When it comes to websites, it’s not necessarily about you- it’s about your clients. Many people come to me with a list of what they want on a website. In reality, what would make that website a success is what their clients want to find there. So it pays to take the time to find that out.
Sometimes that means you might have to canvas a few of your clients. A simple technique I use is “ask the receptionist”. This person usually takes most of the incoming calls. If the questions they get asked most frequently are answered prominently on your website, they might get fewer calls and be able to do the other things you need them to do. If your receptionist is a volunteer (and many charities run off the goodwill of volunteers) then this might make a difference between keeping and losing them because they feel “stuck to the phone”. These answers are then available 24/7/365- ideal when a client’s spare time doesn’t coincide with your hours of business.
From experience of asking receptionists, things like school term times, directions to your place of business, even what name to put on a cheque can be common questions that clients need answering. In the past, I’ve advised clients to put a link in a prominent place, or add a map (through Google maps or another application), or change their invoices so the account name is easy to spot. That last item has nothing to do with websites, but, if a client is more successful, then we’ll do more business!
So as the commercial used to go: “if you don’t look good, we don’t look good” – the better you look to your clients, the better we look to our prospective clients. I take an active interest in my clients, so I can understand their clients, the better to design a website that will encourage more people to be clients.
While we’re on catchphrases, one of mine is “in cyberspace, everyone can hear you scream”- but what is your website screaming? Does it say what you need it to say? If you’re looking for donations, does it give the impression that the money will be well spent? If you’re recruiting volunteers, a well-maintained site might attract higher quality people.
But if you don’t have a website at all, for a growing proportion of the population you won’t exist, especially as search engines replace the Yellow Pages. I can tell you what it will cost to have a website, but not what you’ll lose out on by not having one.
If fear of technology is putting you off, don’t worry- you don’t need to know that much. Most of my clients are happily updating their websites themselves, and haven’t needed to do anything more complex than use a word processor.
You don’t need to know how a car works to drive one, or how the web works to keep your website updated. Let a car garage deal with the first, and Bordaline Web Design the second!
