Project: Website Revision

One of the hardest challenges for a graphic designer is to design marketing material for your own business. We can set a high bar for ourselves. And people can be harsh critics. I thought I might share the process of attempting to build a website that both lives up to my business name, and works. A website that attracts business!

PREPARATION
This is important. Answering these questions will help you determine whether you need a website in the first place, and what type of website should it be. Why are you creating the website?
What do you want it to achieve?
How will you drive customers to your website?
What do you want you potential customers to do when they get there.

TYPES OF WEBSITES
The corporate profile website – sometimes built because the business feels they need to have a website because they are expected to.
The portfolio website – a place to show the world what you can do. You want to attract enquires.
The eStore - you want to sell products directly from your website using a shopping basket. This type of website is quite technical.

DON'T IGNORE OTHER FORMS OF ADVERTISING
Many business owners believe when they set up their website, they will be able to drop all other forms of advertising. You cannot ignore the 'cross fertilisation' achieved by driving potential customers to your website from URLs on press ads, vehicles, email newsletters, or perhaps pay per click ads on google.

IN MY CASE . . . A portfolio website. I want to attract enquires. Now I'm told good website are ones that have enough interest to hold viewers and keep them from just skipping through to another site. I will try to add interest to my website with the Footnotes your reading here, and also create a newsletter where each issue becomes a permanent page on the website under Marketing Tips. Hopefully these tweaks will enhance my credibility and attract worthwhile prospects.