How to prepare for your website rebuild

Laura: So Steve, we've been involved in a number of web projects over the years here at Bespoke, and we've learned that what you do in the beginning of the process really leads to a successful outcome. So what would you say are the key things that we need to think about at the beginning of a build?

Steve: Yeah, so what we see is the way a client approaches us and what they've done before they approach us, can actually completely change how a project goes and how successful that website is for them. And actually we've got to sort of, you know, sometimes we find ourselves telling the client to sort of stop and go back and sort of do some work and and have a think. So there are some things that happened before the project that completely change what happens during the project, completely change the outcome. So one, I mean the most fundamental thing is engaging with a matched agency and by matched, we mean that's somebody that's busy in your sector. That's built lots of websites in your sector, that's working with companies of your size, you know, it's got some track record, they can maybe talk about 20 or 30 similar projects and if we set up a call with that agency, you could do this with more than one agency, they'd be able to describe a a history of projects. And you know, say things like the last 10 or 20 similar projects we've done have all included this section, these tactics, maybe this kind of lead magnets, and that's what people are booking and that's what's working, and if you plan that sort of project, it's likely to work for you. But you'll only get that information if you're speaking with a matched agency. I mean we're busy in B2B and leg gen, aren't we? But if an e-commerce online shop came to us, we couldn't give them that information, we don’t have that experience. And you know if somebody wanted an app building, we couldn't give them that experience. But the same the other way around as well you know, so you want specialist agencies, I think is the first thing.

Laura: Okay.

Steve: And yeah there's other things. I think one thing is how you prepare your brief. You've seen some briefs that we receive and it's the finished, you know, a complete system. I think we've had some that are 17 pages, 25 pages you know, this sort of thing and it's the finished thing and it's quite, you can see it's sort of six months work it's as if the company has made all its decisions about what's going to be in this finished website. But we find it a lot more successful to work with somebody who's got an outline of a brief that's perhaps focused quite a lot around outcomes, you know, so the outcome might be ‘look we've got a website that currently gets us 10 leads a month we actually want 20’ or ‘we get 10 but we want a better quality’ or you know, ‘this is to drive hundreds of leads for new product’. Or maybe it's not for leads, maybe it's for visibility or some other function, but if we're leading with outcome, I think that leaves open the scope for agencies to advise. Actually, you can find you need far less than you thought with your website, a much smaller or simpler project sometimes. If you lead with outcomes.

Laura: So at this point, you wouldn't say that we need specifics?

Steve: Maybe not, I mean, I think we had one last week actually, which was maybe it was two pages or three pages, and it was sort of saying this is the aim, this is the outcome, we're looking for this, this is what we've currently got, we think these are the headings, it probably needs, these are some assets that we've got, you know, we've got this image library and video library and so on. And some ideas we're interested in is one, two, and three and from that we can have a really really productive conversation, a discovery call, you know, like a 30 or 45 minute call and we can really round that into, you know, something that's going to be a really successful project for the client. Much easier to work with that then, you know a finished, completely set in stone brief. Yeah, so starting with an outline brief, I think is a good one. And then thirdly and finally is, I mean one of our mantras is you never take on any project without a workshop. So if you're going to hire an agency or you're considering hire an agency, don't worry about booking the big project. Just book a workshop with them, have half day cover off your, you know, profile, your ideal customer together, so everyone understands who this site’s for. Start looking at it from the customer side. We run a value proposition exercise so we understand all the products and services and then build content pillars and that'll steer the structure of the site towards something that's going to really work. And the secret with that, or the sort of magic ingredient with that, is when you've run that exercise and engaged with the agency that way, everybody's on board for the project they've seen the origin of why the plan is how it is. So everyone understands it, they're excited, you get a smooth project and you get a right first-time end result that you know properly performs for you.

Laura: Brilliant, great, thanks for that Steve.