Bespoke website development

This depends on the size and complexity of your website, and whether you need a rebrand and brand refresh too. On average bespoke website development projects take 6-8 weeks to design and build, once you've signed off the project specification document we create for you.

Bespoke web development involves hand crafting designs and code that is just right for business, audience, and for Google. Bespoke web development delivers a "performance website". Businesses with turnover of £1m or more typically have a "performance website". At the lower end of the market, templated or off the shelf systems such as WordPress, Wix or Squarespace may used. These do not perform well in competitive or corporate environments, where bespoke web development is needed to outperform competitors. 

Yes! Many of our clients have had bespoke websites with us for 5-10 years or more, and are big advocates of our service. Renewal rates are above 90% every year. We’ll be happy to put you in touch with somebody who has recently completed a bespoke website development project with us. You might also like to look at some of the client success stories on this website.

Our typical client is a B2B company with turnover in the £1m-£100m range approximately, with somebody responsible for marketing in-house. We only take on bespoke website development projects where there is a good 2-way match. If you get in touch to discuss your project and we're not the best match for you, we simply refer you to a better matched agency. We have very good relationships with many other reputable agencies, and regularly pass enquiries to them, where we are not the best match for the project.

Yes, Bespoke websites from an established agency are the best matched websites available. We’re well known for our strategic approach. We're authors of the Amazon #1 bestseller Build Your Digital Marketing Strategy in fact. Your bespoke website development project will begin with a Digital Strategy Workshop to develop your digital marketing plan for the next 3 years. We'll run a Design Sprint Workshop with you to plan your bespoke website project together. Nothing is built until you sign off wireframes and full colour designs.

Your website project will follow a 91-step process, developed over 20+ years, based on more than 200 successful bespoke website development projects. It’s very rare for one of our projects to run past its deadline or go over budget. If a project does run over it is normally because the client requests something new along the way, and we agree a different deadline and additional fees for it. We have this very high rate of success with bespoke website projects because of our vast experience, and the thorough planning process we complete with you, before the before your website project begins.

Because our process is so long established it’s rare for things to go wrong. Some things that can cause issues are you being late providing content or cancelling scheduled review meetings or calls at short notice. At the beginning of your project we provide you with the website project schedule, and agree what you need to provide and when. If you follow the project plan it is very unusual for something to go wrong.

We plan your website content together in the initial workshops. Often, clients have their in-house teams produce or provide content for the website, and our role is simply to advise on how it can be improved for usability and SEO. But if you’d like us to produce content for you this can be included in your estimate. We can also help organise professional photography and video where needed. We have very good partners for these services.

Your bespoke website will include a flexible, feature-rich content management system. It’s fast, intuitive, easy-to-use, with a secure control panel through which you can change the text and images on the website, and, in most cases, add additional pages. Because your website will be a bespoke build just for you, the exact features of your content management system will be established in the website planning workshops, based upon what is appropriate for you.

Bespoke website costs depend on the complexity of the website, and the goals involved, as you’d expect. We like to be as helpful with budget planning as possible, and establish fixed budgets that you can be sure will not change. After talking through options, and likely returns on investment, most clients choose bespoke website projects that cost between £15k and £50k. The websites Bespoke develops normally last 3-5 years, so the cost per year is low, given the returns a bespoke website can generate. There are hosting and support costs for bespoke website development too of course, but these are relatively small.

Our websites team is one of the most experienced in the north-west. Between them they have delivered over 100 very successful website projects. When you book your bespoke website development project we assign your project manager, designer and developers. They will all have many years of experienced with the type of project you have book, and will work to a proven process. As an extra step, all the bespoke websites we produce are reviewed internally by senior staff before they are passed to you and before they go live.

Yes, you can find examples in the client success stories section of this website. When you get in touch to discuss your project we will refer to relevant examples and let you know how others have enjoyed success in sectors similar to yours. We have lots of examples of successful bespoke website and marketing projects we've delivered for our clients across all B2B sectors, since 2001.

Yes. A bespoke website project with Bespoke is always an upgrade. In addition to the redesign, your website also undergoes a structured testing process before it goes live. Bespoke is different in that we also test your website once it is live, with prospective customers using it. We record visitors post launch and, if needed, optimise to be sure it is working exactly as planned. Clients typically report noticeable performance improvements when they switch to a custom-built website from Bespoke.

Yes. SEO is planned at the beginning, based on what will be most successful for you. Extensive SEO checks are done before launch. We also check rankings post launch to make sure your new website is performing as expected in Google.

Bespoke websites typically last 3-5 years before clients choose to redesign and rebuild. Because a bespoke website development project is only needed every few years, the cost per year of the website project is relatively low, given the return it delivers. Some companies capitalise their website development cost in their accounts and depreciate it over its life. So for example, if a website project costs £30k, and the website lasts 3 years, the website build cost is only £833 per month in the company accounts.

We’ll provide you with premium hosting from one of the UK’s biggest hosting companies. We take care of this for you, at very competitive rates. As we work exclusively with B2B companies we only ever buy premium, fast, UK-based hosting. Your hosting will include everything you would expect from premium hosting, in terms of speed, reliability, security and backups.

You will have a combined hosting & support contract. This provides you with 24/7 support for emergencies. Business hours support is on a 1-hour response basis which is one of the fastest SLAs provided by a web agency. Many of our 5-star reviews mention the excellent support we provide once after a website is live.

Yes. Most customers also have a marketing retainer with us. Retainers are normally based around a lead generation goal. Often they involve targeted paid ads, organic search optimisation or conversion rate optimisation. Many of our clients use their retainer for more advanced marketing, or for specific campaigns, so that their in-house marketers can get on with their jobs. If you have a marketing retainer we meet with you every month to report results and plan campaigns.

You'd choose Bespoke if you’re an established B2B company that wants to grow exposure or generate more leads online. In particular, if your turnover is in the £1m to £100m range, very approximately, and if you have somebody responsible for marketing in-house. When clients choose Bespoke, they typically enjoy 2-3 years of maturing and systemising their website and digital marketing, and many years of continual growth in visibility and web enquiries. If you get in touch to discuss your project and we are not the best agency for you, we will simply refer you to an agency we know well, who is a better match for you. We are very friendly with many other very reputable agencies.

We look at this together in the planning workshops. We only take on bespoke web development projects where there is a clear and obvious benefit, and likely return on the investment. We always advise on how your website should fit into your wider marketing to make a complete system that reliably delivers the exposure and enquiries you need.