A few weeks ago, we won a piece of new business and the client, out of interest, passed to us the three competing proposals he had received as part of the tender process.
All were from (reasonably) reputable web design companies.
We were amazed to find that none of these proposals made any reference to the target audience the client was trying to attract, or provided any form of communication strategy as to how they should be addressed and developed into quality leads.
They talked in general terms about how the site might be designed, a list of what content might be included and then at length about the technology that would be employed, the servers, the hosting, the coding and a myriad of other technical information.
Now don’t get us wrong, we know the value of technology and it’s importance to a project, but when was the last time a site visitor, when questioned, said they enquired via the web site because the JavaScript was silky smooth?
Ultimately it’s the message that matters, whether you are creating a TV commercial, a radio script, a press ad or a website. You have to understand who your target audience is, what they are looking for, how they feel, what will motivate them and then develop an appropriate communication strategy. Not draw a pretty web site and then get your client to drop in some brochure copy in, just before you go live.
The web requires a well thought through marketing strategy, a sense of what the short and long term goals are and a real willingness to get under the skin of a client’s business to understand the issues and deliver a real difference.
Strangely many of our competitors don’t seem to have grasped these simple principles. As long as it continues, we might just shine out like a beacon of common sense.
