotional materials, you might do well to produce your own website, provided you also have a strong knowledge of web development. However, if you don’t have this knowledge, and you want to stay focused on your business, trying to learn web development might not be the most efficient use of your time. Likewise, if you know programming and site building skills, but have no design or marketing background, you would be better off getting professionals to do the parts you don’t know. Web People Media is all about collaborating, though, so don’t hesitate to bring your ideas and vision to the table!
Question: If I already have a site can you help me improve it?
Answer: Absolutely. Web People Media is all about collaboration and we want you to have exactly the website you want. We will work with you to integrate new content or functionality into your site, and to ensure that your site retains its look and feel, if that’s what you want, or gets a new look and feel, if that’s what you are ready for. It’s truly about you, and where you want to go.
