Top 10 Reasons EVERY Design Business Should Have a Website
Should every business have a website? ABSOLUTELY.
Why? Here are our top 10 reasons (but trust us, there are many more):
Credibility – Having a website gives credibility to your design firm. It gives you an opportunity to establish yourself as an expert in the field.- Portfolio – An online gallery of your work is important for any business in a design related industry. A website is the easiest way to display examples of your work. Your portfolio can speak the most about who you are as a designer.
- Feedback – Your website is the easiest and most efficient place for your clients and the design community to find you and contact you with feedback. Good feedback and testimonials are a great way to establish credibility.
- Around‐the‐Clock Access – A websites makes your information available to clients and potentials 24/7. Even when you’re not working, your website is still working for you!
- Chances for FREE publicity ‐ Local media or a design blog could find your website, like what they see, and want to mention you in an article or blog post. Free publicity? Yes, please.
- Search Engines – When a person is looking for design services, the first step many of them will take is to run an online search on Google, Yahoo, etc. Don’t miss the opportunity for someone to find you just because you don’t have a website!
- Referrals – A website is the simplest way for your friends, family, and happy clients to refer their friends to you. Place a “Share with Friends” link on your website and with the click of a button a site visitor can send your information to someone new!
- First Impressions – An informative, well‐designed, professional website can make a great first impression on site visitors in search of a designer. A poorly designed or nonexistent website might send a potential client to someone else.
- Provide Information – Educate your customers on your background and what services you offer. An advertisement or live conversation will explain the very basics about who you are, but what about when someone wants to learn more before calling about design services? Give your social contacts and potential clients an easy way to find out more about you.
- Clients expect it! – Most importantly, it’s expected. In these modern times, the internet is the first place someone will look for information, services, and products. If they can’t find you, they’ll find someone else!
Are you in need of a new website or website overhaul? Contact Martha at
martha@gibsondesignmanagement.com for more information on launching your online
presence.
Author: Amanda Butterworth
Amanda is Director, Creative Services for Gibson Design Management. As the resident geek of GDM, she works closely on all graphic and web design for the company. When Amanda's not spending her time learning the newest trends in web design and social media, you can find her playing volleyball, at the beach or on the slopes (depending on the season, of course), sipping on a martini with friends, or playing with her dog Bear.
Follow Amanda on TwitterTags: around-the-clock, Business, Clients, credibility, design, feedback, first impressions, Gibson Design Management, portfolio, PR, publicity, Referrals, search, SEO, website
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 7th, 2010 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Customer Relations, Marketing, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 7th, 2010 at 9:27 pm
About five to six years ago we decide to go through an RFP process for the design of the next versions of our web sites. In an effort to remain impartial, I went through the online yellow pages for the three largest cities in our state and compiled a list of agencies. I think the total was somewhere between 250-300.
From that list I tried typing in the name of the agency in the web browser i.e. http://www.agencyname.com. Failing that, I would try Google (first page of results only). That exercise whittled the list down to less than a 100.
The next iteration was to visit each web site and see if 1- they offered web site design; 2- they offered web site examples. You would be surprised at the number that said they did web sites, but offered no examples (or only a static image of a site). That was the next cut, which I believe took it down to less than 25 agencies.
Isn’t that sad? First, out of 250-300 companies I could easily only find web sites for less than a 100. That told me they either didn’t have a web site or they had one but had no idea of the impact of search engine placement (which went to credibility). And of the group of 100 only about 25 offered examples of there work. I’m sure the numbers are much better today, but the point of this long winded comment is that 1- you don’t know how a potential customer may be searching for company in your line of service; 2- having a web site can make a big difference in whether you have customers or not.
BTW, we ended up sending RFPs to eleven agencies, got seven back and interviewed I believe four or five. It was an interesting process to say the least.
January 9th, 2010 at 12:07 pm
This is a perfect example of how a company can lose business without a website. Thank you for your input!
January 10th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
Gene,
That is amazing that so recently companies that touted themselves as web development companies didn’t even have web sites themselves! It just goes to show that too many industries have companies that hang out a shingle without core competence. Scary.
Along the same lines of what you say in your comment, and along the lines of #10- clients expect you to have a website! EVERYONE needs to remember that while you may get an offline referral, the first thing that potential client is going to do is look you up online. If you think that’s not the case, you may be an ostrich and not a human because you’re burying your head in the sand.