How to Brief a Web Design Agency Part 1

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INTRODUCTION

Thank you for downloading 17 Common Mistakes Marketers Make When Briefing Web Development Agencies, the first in a series of guides to help you choose the right agency for your requirements, and write the perfect brief to get the results you need.

WHO IS THIS GUIDE FOR?This guide is for marketing managers who are thinking about briefing a web development agency, and need to ensure the end result matches up to design, technical and marketing objectives.

You might be:

• Writing a brief for the first time. So you need to make sure you’ve covered all bases to ensure you don’t end up with an underperforming website (and have to spend more time and budget to put it right).

• Out of practice. You’ve written web build briefs in the past, but are now under pressure to project-manage a website that succeeds in the modern digital landscape.

• Disillusioned by previous experiences. You’ve worked with an

agency in the past, which may have delivered a great-looking website that ultimately doesn’t deliver on core marketing metrics, such as traffic, leads and e-Commerce sales.

WHAT WILL I LEARN?ClickThrough Marketing has provided digital marketing support to some of the UK’s biggest brands. We’ve helped many companies get great results from SEO (search engine optimisation), PPC (pay per click) advertising and content marketing.

We’ve also built marketing and conversion-led, mobile-friendly websites for trusted names like Biffa, Gtech and Helping Hands.

clickthrough-marketing.com


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Drawing on our cross-disciplinary experience, we’ve created a unique five-phase, 35-step framework to guide our web builds. This framework ensures the websites we create drive on-going marketing success built on best-practice principles, as well looking great and providing a smooth user experience.

The 35-step framework is at the heart of this series of guides. We’ve distilled our approach into a series of tips and insights to help you:

• Avoid common pitfalls that derail web development projects.

• Write the perfect web build brief that puts commercial marketing first.

• Choose an agency with the skills and experiences to put your objectives into action.

• Protect your job security by delivering great results to deadline and within budget. DRAWING ON OUR CROSS-

DISCIPLINARY EXPERIENCE, WE’VE CREATED A UNIQUE FIVE-PHASE, 35-STEP FRAMEWORK TO GUIDE OUR WEB BUILDS.

INTRODUCTION



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There are many, many factors that can impact on the success of your web build.

For the first guide in this series, we’ll focus on avoiding these pitfalls, so you know from the get-go how to brief to succeed.

It’s crucial to consider these potential hazards early on. We know from experience what can happen when brands don’t cover all bases in their web development brief.

On numerous occasions, clients have come to us for help because previous web development projects have left them with a website that looks great, but has serious ‘behind the scenes’ limitations that leave them struggling to implement SEO, conversion rate optimisation (CRO), or even new content.

Your website should be a marketing asset for your business – not something you have to struggle against.

The important thing to remember is: It’s up to you to write a watertight brief. If you haven’t written your brief with marketing in mind, you may end up having to push deadlines back and increase your budget in order to implement key features at a later stage.

Worst case scenario: Your agency creates the website to brief, but their own limitations

mean that the end result is a marketing mess. This could mean scrapping the project and starting again, as poor-quality websites simply won’t succeed in today’s competitive online landscape.

Don’t let it happen to you. Start by learning what not to do…

WE KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN BRANDS DON’T COVER ALL BASES IN THEIR WEB DEVELOPMENT BRIEF.

17 COMMON MISTAKES MARKETERS MAKE WHEN BRIEFING WEB DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES



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NOT DEFINING CLEAR OBJECTIVES

In the broadest sense, this point can be summarised in a single question: ‘Why do you want this website?’

If the answer is simply ‘because my business needs a new website’, it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

The Internet is awash with half-baked brochure websites with no clearly defined purpose. No conversion optimisation, no persona targeting – just flat, basic information that’s not geared towards customers or your target prospects.

These websites are fossils. They’re leftovers from the time when businesses rushed to get online, without really understanding what ‘online’ was all about.

Nowadays, websites are about more than pretty pictures. Principally, they’re a commercial tool. For most businesses, they’re also the principle commercial tool – their ‘digital shop window’.

Even today, new web builds tend to be guided by one of three principles – technical goals, user experience (UX) goals and design/branding goals.

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1. TECHNICAL-LED GOALS 2. UX-LED GOALS

3. DESIGN & BRANDING-LED GOALS 4. METRIC-LED GOALS



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Technical-led goals tend to be platform specific. They help solve problems like “My content management system (CMS) is too difficult to use”, or “I need a powerful e-Commerce solution”.

UX-led goals aim to improve the customer journey. They help with issues like “My website is old-fashioned and hard to use” or “Our customers tell me they find it difficult to fill in our enquiry form, or find the information they need”.

Design and branding-led goals are all about giving websites a modern ‘facelift’. It’s quite common for companies and developers to let this goal lead the design and build process. After all, most people know what they like when it comes to visual aesthetics – it’s simply easier to make an informed decision on design choices.

There is, however, another type of goal that often gets overlooked.

Metric-led goals are the least common (but most important) goals. By letting your key metrics guide the development process, you’re viewing your website as it should be

viewed – as one of your business’s most valuable commercial assets.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that design, UX and technical choices should be ignored. However, by allowing your metric-led goals to guide decisions – from platform to colour scheme to copy – you can ensure every element of your website supports your wider commercial ambitions and ROI (return on investment) goals.

After all, it’s no good creating a beautiful website and discovering it’s not suitable for your user base.

BY LETTING YOUR KEY METRICS GUIDE THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS, YOU’RE VIEWING YOUR WEBSITE AS IT SHOULD BE VIEWED – AS ONE OF YOUR BUSINESS’S MOST VALUABLE COMMERCIAL ASSETS.



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LACK OF ANALYSIS AND BRIEFING

Rushing head-first into a project without careful planning is one of the biggest mistakes you can make.

The amount of planning and scoping you carry out directly impacts the quality of your brief. And if your brief isn’t up to scratch, a lacklustre result isn’t necessarily your web development agency’s fault.

Before you write your brief, remember to ask yourself the following questions:

• Who is this website aimed at, and is there more than one target audience?

• What does it need to convey?

• What messaging is most going to appeal to my target audiences?

• What do I want customers to do on my site? And how can I encourage them to do this?

• What are my competitors doing?

• What are my business’s unique selling points (USPs)? And how can I effectively convey them to differentiate us?

• Does this site need a powerful, enterprise-level e-Commerce platform, or a simple, easy-to-use, scalable CMS?

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ALAN’S VIEW“Striving to create cutting edge design isn’t always the best option, because eccentric designs often don’t resonate with customers.

“Look at big websites like Amazon and eBay. You’ll notice that logo positions, navigation menus, phone numbers and contact info, for instance, tend to appear in similar places from site to site. They do this because they know this is where users expect these elements to be.

“This kind of layout is now standardised. So ask yourself: Is it actually a good thing in my market to go out on a limb with an untested design? Deviating from the standard may mean putting up unnecessary obstacles for customers.

“This isn’t to say new standards are never going to emerge. They will. But you should be mindful that some new trends become just that – a trend, later to be disregarded.”

Alan Rowe, ClickThrough Marketing’s director of web development



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There are many more considerations to cover when putting together a brief. And if you ensure you cover all possible bases, you can ensure you find a web development agency that’s able to deliver. Detailed scoping also means you won’t end up paying through the nose for out-of-scope extras.

We recommend working with an agency that will work with you on the scoping and briefing stage before getting quotes and selecting your preferred partner. An experienced agency will challenge your thinking and will be able to make you aware of important considerations and potential needs that you hadn’t considered when scoping out your initial requirements and brief.

For example, you may not have considered…

• Platform selection options

• SEO best practices

• Conversion-led design

• Persona analysis and planning

• Keyword analysis and planning

• Migration risks

…and other marketing considerations – all of which may impact on your budget, priorities or timescales.

Typically, trusted credible agencies will charge a consultancy fee for working with you on this process – rather than simply pitching and quoting based on your initial request for proposal. The outcome should be an enhanced technical specification and briefing document that will deliver your key requirements within the budget you have available. In other words, they’ll help you create a current and long-term development road map.

The process should make you aware of potential issues upfront, so that you can plan and save significant money in the long run. Most crucially, you’ll receive a concise document that you can give to any other development agency to obtain competitive and comparative quotes.



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NOT CREATING AN ROI PLAN

If you’ve managed web development projects before, you’ve almost certainly had to cut back on your ambitions because of a limited budget.

But the major reason web development budgets are so restricted is because marketing managers find it difficult to demonstrate that the website-to-be will generate a good return on investment (ROI).

This is partly due to perception. As we’ve already seen, web build projects tend to be guided by design. And while gut reactions to design facelifts are often positive, it’s hard to convince those in charge of finances that a fresh lick of paint could do wonders for your bottom line.

Wouldn’t it be great to sit down in front of your chief financial officer and give them a plan that’s geared towards improving sales/revenue

metrics? A plan that takes into account projected traffic increments, conversion improvements and increased sales revenue over the next two to three years?

Undoubtedly, it would be much, much easier to secure the investment you needed to realise your ambitions.

This is precisely why we recommend focussing on metric-led goals for your website. If you focus your mind on your bottom line, the rest will follow. As a marketer, your job is to ensure your new website brings improvements in traffic, visibility and conversions.

This will ensure your web development agency understand your goals and is able to support them. It will make it easier to secure the budget you need for a modern, marketing-led build. And, most importantly, it will give you the security of knowing your website will directly impact sales.

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In this simplified version of an ROI model you can see that, based on the current situation, the company is generating £100,000 worth of revenue per month. Simply from small improvements on the conversion rate – from click to enquiry, building an SEO-friendly site, and creating new enhanced optimised on-page content – you can see that the company would generate £180,000 revenue per month in comparison. Imagine the potential impact on the company’s revenue growth if you

modelled the ROI over a two to three year period rather than one month.

Needless to say, to achieve even these types of metric-led improvements requires an agency with a serious understanding of SEO and conversion-led web design. This is why ClickThrough has built a five-phase, 35-step scientific process for web design and development, which takes into account every element required to deliver these types of revenue step changes for businesses.

This ROI model naturally begs the question – why do so many companies invest so little into their web design and development, when a site done correctly is able to deliver such huge returns?

Current Situation

Scenario 1: Conversion

Optimisation

Scenario 2: SEO

Best Practice

Build

Scenario 3: On-Page

Content

Target

Monthly Visits 19,452 19,452 21,397 21,397 23,342

Av. First Time Sales Value £10,000 £10,000 £10,000 £10,000 £10,000

Conversion Ratios: Web Leads to Sale

Conversion Rate: Click To Enquiry 1.0% 1.5% 1.0% 1.0% 1.5%

No. of Enquiries 195 292 214 214 350

Conversion Rate: Enquiry to Sales 5.0% 5.0% 5.0% 5.0% 5.0%

No. of New Sales 10 15 11 11 18

Total Sales Revenue £100,000 £150,000 £110,000 £110,000 £180,000

Sample ROI Model for Best Practice SEO and Conversion-Led Web Design

IMAGINE THE POTENTIAL IMPACT ON THE COMPANY’S REVENUE GROWTH IF YOU MODELLED THE ROI OVER A TWO TO THREE YEAR PERIOD RATHER THAN ONE MONTH.



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CHOOSING THE WRONG PLATFORM

The e-Commerce platform or CMS you choose will have a big impact on the website you end up with.

These systems are the ‘engines’ that run your website. Some will allow for lots of ‘behind-the-scenes’ customisation and modification, and some will be quite restrictive.

You can choose an inappropriate platform and, on the surface, there may be no visible problems with your website. However, you could find yourself tearing your hair out as you try to implement SEO, conversion optimisation, cross-platform e-Commerce integration and other ‘behind-the-scenes’ elements.

Surprisingly, the most popular platforms are often the most restrictive. And bespoke, self-developed platforms offered by many web development agencies may be very limiting.

If your agency offers you a platform that’s developed in-house, and is ‘tailored for your business’, you should ask yourself what you’re paying for. Is this really the affordable, all-in-one solution it claims to be? Or are you, in fact, shelling out for your developer’s research and development costs? And what happens if your developer goes out of business and leaves you with an ageing, unsupported platform?

Needless to say, it’s really important to consider your choice of platform before you brief your web development agency. Carry

out as much research as you can to help you make an informed decision. Ideally, you’ll have some idea of the platform you want to use before you write your brief.

A good agency will also be able to give you informed, independent advice to help you choose the perfect platform before work begins.

For more advice on this subject, download your free guide to choosing an e-Commerce platform.

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http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/downloads/e-commerce-platform-selection/

http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/downloads/e-commerce-platform-selection/


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NO KEYWORD PLANKeyword planning is a hugely

important part of planning a web build, but many agencies fail to carry out any keyword research at all.

As part of the audience research process, keyword research helps you find the search terms your targets use. It helps you choose frequently-searched terms for maximum search visibility, and it helps you understand the kind of research your audience is carrying out – and the kind of questions they need answering.

This research can provide useful insights into the kind of content you should be writing, how you should structure your website’s hierarchy, and even how you should name your URLs.

Imagine building a database with all the keywords your target market is using to find information on Google, then building your entire website structure and hierarchy around that search behaviour.

This is why keyword planning is so crucial. When done properly, it’s a really powerful and effective way of driving organic search visibility – because you’re building your site with search behaviour at its core.

What’s more, by using your audience’s search behaviour as the basis for your content, your copy will speak to them in their language – rather than conversion-stunting corporate jargon.

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AS PART OF THE AUDIENCE RESEARCH PROCESS, KEYWORD RESEARCH HELPS YOU FIND THE SEARCH TERMS YOUR TARGETS USE.



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NOT CREATING THE CONTENT FIRST

On-site, text-based content is often treated as an afterthought in the web build process.

But textual content is often your first point of contact with your audience when they reach your website. Needless to say, it shouldn’t be neglected.

Unfortunately, it often is neglected. On countless occasions we’ve worked with clients who have had beautiful websites created by other agencies, then uploaded some poor-quality copy at the last minute.

And it’s easy to see why it happens. Few web development agencies offer content creation as part of their service. Most marketing managers don’t have time to create quality content, and are not trained copywriters.

In fact, one of the most common causes of delays in web build projects is when developers have to wait for content to be delivered by time-stretched marketing managers.

When briefing your agency, you should ensure they treat content as an integral part of the

planning and building process. It should be considered just as important as your website’s design, or any other visual element.

Why? Because engaging, informative, entertaining content boosts conversion rates. And bad content kills conversions and conversations with your brand.

What’s more, recent Google algorithm updates are championing quality content above almost anything else. To not provide unique, fresh, authoritative content is to risk being seen as irrelevant, or hurting your search visibility.

You’ll also find you get much more cohesive results when you create content and design elements at the same time, rather than trying to fit content to an established design.

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MATT’S VIEW“Some designers believe that design without content is just decoration.

“High-quality design and great content go hand-in-hand. They should work together to communicate meaningful messages – to affirm the loyalty of captive audiences, and seek the trust of potential customers.”

Matt Hitches, UX designer/developer at ClickThrough Marketing



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NO CLEAR CONVERSION PLANThe majority of web build projects

don’t give enough consideration to conversion planning.

Each of your website visitors will be at a unique point in their path to purchase. Each will have fears that need addressing, and questions that need answering.

The classic model most marketers turn to for planning conversion optimisation is the purchase funnel, which can be visualised like this:

In case you’re unfamiliar with this model, the basic idea is that the vast majority of users will enter the funnel at the ‘awareness’ stage. Some will drop out at that point, and those that remain will move on to the ‘opinion’ stage. This continues until a few crucial customers – typically far fewer than the numbers that entered the top of the funnel – will make a purchase.

But in today’s digital world, the simple ‘path to purchase’ modelled in the conversion funnel is a little too simple. A vastly competitive market and an increasingly web-savvy audience have created a landscape in which marketers must work harder to influence each individual user at every stage of their conversion journey.

If you build your website to cater only to those customers who are at the bottom of the funnel (‘Purchase’) – i.e. those who are ready to buy – you risk losing users who are still in the research stage (‘Awareness’/’Opinion’). If their needs and concerns aren’t addressed, these users may leave the site and choose a competitor instead.

This is where conversion planning comes into the equation. A clear conversion plan is essential if you want your website to meet the needs of visitors at different stages of the funnel.

For example, it’s advisable to display different types of content or calls to action to cater to customers all the way down the funnel – from ‘Awareness’ to ‘Purchase’.

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NOT DEFINING TARGET PERSONAS

Creating ‘personas’ of your website visitors is a powerful technique for planning a conversion- and user-centric design.

A persona is a fictional character that broadly represents the personalities, needs, challenges and motivations of a section of your user base.

By creating personas, you can work out who your website visitors are, so you can structure your design, content and calls to action to satisfy their needs and influence their decisions. Done well, they allow you to design the best user experience for your customers at all touch points.

A persona for a B2B business, for example, might include information on his or her company role, work-related challenges and goals, personal ambitions and specific duties – as well as personal characteristics like name, age, marital status and so on.

You should try to paint as clear a picture as possible of your target personas – don’t be afraid to include specific personal information, as well as calls to action and content that might appeal to them. The idea is to ‘get to know’ this section of your target audience, so you can target them on a personal level.

Target personas for web build projects might also include information on web/technical experience, how often they use the Internet, where and how they access

the Internet, favourite sites, and social media usage.

We recommend creating at least three target personas, ideally more. As a rule, the more you can create – without them becoming unwieldy and complicated – the better you can seek to influence specific customer behaviours.

We also recommend choosing one primary persona, which will guide the web build process overall. Your primary persona should be a key customer target, and you should be confident that you can satisfy most of your other personas’ needs if you fulfil the needs of your primary persona.

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BAD MIGRATIONIf you think ‘migrating’ from your old

site to your new site is as easy as flicking a switch, think again.

An improperly performed migration can play havoc with your organic search rankings and traffic. Worst case scenario: You drop out of Google’s search results altogether.

Unfortunately, we see bad migrations all too often. They can take lots of time to put right, and they’re often a result of basic technical mistakes made by developers.

It’s not necessarily their fault. Many web development agencies feel their expertise lies in creating websites, not doing technical SEO. But the reality is this: If a web build is to be successful and profitable, technical SEO considerations like migration are just as important as design and content.

By highlighting the importance of migration in your brief, you can ensure your agency:

1. Understands the importance of site migration.

2. Knows how to carry out a site migration properly.

3. Has factored for migration in their costings.

For more information on migration, and tips to ensure your agency does it right, download your free eBook: Technical SEO Best Practices – A Marketers’ Guide.

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http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/downloads/a-marketers-guide-to-seo-led-web-design/

http://www.clickthrough-marketing.com/downloads/a-marketers-guide-to-seo-led-web-design/


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DEMANDING AN UNFEASIBLE PRICE

Everybody likes getting a good deal. And it’s easy to feel like you’ve done your business a favour by haggling your web development agency down to a great price.

You know where this is going. You get what you pay for – and if you don’t pay enough, your website won’t be the website you want it to be.

Remember, it’s a commercial agreement. Your agency has commercial concerns just as you do, and will need to cut corners to scrape a profit out of your ‘deal’.

The less you pay, the more corners get cut. And by pricing yourself out of the market, you might end up working with developers who are, in diplomatic terms, not exactly at the top of their game.

Good agencies, when faced with an unfeasible price, will walk away. They’re not going to compromise on quality or take on a project that will be unprofitable.

But inexperienced or struggling agencies are more likely to say yes, because they need the work – even though they know they may end up making a loss, and may have to cut some corners along the way.

Another problem you might face is ‘scope creep’. If you present a vague brief that aims for the cheapest possible option, you may find you have to shell out for not-so-optional extras as the project progresses, because these ‘extras’ have been cut to deliver on a tight budget.

Still, you shouldn’t run for the hills if you have to pay more than you first expected – some agencies will charge a higher-than-expected price because they recognise the time and work that goes into creating a successful website that delivers traffic, conversions and sales.

However, by writing a great brief, you can ensure you get great ROI from your website, and reduce the chances of paying more as the project rolls on.

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SETTING UNREALISTIC, IMMOVABLE DEADLINES

As with unfeasible prices, unrealistic deadlines lead to corner cutting.

It seems obvious, but it’s easy to forget when the pressure is on: there’s only so much time your agency can devote to your project. They have other clients with equally demanding projects to deal with.

As a marketing manager, it’s important to understand that spending too long in one phase will mean other things get pushed back. If any phase of the project exceeds its original scope or timescale, you can’t expect the original deadline to remain fixed.

For example, if design signoff takes one week longer than expected, then the target live date needs to be extended by one week.

Inevitably, somewhere along the way, your website will suffer if you haven’t allowed enough time in your brief to get it right. So make sure you build in a target live date that’s moveable.

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IT SEEMS OBVIOUS, BUT IT’S EASY TO FORGET WHEN THE PRESSURE IS ON: THERE’S ONLY SO MUCH TIME YOUR AGENCY CAN DEVOTE TO YOUR PROJECT. THEY HAVE OTHER CLIENTS WITH EQUALLY DEMANDING PROJECTS TO DEAL WITH.



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NOT GIVING FEEDBACK IN TIME

Your web build project should be a two-way conversation. You expect prompt delivery of proofs and works-in-progress – and your web development agency should expect you to provide feedback on these concepts so work can continue at a swift pace.

If this communication breaks down, your project can stagnate. Not providing feedback – or not providing it quickly enough – can impact on deadlines.

The best way to avoid this is to build guaranteed windows for concept delivery and feedback in to your brief. If you’re both clear on this from the start, there’s less chance of communication breakdown, project inertia, and frustrations.

NOT REQUESTING APPROPRIATE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Nowadays, there are countless tools available to assist with web build project management. And it’s crucial to ensure you’ve requested implementation of these tools, as web development projects tend to be far more complex than they used to be.

An Excel spreadsheet will not provide the level of collaboration and organisation necessary to handle a web build effectively.

Here are some examples of tools you may wish to request, depending on your project’s scope, needs and budget:

BugHerd: A collaborative bug-testing/feedback tool that allows you to make simple, plain-English annotations on the project-in-progress. These are then converted into full bug reports for your web developer to act upon. Visit: http://bugherd.com/

Smartsheet: Collaborative project management software that displays project progress in an easy-to-understand spreadsheet. Includes support for file-sharing, calendars, Gantt charts and resource management. Visit: https://www.smartsheet.com/

Basecamp: Basecamp is perhaps best described as a closed social network for project management. It allows users to upload and share project assets, take part in discussions and track milestones. Visit: https://basecamp.com

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http://bugherd.com

https://www.smartsheet.com

https://basecamp.com


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NOT REQUESTING A VERSION CONTROL SYSTEM

Put simply, a version control system (VCS) is a backup plan. It protects your website from mistakes and other issues by allowing your developers to easily revert to a previous version.

Here are a couple of scenarios to think about.

1. You work closely with your web development agency to create a great-looking site that supports your marketing goals. As the project is comfortably underway, a senior manager decides to take a look at the site, and he or she decides an earlier version is better.

You argue your case, but to no avail – you have to go back to the old version. But this requires lots of work from your agency, pushing your deadline back and stretching your budget.

2. You implicitly trust your agency to get things right. The project deadline is approaching, but you’re comfortably on

course to meet it. However, just as your agency is ironing out the final creases, you get a flustered call – a member of staff has committed a big error that’s going to take days to put right. As a result, you miss your deadline.

Both of these scenarios could be avoided, but only if you implement a VCS at an early stage.

It’s easy to think these kinds of things won’t happen to you. But it’s always better to be safe than sorry, as the consequences of major mistakes can derail a project at any stage.

A good VCS will have numerous other benefits, including safeguarding against file overwrites and allowing multiple staff to work on the same file.

One of the most popular (and best) version control systems is GitHub. To find out more, visit: https://github.com

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IT’S EASY TO THINK THESE KINDS OF THINGS WON’T HAPPEN TO YOU. BUT IT’S ALWAYS BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY, AS THE CONSEQUENCES OF MAJOR MISTAKES CAN DERAIL A PROJECT AT ANY STAGE.


https://github.com


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THINKING REVOLUTION, NOT EVOLUTION

If you haven’t managed a web build in a few years, you may have to adjust your thinking to succeed in the modern digital age.

Many people still build websites in three-year phases. They think in terms of ‘revolution’ – making sweeping, fundamental changes to a site, which then lays dormant and unchanged for the next three years.

They think ‘site built, job done’.

This kind of thinking doesn’t work anymore. As consumer expectations, technology and competition has increased, it has become vital for websites to change incrementally over time. Nowadays, it’s about ‘evolution’, not ‘revolution’.

Your website needs to offer the flexibility to evolve with your goals. It needs to allow for A/B testing, conversion optimisation enhancements and other gradual amendments.

Why? Because your market will change. Your marketing plans will change. And you’ll learn more about what works and what doesn’t as time goes on.

This is perhaps the most difficult factor to assess when choosing a web development agency. You’ll only learn about their revolution-versus-evolution philosophy through frank, face-to-face discussions. But you should lay it out in your brief – it’s vitally important.

Remember this: The real work of a website begins after it’s gone live.

15 YOUR WEBSITE NEEDS TO OFFER THE FLEXIBILITY TO EVOLVE WITH YOUR GOALS. IT NEEDS TO ALLOW FOR A/B TESTING, CONVERSION OPTIMISATION ENHANCEMENTS AND OTHER GRADUAL AMENDMENTS.



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NOT ALLOWING ENOUGH TIME AND BUDGET FOR TESTING

A website with a complete design, structure and content isn’t necessarily a ‘finished’ website.

To minimise problems and risks when going live with your site, you should allow your agency sufficient time and budget allocation for proper testing and bug fixing – both pre-launch and after launch.

Only when you know everything works should you consider your site ‘finished’. Or, at least, you can consider ‘version one’ to be finished – any incremental changes you make as time goes on should be tested thoroughly too.

The level of testing you’ll need to carry out is dependent on the size and complexity of your site. However, typical testing areas include SEO checklist testing, analytics and form testing, browser and platform testing, navigation testing and penetration security testing.

All too often, testing is carried out quickly in a rush to meet deadlines. That’s why it’s so important to build a testing period into your

initial plan. We recommend allocating at least ten per cent of your total budget for testing.

Without thorough testing, you could face problems with:

Technical SEO: Mistakes with on-site SEO can throw up innumerable problems. Issues that could take minutes to test and put right can cause catastrophic results if left unchecked – including making your site un-searchable on Google.

Security: Security breaches are no small concern. If your site is hacked, it puts your customers’ details and your reputation at risk.

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TYPICAL TESTING AREAS INCLUDE SEO CHECKLIST TESTING, ANALYTICS AND FORM TESTING, BROWSER AND PLATFORM TESTING, NAVIGATION TESTING AND SECURITY TESTING.



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User experience across browsers and devices: It’s important to check how your site works across as many devices and browsers as possible. Different browsers may display your site differently, and things that appear user-friendly on desktops might be frustrating for customers on mobile.

Analytics: It’s obviously important that you’re able to prove the benefits of your new website.

But if your analytics integration has been carried out incorrectly, you might find that the metrics you rely on to judge your business performance are no longer accurate.

ALAN’S VIEW“We once worked with a client that hadn’t thoroughly tested the mobile version of its site, causing an issue that effectively locked out all mobile visitors.

“The client had implemented a pop-up window that presented users with an offer. However, on mobile, the ‘close’ button for the pop-up appeared off-screen, so there was no way to access the site itself.”

Alan Rowe, ClickThrough Marketing’s director of web development



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LETTING HiPPOS GET TOO INVOLVED

Google’s Panda and Penguin algorithms are big risks for SEO. But when it comes to managing web build projects, you should fear a different species altogether – the HiPPO.

HiPPO stands for ‘Highly Paid Person’s Opinion’, or alternatively ‘Highest Paid Person in Organisation’.

The HiPPO in your organisation could be the CEO, or the MD. It could even be you.

HiPPOs have typically found success by following their instincts. Their gut decisions have gotten great results in the past, and more often than not, they’re right.

For example, the HiPPO might say “I don’t like that navigation, the position of that form and colour of that button.”

But the question is: Has the agency proposed this setup because they have evidence from other projects that it will convert better?

Getting web development right relies on a balance of design, technical, conversion and search expertise. It’s a balancing act, and it calls for a scientific, evidence-led approach.

That’s not to say you shouldn’t value a HiPPO’s intuition. But you shouldn’t let it guide the project. Testing, data and evidence are the key ingredients of a marketing-focussed website. Intuition, whether it’s right or not, only gets in the way of the recipe.

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HIPPOS HAVE TYPICALLY FOUND SUCCESS BY FOLLOWING THEIR INSTINCTS. THEIR GUT DECISIONS HAVE GOTTEN GREAT RESULTS IN THE PAST, AND MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, THEY’RE RIGHT.



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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Start by asking yourself: “Why do I need this website?”

• Always remember to use metric-led goals in your brief to web development agencies – for example, traffic, conversions or e-Commerce sales

• Securing enough budget to create a successful website is much simpler if you create a clear ROI forecast guided by your metric-led goals.

• Don’t let design decisions override more important considerations. Cutting-edge design might look great, but it may not result in the best possible user experience.

• Planning, analysis and scoping are key. A trusted, reputable agency will help you map out what your website needs, identify potential roadblocks, and find a way to deliver it to budget before they start work on your website.

• Map out and define audience personas as part of your briefing process. This ensures your conversion optimisation and marketing decisions are geared towards meeting your customers’ individual needs and fears.

• Be aware that the e-Commerce platform or CMS you choose can seriously affect the usability, cost and flexibility of your website.

• SEO keyword research should guide your content creation process and the structure of your website.

• Content should be considered as important as design, layout or any other facet of your website. Creating content first means building for users, creating cohesive designs and following SEO best practice.



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KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Planning for conversion is vital. Your website should aim to influence users at every point in the purchase funnel.

• Site migration, like many technical SEO considerations, can make or break your website. Make sure your agency understands the importance of best-practice migration and has factored it into its costings.

• Think carefully before haggling your agency down on price. A reputable developer is more likely to walk away if your price demands become unfeasible, as they know they’d have to cut corners to deliver to budget.

• Be realistic with your deadlines – your website will suffer if you set unrealistic, immovable deadlines that force your agency to cut corners.

• Feedback and bug-testing is a two-way street. Make sure you provide feedback to your agency on time so defined deadlines can be met.

• Robust project management tools and version control systems are essential nowadays. Make sure you request them in your brief.

• Think ‘evolution’, not ‘revolution’. Your website needs to be flexible enough for you to make incremental changes easily over the coming years.

• Don’t let HiPPOs get too involved. Although these ‘Highly Paid Person’s Opinions’ may be well-informed, it’s important to take a scientific, evidence-based approach to your web build, rather than relying on gut feelings.



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WEB DEVELOPMENT CASE STUDY:

HELPING HANDS HOMECAREHome care provider Helping Hands asked ClickThrough Marketing to create a responsive, user-friendly website to cater for its growing mobile audience. In this case study, we show how our unique 35-step web build process helped Helping Hands fall in love with its website all over again…

BackgroundHelping Hands is an award-winning provider of live-in care services. The family-run company has provided high-quality care to customers across England and Wales for more than 25 years, and boasts a five-star rating on NHS Choices.

ClickThrough Marketing has worked with Helping Hands since 2013, providing expert support for its SEO strategy.

The ChallengeFollowing an in-depth analytics audit in June 2014, Helping Hands noted that a significant proportion of its website traffic came from mobile users.

The company realised a website redevelopment was crucial. Their new website would have to cater to these mobile users, whilst improving conversion rates.

“The key objective was to get a responsive website to give our customers a better user journey.” Dal Dosanjh, marketing manager at Helping Hands

Helping Hands was also having trouble with its content management system (CMS). The platform they were using… “Wasn’t very user friendly,” says Dal.

“Most of the time we had to ask our existing web agency to do things. Even adding documents, or PDF downloads to the website was difficult.”

In terms of design, Dal emphasised it was important that Helping Hand’s new website had a “fresh, modern appeal”, whilst maintaining the brand’s established ‘look and feel’.

“The brief called for evolution, rather than revolution. We wanted to retain the existing look and feel but put a responsive, mobile-friendly design in place.” Dal Dosanjh

Despite already having a web development agency on board, Helping Hands decided to take the project to pitch. On the strength of their existing relationship, Helping Hands



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invited ClickThrough, along with its existing web development agency, and several agencies it hadn’t previously worked with.

The PitchClickThrough’s pitch focussed on its metric-led approach to web development – supported by its five-phase, 35-step web build process.

The 35-step process is built on years of marketing and web development and

experience, and is designed to ensure every aspect of a website supports its marketing goals – from planning to design to delivery.

PROVEN PROCESS: BEST PRACTICE WEB DEVELOPMENT



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Alan Rowe, ClickThrough’s head of web development, explains:

“With regard to design, we know that most customers like to see the design as early as possible. We appreciate this, but find this to be inefficient. By having the design process quite late in the 35-step process, it ensures we have thought long and hard about the challenges of a new website.

“By the time we start working on the design, we’ve already considered what target audiences are looking for, and how they might behave. We’ve already thought about how we can organise information to keep the user journey as simple as possible, allowing quick and easy access to information. And we’ve already scoped out how we can support SEO strategies.

“Having gone through the planning process, we are in a much better position to know what the website should look like. And, invariably, get it right first time.”

Despite strong competition, ClickThrough’s structured web development process, and the strength of its existing relationship with Helping Hands convinced the care company that ClickThrough was the right choice.

“We only invited a couple of agencies that we hadn’t worked with before. One of the pitches was absolutely fantastic, but ClickThrough was by far the best.

“What was really impressive was that ClickThrough was very, very structured. We liked that you could always look at the 35 steps and see where we are in the timeline. That was impressive.

“We also liked the fact that all key members of staff were present at the pitch. All directors, and all specialists made the effort to come along and get involved.” Dal Dosanjh



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The ProcessA key facet of ClickThrough’s 35-step process is integration between separate marketing disciplines – from design to content, from conversion optimisation to SEO.

This approach ensures that every website ClickThrough creates is built to technical, conversion and SEO best practices – but necessitates tight communication between teams, and with clients.

Having worked together on SEO for more than a year, Helping Hands was confident ClickThrough could deliver on organic search. However, the new website presented a new challenge – how to implement

conversion rate optimisation (CRO) techniques in a uniquely challenging market.

The first point of contact for many of our customers is usually through online advertising. By the time they visit our site, they’re in a position where they’re at a very emotional point in their conversion journey.

“Obviously, it’s important that we are compassionate to these customers, whilst also being a trusted source of information and a viable business. The website needs to play many different roles to be successful. After all, 70% of our business is online.” Dal Dosanjh

ClickThrough also had a tight deadline to deal with. Helping Hands’ peak season was fast approaching, so the entire project would have to be delivered in just three months.

A KEY FACET OF CLICKTHROUGH’S 35-STEP PROCESS IS INTEGRATION BETWEEN SEPARATE MARKETING DISCIPLINES – FROM DESIGN TO CONTENT, FROM CONVERSION OPTIMISATION TO SEO.



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The ResultsClickThrough delivered the project to deadline and to brief. The finished website used a responsive design that presented Helping Hands as a modern family-run business – supported by the detailed technical and marketing considerations laid out in the 35-step process.



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The feedback from Helping Hands was outstanding.

“The ClickThrough ‘A Team’. Give them a challenge, they’ll get it done. Give them a deadline – ‘yep, no problem’. Ask for the plus-1s in service – already there. That’s our experience of working with ClickThrough and we offer our sincere thanks for a job well done. It really has been an absolute pleasure working with you all.” Jo Wright, Helping Hands’ head of marketing

“I just wanted to give my sincerest thanks to Alan, Neil, Matt, Lily, Zoe, Jordan, Lisa, Richard and I’m sure a whole host of others at ClickThrough, who have been instrumental in producing an awesome looking and functioning website.”

“Selecting ClickThrough as our web development partner was the best decision Helping Hands made. The whole process – and the journey you’ve taken us through – has been fun and educational. It’s been a real pleasure working with such a fantastic professional team.” Dal Dosanjh

The Helping Hands team also praised ClickThrough’s high standards of communication. Jo Wright said:

“The technical know-how at ClickThrough is industry-leading, but what really sets you apart in my opinion is your communication. Just plain old communication; and not just keeping us informed at all times but we also notice it between yourselves as a team.

“As very demanding clients we know what we want and you listened, took the time to understand and then actioned.”

As Alan Rowe explains:

“By ensuring as many people across disciplines were involved in key stages of the build, we were able to work together with CTM an extension of Helping Hands’ marketing department as a single team, all working to close off snags to reach the end game.”

As for Helping Hands’ content management system, ClickThrough identified at an early stage that a simple, easy-to-use platform like WordPress would suit the care company’s needs. Helping Hands’ team were frustrated that their current CMS prevented them from editing content themselves, and they had no need for a complex e-Commerce system



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that would require extensive training and investment.

ClickThrough built the website using WordPress, and according to Dal Dosanjh, “It’s so friendly to use. From a user perspective now, I’m instantly very clear as to where I’m at on the site.”

The final challenge to overcome was how to optimise the site for conversion, whilst being sensitive to the needs and emotions of Helping Hands’ user base. ClickThrough’s previous experience creating Helping Hands content, as well as the built-in audience research of the 35-step process, ensured this wasn’t an obstacle. Richard Chapman, ClickThrough’s conversion and analytics manager, explains:

“Helping Hands’ website was particularly challenging. It had to communicate to and convert multiple and very different personas – growing business, showing empathy and recruiting new staff. For websites like this,

you have to be able to adjust what you do based on the specific challenges of the client, user base and sector.

“That’s why our 35-step process includes in-depth persona analysis at an early stage. This ensures our audience research informs every step of the design and conversion processes.

“Through careful use of empathetic content and imagery, we were able to satisfy the needs of Helping Hands as a business, and the emotional needs of its users.”

For the final word, we’ll turn to Dal Dosanjh:

“I’m still in love with the website. I think it’s great.”

Are you in the market for a new website, but can’t find a web development agency that understands your marketing plans?

Let our experts show you how our unique 35-step web build process can support and improve your marketing efforts. Call now on 0808 159 7730.



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ClickThrough is a digital marketing agency, providing web development, search engine optimisation, pay per click management, conversion optimisation and content marketing services.

Since 2004, ClickThrough has helped several companies from big brands to small start-ups grow Google rankings, boost conversions, increase return on digital marketing investment, and stretch Internet marketing budgets to get value for money.

We pride ourselves on giving honest advice based on the latest digital marketing best practices. Our RITE core values of Results, Innovation, Trust and Excellence drive everything we do.

; A proven and trusted agency since 2004

; Creators of BidCops.com - Europe’s leading free AdWords Auditing Tool

; We are a Top 100 Agency on Recommended Agency Register

; We have published several books on digital marketing, sold on Amazon

; Proven track record from our work with clients including Peugeot, Dunelm, Biffa and Halfords Autocentres

; Our people all receive our industry-leading, Digital Academy training

; Active members of the IAB, eConsultancy and SEMPO

; Thought leaders, giving clients the inside track on what matters in search, social media and the digital marketplace... before it happens!

Whether you are thinking of changing your search or digital marketing agency, or just looking to improve your online conversion rate, our team of search conversion experts can help.

Find out what we can do to grow your business. Call us on 0800 088 7486 or visit www.clickthrough-marketing.com

ABOUT CLICKTHROUGH


How to Brief a Web Design Agency Part 1

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