Choosing the right website design firm for the long term is important. Make sure your designer knows how to accomplish the tough, follow-up work your business wants and needs. It’s your business. Don’t be a victim of disappearing, website designer syndrome.
We hear about it often. Our office phone rings and there’s a pensive sounding person on the other end who wants to learn about our website services. The caller often says something like this…
“Yes, I have a website. But, it’s kind of old and ugly. No, it’s not WordPress but that’s definitely what we want. And oh, by the way, I’m calling you because my old website designer has disappeared.”
“Where did your website developer go?” we ask.
- “Well, he said he couldn’t work with me anymore because he had an ill relative and had to leave the website design profession to nurse the person back to health.”
- “My web designer told me he took a ‘real’ job but said he would freelance for me. I’ve tried to call him, but he never calls me back.”
- “My web guy just disappeared after we made the final payment and now we need changes made.”
So many of our clients come to us stranded without a website designer that it’s no longer surprising to hear. Unfortunately, even though most web designers are really nice people and just want to be helpful, the amount of skills and talent required is growing exponentially by the day.
The Customer Wants What the Customer Wants
Our typical website customer is a very savvy businessperson. They know what they want because they’ve spent months browsing through their competitors’ websites.
- They want their website to be the face of their actual business.
- They want all the new technologies to help brand their business.
- They want to capture leads from sophisticated content development tools.
- They want to display blogs in a way they will be found and shared.
- They want a website that will enhance all of today’s inbound marketing strategies.
- They want a mobile responsive design that’s easy to read on smart phones.
Honestly, these demands alone can be a HUGE learning curve for a web designer who has a good eye, but can’t really keep up with the rest.
Can Your Designer Do It All?
One of the key problems for a visual designer is that he must also be a technical developer, in order to offer power packed websites. One skill is right brained, one is left, and although I can never remember which is which, I do know that few professionals have both.
At a minimum, today’s web designer must:
- must be able to grasp the customer’s business model and target customer
- know how to prepare a good web design proposal
- have a working knowledge of the most popular external tools (like LinkedIn, Mail Chimp, Hubspot, and so many others)
- make sure the new website will seamlessly integrate the client’s marketing strategies
