Hiring a website design company is vital step in the success of your small business. A well-designed website gives your business credibility and an excellent source of new business.

What if you stay busy from quality referrals? Great! Good quality referrals are the best drivers of new business. Referrals are golden since they result from a personal recommendation from a trusted connection.

So why would you need a website? For 2 major reasons:

1. PR (Public Relations): Whether you like it or not, you can’t keep your business off of the Internet. Whether it’s a Facebook Page, Google listing, Yellow Pages business listing, review website, newspaper article, or something else, chances are there is something digitally printed online about your small business. So what if the information is inaccurate? What if it’s misleading, or worse, inappropriate or hurtful? If you don’t have a website, potential customers have no official source to fact-check against. You need a professionally-designed website to control what’s published about your business. On your website, you have total control over what you publish about your range of services, pricing, contact information (like the correct phone number or store hours), positive testimonials, etc. There will be potential clients who want to read about your business before calling you. Make sure what they read makes them want to call, not look elsewhere.
2. New Business: Most people will want to research your business before contacting you. They might want to read what services you provide, testimonials from previous customers, examples of your work,  or a background story, to name a few. Perhaps they are looking for your store hours or your business email address. They might want to know your official social media links, in case there are multiple duplicate or spammed social media pages and profiles created to look like your business. Give potential new customers enough to read (though not too much) so they feel comfortable contacting you to hire you and use your services.

Now that you’ve decided to search out a web design company, take a step back and consider these 5 things to prepare for them. These apply to every type of website from a local salon to a non-profit organization.

1. What is your mission statement?
   Whether or not you actually want to print the Mission Statement on the website, it sets the tone of the site and gives your web designer a clear idea of the vision you want marketed to your site’s visitors. Do you pride yourself in exceptional quality? Stellar customer service? The best price in town? Let your web designer know.
2. What do you want your website to do?
   Can customers place orders on your website? Should the website display a list of your various services? What pages would you like on the website, and what should they say? These questions help you to create a vision for your new online presence.
3. What do your customers think of your business?
   Positive and genuine reviews from previous customers will stimulate people to hire your business. Collecting these prove your business’s reputation to your website designer and also give the designer another piece of content to fill the site’s design.
4. Who is your competition? 
   Check out their websites to see what they’re advertising and how you can set yourself apart. Do you like their website? If most of your competition have ugly websites, you have a real opportunity to gain an edge by building the most visually-appealing site in your local market.
5. What other websites do you like?
   It doesn’t matter if those websites are in your market or not. Let’s say you like Apple’s website. That means you probably prefer a minimalistic and clean design, which is a common and elegant trend. Write down notes about those websites so your designer knows what you like and what you dislike. These notes will help craft a design that both you and your web designer will take pride in.

Open up a Pages or Word Document and answer these questions. Be as detailed as possible. Includes links and pictures where necessary. All of this will both prepare your expectations and better equip your web designer to acceptably service you. Once you’re ready, give Pioneer Media a call at (865) 308-2887 to get started with your website project!