Ingenious Blog

This is not the post you want to go through, right?

But we still see if not discussed these indetail, even we start out with all good intentions, then get busy or carried away with the fun part and end up delivering something that the client never wanted. Actually, it never happens with Ingenious Brandcare as we always ask tons of questions to get what client needs.

Because we don’t deliver something that doesn't produce ANY results for our clients. Bah-bow.

Be ready. We will ask these much questions when you ask us to brief out quote and plan for website.

1. What does your business actually do?

This is a pretty good starting point. After all we need to know exactly what our client does before we start work on their site.

Getting a thorough understanding as to who you are, what you do, how long you’ve been around, etc will often help support the design research and decisions you make throughout the entire client relationship.

Even the slightest misunderstanding can screw up the design even before we’ve started!

2. What do you want your site to accomplish?

"What's your primary goal for the site? What do you want most from it? Quote requests, sales, class booking, more memberships etc?"

Then we say:
"And if your visitors aren't ready to buy right now, as in take you up on your primary offer/action, what would you like them to do instead? I.e. what are your secondary goals for your site? Newsletter opt-in to build your list, eBook download, Facebook like etc?"

We do not go into a web design project without making the client give us an idea what they want their new website to do for them.

Every website should accomplish something, and it doesn’t even need to be the old cliché of ‘make more money.’

Does you want the site to…

•    Get more inbound leads / quote requests / phone enquiries?
•    Increase brand awareness?
•    Educate their audience?
•    Encourage sales?
•    Collect email addresses and build a list?
•    Encourage onsite or social media interaction?

3. Do you have a website already?

If you already have a website, we would like to understand your old site inside and out.

Questions we will ask:

•    When did you get this site?
•    Do you find it easy to use and edit?
•    What CMS (Content Management System) does it use (if any)?
•    What do you like about it? (Often, they'll say "Not much.")
•    What DON'T you like about it?
•    How many inbound leads are you currently getting from it?
•    Is it giving you the results you want to see?
•    Have you got Google Analytics setup? If so, can you generate a report for us so we can see what's working and what's not?
•    What would you like to see carry over to the new site?

4. What makes your company remarkable?

We always try and figure out what the makes your business unique to everyone else.What makes it remarkable?

How potential customers are doing your initial research. They're browsing 10+ different supplier websites looking for someone to solve their problems, not just yours, so you need a way to really stand out big time against your competitors.

So,we need to know what makes you remarkable so that we can communicate that in our design.

Examples could include:

•    Being the cheapest.
•    Having awesome customer service.
•    An amazing guarantee or returns policy.
•    Being the exclusive supplier of a product in a certain area.
•    Supplying the best quality product around.
•    Fast or Free delivery.
•    Offering unique add-on packages no one else can.

5. Who are your competitors?

Now that you understand your client’s business and what they want their website to accomplish, it’s time to do some research. And where better to start than by checking out your client’s competition?

You client will already know who their main competitors are. However, you also want them to think a little outside of the box. Don’t just get their direct competitors but get them to think about who their less obvious competitors are.

For example, if your client runs a tourist attraction, they shouldn’t just look at similar attractions in the local area, but also look at competing attractions that pull tourist eyes away from their site, and also check out regional competitors too.

6. What websites do you like and why?

This can be related to the above question about competitors, but if you want your clever design work to put a smile on your client’s face, then we have to make sure that which references do you suggest us to refer for designs. You can also suggest us separate for content and separate for design.

7. Who exactly are your customers and what are their pains?

We suggest small business, to brief out the target audience. Targeting can help you get more out of your website. Some clients have told us, “Everyone, we sell everyone” when we asked about target customers. It may possible that your product can be applicable and useful for wide audience but targeting specific pages to specific audience can give more output.

But we always deeper than just demographics. We need to find out what our customers’ pains, problems and fears are. Only then can we work with them to clearly and boldly strike an immediate connection with web visitors. In our designs, we express imagery and copy about their pain, offer a promise, then back it up with proof.
 
8. What features do you want your website to have?

Once our client is ready with concept we discuss what functions they will need in the website. What’s more, you may believe that this feature is a standard for websites everywhere.

For example, does your client want:

•    A shopping cart?
•    Social media implementation?
•    Email collection and email marketing capability?
•    Auto-responders for nurturing?
•    A blog or news feed?
•    Photo galleries?
•    Onsite videos?
•    A slider banner?
•    A mobile site?
•    A responsive site?
•    A blog or news page?
•    The ability for people to leave comments?
•    A quick contact form, quote request or booking form?

9. How will you record your results?

Surely, it’s to get more money isn’t it? not so quick...

Ultimately when our client starts using their swanky new site, we want you to be measuring the success you get with your website. This is something we need to think about now so that we can incorporate it into a design that pushes the site to achieve these results and, in your eyes,your site is a success and you send us tons of referrals!

For example, you could record the results of the:

•    The amount of new enquiries they get.
•    Number of signups for the site’s free trial.
•    Number of signups for a FREE eBook.
•    Number of users of the site’s forum.
•    Number of sales.
•    Customer’s average order size.
•    Amount of traffic.
•    Level of activity on the site’s blog.
•    Number of social media (Facebook / Twitter) followers.

10. Do you have a style guide or any existing collateral?

We call this 'Desktop Research'.

Occasionally we won’t get to work with a completely clean slate. You may already have online and offline materials created for your business.

Logos, brochures, old websites, posters and web banners are just SOME of the things that might be tucked away. And yes, this is necessary to be followed by your side.

In fact, whilst weask the client if they have a ‘style guide.’ Many companies won’t have one, but if you have it means we'll have something in writing that clearly explains the style we work needs to capture.

Ingenious Brandcare is an Advertising, Branding and Digital Marketing Agency and we have designed powerful websites, which can improve your Search Engine Performance (by SEO). From initial branding to improving performance of website by Digital Marketing we have many case studies to present you.