The starting point for your website is your design brief. You should think this through and put some ideas down on paper before contacting a designer. The questions below are what a designer will ask. And even if you’re doing it yourself, it’s still a good discipline to go through this process. It will help you stay focused on the core aims and marketing objectives of your site. Things to consider include:
- What type of website do you want? E.g. a simple online brochure, an e-commerce site, a business blog?
- What is the main purpose of your website? What are its marketing aims and objectives? E.g. establish a web presence, enhance your brand, position you as an expert, drive traffic, generate leads, capture data to build a marketing database? It will probably be a combination of all of the above!
- What look and feel are you after? Should it follow a specific brand image or colour scheme? Which sites do you like the look and feel of? Spend some time looking at good and bad sites, and thinking about what you want for yours. While someone else’s code and content is copyrighted, there’s no reason you can’t pick a site you like and copy the structure.
- Who is your competition? What are their sites like? Who is your target audience? E.g. specific business sectors, individuals, current clients, prospective clients? Are you a business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) business?
- What is your main ‘call to action’? What do you want people to do once they arrive at your website? Buy something? Download a brochure? Watch a video demonstration? Sign up to a newsletter?
- How many pages will your website have? E.g. home, about, contact, services, products, individual product pages, clients, news etc. How will the site be structured? Draw an ‘Information Architecture’ diagram – a simple flowchart to show how different pages or sections will link together.
- What functionality do you need – e.g. a ‘contact us’ form, shopping cart functions, online booking system?
- Do you already have images or do you need your designer to source these?
- What media do you require? E.g. audio, video, Flash animation?
- What is your schedule? Do you have a critical launch date, e.g. to coincide with a product launch or marketing campaign?
Think of your design brief as a mini business plan for your website. You can adapt and update it as you go along to fit the needs of your business – but it is an important blueprint for the hub of your online marketing activities: your business website.
