The process of creating a website may seem easy, but it isn’t. Many business owners think that picking a web design agency is a simple process. However, if you don’t do your homework, you can end up with a web design that doesn’t help achieve any goals you have set out. To help you avoid this, we have some tips for you to find a perfect web design agency like Kantaloupe.
Make a list of the goals and needs of your website
Before you completely indulge yourself in the search of the most suitable web design agency for your website, you would need to have a clear idea of what you want the purpose of your website to be and the features it must have to fulfill its purpose.
- List of purposes you might want your site to have
- Integrate with your marketing automation tool, like Marketo, or Pardot.
- Allow website visitors to fill out forms directly on your website and send it to your team.
- Be able to collect payments/donations from website visitors.
- Link with your CRM, like HubSpot.
- Generate leads for your business.
Examples of Features your website would need to fulfill its purpose
- Ecommerce functionality
- An SSL certificate and HTTPs protocol
- Secure online forms
- User-friendly navigation, conversion-optimized pages, and search engine optimized content
Your website should help you in achieving your goals as it is an extension of your business. Having a list of needs, goals, wants will help you and the web design agencies you are in the search to make sure that the web design is customized for you.
Search and review nationwide and local web design agency partners
Now that the list of the wants and features of your website is ready, you must start searching for web design agency partners. Firstly, try to find partners in your local area or you also have the option of searching for partners nationwide which will allow you to find the most experienced partner for a certain industry for example, legal or dental.
By taking the help of certain social media platforms like skype, you can communicate and collaborate with people across the globe. Even if you prefer to work with partners in your local area, there’s no harm in exploring the portfolios, services offered, and experience of several partners nationwide.
Review Agency culture, experience, and portfolios
There are three very important things to look for in a web design partner, agency culture, portfolio, and experience. These are the things which will give you a quite clear idea of how your project will be managed, how well it meets your standards and goals, and if they are an overall good fit as your web design agency.
Experience
When talking about experience, two things must always be considered:
- Does the agency have the experience of developing websites in your own industry, websites that you like, or websites that have the features that you want your website to have? Basically, this means that has the agency developed a website similar to yours before.
- How long have they been in business? Are they a new startup or are they well known and established in the market?
Your agency partner should have all the processes in place to make the design and the development process easy and simple. They should also have plans to support your website after it’s on the web, and provide marketing services to help your business succeed. And finally, the agency must have a team of experts in place to make sure that the website they designed meets your goals and needs.
Agency culture
You can tell a lot about an agency’s personality and working style by their culture. You would want to find an agency whose personality and culture match the personality of your own company which would make it easy for you to collaborate and work together throughout the entire process.
- You can identify the agency’s culture by;
- Checking them out on social media platforms
- Find out how involved they are in their community
When you meet with web design partners that seem intriguing to you by their portfolios, you’ll also get a pretty clear idea about their culture. You can tell by how welcoming they are to you and your ideas.
Portfolios
A company’s portfolio is one of the best ways to assess their capabilities and skills. Portfolios will give an insight into the agency’s industry experience, creativity, and complex coding abilities. Below are the things to look for when reading an agency’s portfolio;
- Have any of the websites they designed won any awards?
- Do they follow the latest website trends?
- Do they develop mobile-friendly websites?
If you are not able to find your industry in their portfolio, you should ask them about what they can do for you. While it is important for the agency to have experience working in your industry, it is equally as important for you to actually like the work that they do.
Read Reviews
In addition to their portfolios, it would be best for you to read their testimonials and online reviews as well. The reviews are a good way for you to see how satisfied their clients are with the services the agency provides.
Have a lookout for social media platforms like Google and Facebook. And also look out for the reviews and testimonials they highlighted on their own website. However, if you can only find reviews on their own website, it would be best to dig a little deeper before hiring them as a web design partner.
