Proper preparation prevents poor performance.
Not everyone practices this on a regular or even semi-regular basis. This concept especially rings true for your website redesign project.
Any Marketing Director will tell you a website redesign is not an easy undertaking. The good news is, it doesn’t have to be that way!
Here are 6 steps an organization should take internally before they even begin shopping for an agency.
Your Problem(s)
Identify and list what is wrong with your current website.
- Does your website look like one of the first 28 sites ever created?
- Does the functionality of the site work? Does your contact form send users to the right landing page?
- Is all of your content, offerings, products and messaging up-to-date?
Once you identify what you hate about your site you’ll be in a much stronger position to communicate what you want and what you need to a web design agency.
Your Architecture
Take a hard look at the navigation of your site through the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time. Can you find what you want easily? Does the organization make sense? If you’re confused by your own website, you can bet your users and potential clients are, too!
Sit down with your team and think about a navigation flow that really makes sense. This is an exercise your agency partner can help you solidify (and it they won’t, rethink the agency you have chosen to work with) but coming to the table with a clear vision of a flow will help reduce the timeline of the project as a whole, which will save your organization time and money.
Your Words
Read through the content of your entire site. Will visitors understand your value proposition by visiting your site? Identify which portions of your website need to be refreshed or rewritten in totality. Once you identify the areas to improve, put a plan in place for who – agency or internal resources – will write the content for your new website. Decide where it will go.
Content, or the lack thereof, drives the majority of delays in website redesign projects.
Your Process
Sit down with your team and executive leadership to decide how project approvals will take place. Will one department manager be able to sign off on the agency’s recommendations? If you decide to include a few departments on a team, we recommend no more than 5 people, because honestly, “Too many cooks in the kitchen” is a real thing.
Does the C-suite need to sign off on all milestones? Or will a Director spearhead those efforts? Decide who will be present for major milestone presentations.
Once you have your internal process put together you can then clearly set expectations with your agency partner. Clear expectations will eliminate the risk for delays in the approval process, and that always save time and money.
Your Timeline
Set reasonable expectations internally and with your agency partner. Heavy development requires some time – it’s not something to rush. There are reasons your website may qualify as one needing “heavy development.”
- Do you need to build or rebuilt a database?
- Does your site require multiple API integrations? Do those need to be built?
- How many total pages need to be designed and developed?
- Is there a tradeshow on the horizon where you need to showcase a new site?
The best advice is to plan your time accordingly. A large approval team slows down the process. Plan for these things early and be honest with your executive leadership about how long this project will take.
Cutting corners in design or development will cost your company time and money in the long run. Coming to an agency with an unrealistic timeline will lead to two things: rejection and failure. An honest agency will be upfront with you about not being able to hit your timeline. A dishonest agency, and unfortunately there are more of these than there should be, will tell you they can hit your deadline but fail to do so. This will potentially lead to the loss of jobs and project failure.
Your Commitment
A redesign project is a true partnership where both parties have to be involved in order to ensure success. As a team, ask yourselves, do I have time in my day-to-day responsibilities to carve a few hours out to dedicate to this project? What does my upcoming travel schedule look like and when is it occurring? Missing and delaying meetings can easily extend projects by weeks or even months, which is tasking for all involved. A successful project is a lot like a successful date; it can’t be one party always asking the other to hangout. There needs to be a want to be together.
Organizations that take these steps are properly prepared before they even start the agency selection process and will have a high rate of project success. Not only will the best prepared company be more successful, they will save time and money and everyone loves that!
Proper preparation prevents poor performance. Talk to a web design expert today and learn how The Creative Momentum can properly prepare your website for success.
