The three most important things you can do before building your new website.
It may come as a surprise that as a web designer, I don't consider the web designer to be the most important component in the web design process. For sure web designers are important. A good one can do wonders and a bad one can mess up the entire project. But there are some other folks who you should become aquainted with if you want to knock this project out of the park.
The single most important investment you can make in preparing your website build is to hire a professional photographer and take some high quality headshots. When people search you online, they want to find out if you are legit. Whether they are conscious of it or not, they are going to be scanning the photos for cues that they should take you seriously. Beyond how you look in your photos, they are going to be able to tell if you bothered to take the time to get the photos right. Did you invest your time and money into this project you are asking the site visitor to believe in? If all signs point to "no", it is that much less likely that the site visitor will invest in your idea either. A lot of new business owners I work with tend to see getting a professional photographer as a luxury, or an extravagance, but really they should see this as foundational work on their business. An investment that pays clear dividends. All other things being equal, a well designed, well written site will still be just ok with cellphone selfies as your images. Great photos can turn an okay site into a really beautiful one that attracts clients.
The next thing that it is absolutely worth spending money on to make your site work is a professional copywriter. I cannot stress this enough. I love working with business owners who understand this point. Early on in a business's development, writing seems like one of those things you can do yourself. You do, after all, know how to write. But writing copy, and writing web copy in particular, are very different from writing high school essays. The goal is different. This is persuasive writing designed to change someone's mind about something. In particular it is trying to persuade someone to use your services. And for this to work, you need to understand psychology, you need to understand the position of someone visiting your website.
Beyond this you need to understand how people read webpages. They don't start at the top of the page and then read every word until they get to the footer, move on to the next page and start again. Understanding how all of this works is the domain of the copywriter. A good one will make your customers feel like they are talking to a friend, someone they can trust, who understands their problems and has the solutions. Bad website copy makes you feel like you are being lied to or just wasting your time. It makes a big difference. But it isn't just the quality of the copy that you get by hiring a professional copywriter, you get your time back. Because learning all of this the hard way will take you weeks, months or years. And your time is better spent in the parts of your business where you make the most impact.
Finally, I think it is worth it to invest in some brand strategy coaching if you have the budget for it. Of the three, this tends to actually be the least expensive, but the easiest to justify skipping if you are a new business on a budget. And I may agree. I would avoid chucking a ton of money on coaching before you are ready for it. But a few strategic meetings early on in your process could save you a lot of money later on. Definitley something to consider.
Building a website for your business is as important today as building out your physical location might have been twenty years ago, and it comes at a fraction of the cost. It is worth it to do it right and adding these three professionals to your team will more than pay for itself even in the short to medium term.
