An architect and small business friend of mine rang me to wanting advice on a quote he'd received for a website.
We talked, and it seemed quite clear in my mind that he really only wanted a 4-5 page site, but one of the pages might be updated more often as new projects were completed.
Most small architectural firms have similar needs to other small business owners, they want their website to look good but they don't want to pay a premium, and they don't believe they have the time to find the information the developer needs.
So what tends to happen is that an amateur designer, perhaps a friend of a friend, is asked to create the site with the result being even more of a shambles, but it doesn't need to be this way.
Effective small business website design
Ronda, Spain, Spanish, Themes, and Everything Else
Effective small business website design
Monday, May 8. 2006
Most of the information needed for a small business website is already known to the owner, and all they need to do is formalise the wording.
The actual appearance of the site is often the biggest cause of disagreement yet as I mentioned in a previous post about small business branding, it needn't be.
You see if the average small business doesn't have an established visual identity, then almost any clean page design would do the job. In fact, in situations like these the business owner is actually better off using a generic clean design so that their website and their usual identity don't clash.
So the solution for the small business owner (and my architect friend) is to find a generic template that is clean and easily customised to suit the color swatch they use, and then to spend the money they save on getting a copywriter to put together their pages.
Ok, I hear you asking, what about the designer, well, no disprespect to webdesigners, but don't bother. Use an established script like Serendipity to create your pages, install a clean template that suits most of your needs, then ask someone from the Serendipity community to help you with the final touches. The costs will be much lower than a custom webpage. Heck if you wave a few gold coins under my nose I might be able to help.
To my way of thinking, once you've got your website looking reasonable, the hardest part of an effective small business website is the wording which is sadly forgotten in most instances, a lot of the time because the business owner places too much trust in the designer, and because designers are designers, they are very rarely salespeople or copywriters.
If you're unwilling to employ a copywriter, here are a few quick hints to get you started. First, remember the purpose of your website - to generate referrals or actual sales. Most small business websites are a logical extension of your Yellow Pages ad or local newspaper advertising, and this really is pointless. Why duplicate what you're already got?
Instead, try to get into the mind of your customer and ask yourself who are they, what reason do they have for needing your service, do your customers fit into different profiles, and does each profile need its own specialist information. In the case of my architect friend, his main client profiles are local builders who buy off the shelf plans but need them customised to the building site, and individual home-owners who need plans for extensions and renovations. Each of these two groups has their own needs even though at first glance the blueprint might appear similar.
Unfortunately what tends to happen with most small business owners is that they get so caught up in their own activities that they end up describing their products or service with little regard for the person reading it, the result being they lose potential business to an out of town competitor or their website never converts visitors into sales and after a while it becomes neglected and even more useless. This is why so many small business owners don't think they need a website. Following my advice will make your site more successful and effective. If you want to know more, use my comment form, they're moderated and most are never published so speak your mind and I'll do all I can to help you.
The actual appearance of the site is often the biggest cause of disagreement yet as I mentioned in a previous post about small business branding, it needn't be.
You see if the average small business doesn't have an established visual identity, then almost any clean page design would do the job. In fact, in situations like these the business owner is actually better off using a generic clean design so that their website and their usual identity don't clash.
So the solution for the small business owner (and my architect friend) is to find a generic template that is clean and easily customised to suit the color swatch they use, and then to spend the money they save on getting a copywriter to put together their pages.
Ok, I hear you asking, what about the designer, well, no disprespect to webdesigners, but don't bother. Use an established script like Serendipity to create your pages, install a clean template that suits most of your needs, then ask someone from the Serendipity community to help you with the final touches. The costs will be much lower than a custom webpage. Heck if you wave a few gold coins under my nose I might be able to help.
To my way of thinking, once you've got your website looking reasonable, the hardest part of an effective small business website is the wording which is sadly forgotten in most instances, a lot of the time because the business owner places too much trust in the designer, and because designers are designers, they are very rarely salespeople or copywriters.
If you're unwilling to employ a copywriter, here are a few quick hints to get you started. First, remember the purpose of your website - to generate referrals or actual sales. Most small business websites are a logical extension of your Yellow Pages ad or local newspaper advertising, and this really is pointless. Why duplicate what you're already got?
Instead, try to get into the mind of your customer and ask yourself who are they, what reason do they have for needing your service, do your customers fit into different profiles, and does each profile need its own specialist information. In the case of my architect friend, his main client profiles are local builders who buy off the shelf plans but need them customised to the building site, and individual home-owners who need plans for extensions and renovations. Each of these two groups has their own needs even though at first glance the blueprint might appear similar.
Unfortunately what tends to happen with most small business owners is that they get so caught up in their own activities that they end up describing their products or service with little regard for the person reading it, the result being they lose potential business to an out of town competitor or their website never converts visitors into sales and after a while it becomes neglected and even more useless. This is why so many small business owners don't think they need a website. Following my advice will make your site more successful and effective. If you want to know more, use my comment form, they're moderated and most are never published so speak your mind and I'll do all I can to help you.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed.
Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Friends
I Follow
U COMMENT
I FOLLOW
Stuff