 I'm gonna let you know a little secret here. It doesn't take three to six months to build or to redesign a website. Welcome to the We Are Slam show where you'll learn marketing agency insights, best practices, and ideas to help your business grow. My name is Tyler Kelly. I'm the co-founder and chief strategist here at Slam Agency. Now this show is for marketing professionals, people that are strategizing, putting together plans to market their companies. It's for small business owners who might not necessarily have somebody in charge of marketing yet. So you're the one that's going out and doing everything on the sales and marketing side. And that's okay. And today's show is an important one. And it's important because you might be at that point in your business or with your brand that you're like, okay, it's time for us to go ahead and redo our website, to get a new website, to launch this new project, we need a website. And what I wanna reveal today is the five questions that you absolutely have to know the answers to before you hire a web designer, before you hire a branding firm that does web design or development. These are the things that you want to go into the conversation knowing so that you make the absolute best decision for your business. And these things are important. They're important because your website is the lifeblood of your business. I mean, people go to your website to verify your credibility to confirm that you are who you say you are. They go there to see if you're a trustworthy business and are you a business that they can count on? I mean, these are the things that people are looking for. You know, as a matter of fact, 70% of the purchase decision is already made up before this person, the prospect, your potential customer ever picks up the phone and calls you before they ever step foot in your store. I mean, the decision is already made. 70%, can you believe that? It's true. It's true because what's happening is people are going online first. They're making up their minds online. They're doing their research, their homework online. They're discovering you online. And by the time they come into your store, pick up the phone and schedule an appointment, their minds are already made up. And so this changes the way that you have to interact with people in this digital world, in this post COVID world. This is how business is being done and you need to be aware of that. So when it comes to this question, there's certain things that you really need to know before you sign on the dotted line, before you make that decision. And these are the things that I'm gonna share with you in this show today. So let's jump right in. The first thing I want you to do, the first secret, if you will, anytime you're speaking with a web developer, a web designer, a web agency, somebody that is getting ready to give you a contract or a price or a bid on doing your website, the first thing I want you to do, and really this is something that you should do before you even pick up the phone and call them, or if they're a friend before you commit to the meeting, before you commit to the option of potentially working with them, go to their website. Go to their website and take a look at their website and ask yourself, how does this website make me feel? Is this a good website? And you be the judge of that, because you're the one that's gonna be putting your money forward in this type of relationship. So ask yourself, is what I see here, representative of the type of work that I need done? That's the first question, it's super important. It's the first question that you should be asking yourself. Click on the buttons, click on the links, see if there's typos in the copy. See if there are things that aren't lining up. Go to your phone and see what it looks like on your phone. And see, does it respond well on a mobile device? These are the things that you should be doing first and foremost before, number one, before you set a meeting with somebody, and number two, definitely before you sign on the bottom line, okay? You need to understand that they've put in the work to make their website shine. If their website doesn't shine, if it's not updated, if there are misspellings or typos or incorrect grammar, then these are the, or they're just not mobile responses. I mean, the list goes on and on and on of what makes a good website. If it's slow, if it takes time to load, if you search for the business's name and they don't pop up in Google search, these are the types of things that might make you think, well, if their brand name isn't popping up in Google search, then perhaps there's a problem with the way they've optimized their website. And maybe there would be a problem with the way they'd optimize yours. And so, what you're doing is you are becoming a detective and you're kind of clicking through and you're looking and you're doing a thorough review. You're not just gonna go to their homepage, pick up the phone and call them. You're gonna do a thorough review. You're gonna click on every button. You're gonna look and see how does this website make me feel? Is it speaking to me as a potential customer? Does it relate to me? And obviously, does everything work? Are there any broken links? Does the form work? Is there a phone number that I can call or is it just like contact form only? Is there an email? All of these types of things that make a good business website are the things that you should be looking for, first and foremost, when you begin to call on web designers. So that's number one. Number two, and this is assuming that you've already begun discussions and now you're talking about price. Number two is what are you paying for? This is a question that I want you to get used to asking. What am I paying for? What are the things that are gonna be included in this contract? You know, a lot of times when we think about redesigning a website, rebuilding a website, what we think about are just those things that we can see on the surface. What the website looks like, the colors, the fonts. If it's not mobile responsive right now, maybe it's mobile responsive, hopefully after the redesign. But these are just surface things, right? There's so much more that goes into a good website. This includes the way that the story is laid out on the page. It includes the way that it's optimized. These are things that you can't necessarily see. It's how fast does the website load? Is it discoverable in search engines like Google? Is it optimized for that? These are the types of things that a good website has and they're not always things that you see on the surface. It's not always the design, it's not always the look and feel. It might be taking big chunks of content and making them more scannable. Scannable content is super important on a website because people don't read text, they scan text. So these are all the types of things that make a good website. And so these are the things that you need to know and the questions that you need to ask, what am I paying for? What are you paying for? Are you paying for SEO optimization? Are you paying for content rewriting, restructuring? Are you paying for a reorganization of the nuts and bolts of the website, mobile friendliness, mobile responsiveness? Are you paying for these things? Or are you just paying for a refresh? Are you just paying for something that is new colors, new fonts, new typography? And that's it. What are you paying for? And the reason why this is important is because you get what you pay for. I mean, I know this is obvious, but it bears repeating. For instance, website builders. Website builders, and when I say website builder, I'm really referring to like the square spaces, the wicks, the weeblies of the world. Website builders are framed and positioned as something that is super easy, right? But what I know as an agency owner is that these might be easy to get something up and running, but they're not necessarily the types of places that we want to invest in the long term. Meaning, if I'm building a simple site for a campaign or a project, and I want that to get out there fast, and I don't want a whole lot of customization when it comes to the layout or the design, I just want something that is simple, is proven effective, is responsive, and I can just put the information in and get that out there. And this campaign, it's not gonna be a forever thing. This website is going to have a start date, and at some point the campaign is gonna end, it's gonna have an end date. A square space, a weebly, a wicks, perfect for this, okay? What I don't want to use these sites for is a situation where, okay, this is my forever site, this is my site where I'm gonna blog, I'm gonna build a list, and the reason why I don't want to use these sites for that is because I know, you might not know this, but I know this as an agency owner, that at some point you're gonna want something that has more power than these sites are able to provide. If your business is growing and you're evolving as a business, then you're gonna want something more powerful than a square space or a weebly, and when that time comes, it's going to be very difficult, if not nearly impossible to switch from the square space to a real website. At least at this point with the technology that there is and the way that importing and exporting from a square space spot site to a WordPress or a HubSpot site, the way that works, it's very difficult. And the money that you saved from going through to a square space or a weebly in the beginning, the money that you saved then, you're definitely gonna pay later, you're gonna pay later because it's gonna take a lot of time, a lot of effort, and if you hire somebody, it's gonna take a lot more money to get that site from that platform to a more sustainable platform. And so I always say, do WordPress first. Sometimes when you're just starting out, the cost of a square space seems super appealing, but the thing is WordPress, the cost isn't that much more. And so we always direct our clients to WordPress. WordPress first and potentially HubSpot website after that, but WordPress first, stay away from the square spaces, the weebly, the wixas, unless for whatever reason, you've already built a store on one of those sites and you're already bringing in income and the system and the machine works. If you're not in that position, or like I said, if it's just like a temporary site, that you just wanna launch a campaign, launch a project, get it out there quickly knowing that at some point, that site's going to go away. If it's not one of those two use cases, and you're looking at something like for your business, like a website that's gonna represent you, and it's gonna be around for a while, you definitely wanna go with like a WordPress or a HubSpot website. These are things that you might not be thinking about right now, and that's okay. But trust me, you're gonna save a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of energy later on if you just go straight to WordPress and just scratch the idea of doing a square space or a weebly or something like that. Okay, number three question that you need to absolutely know the answer to when you're getting ready to hire web design firm or a web developer or something like that. Number three, do they understand sales and marketing? Does this web development company understand sales and marketing? The reason why is because your website is where the sales and the marketing happens. This is where people go to learn about you. It's where they go to confirm that you are who you say you are. And more than just like this pretty website that kind of just sits there like a brochure, a website has to function. A website has to generate leads. It has to capture email addresses. It has to help your potential buyers, your prospects go from one stage in the buyer's cycle to the next. It has to kind of nurture them and bring them along. And as part of that, there's some things you gotta think about. Like how does the email marketing integrate? How does the CRM integrate? You know, how does our advertising, our pay per click, how do these things kind of fit in and work throughout the site? And then how is our messaging, our story? How is that laid out in a way that is compelling? In a way that captivates, motivates and inspires people to action? Like how is this happening? If your developer doesn't understand sales and marketing, then what I would suggest is that you have somebody on the team that does, meaning a marketing director, either in-house or a consultant that you hire, or that you're working kind of like a general contractor in that, okay, I've got this developer, somebody that is good at coding, and then I've gotta have a designer, somebody that's good at making the visual come to life and be impactful, then I have a copywriter, somebody that can put the words on the page in a way that are going to drive demand, and then I have an SEO person, somebody that can optimize the content that the copywriter's put together, somebody that can optimize that content and make sure that it's search engine friendly, and then I have an analytics person, somebody that can install the analytics, make sure that everything's going the way that it needs to go, and possibly even a CRM person, somebody that can make sure that when people land on the site that their information is being collected and then it's being put into the CRM and those people are through sales intelligence, like HubSpot sales, are being nurtured and are being nurtured in a way that will not only drive demand, but drive sales in the future, and so these are all the things that you have to think about and all the things that a good marketing team will think about, and if you're just gonna go out and hire a developer, then by all means make sure you get all these other roles on the team as well, or look for a company or a firm that provides each of the roles that I just mentioned as part of that team that's gonna be built on that website. Okay, the number four question that you absolutely need to know, and this is a big one, what is the timeline? You should absolutely know how long it's going to take to complete your project, okay? I'll let you in on a little secret. A lot of times, at least pre-COVID, the contracts that were put out there by web development firms or web agencies or branding firms would say three to six months on a website, and I'm gonna let you in on a little secret here. It doesn't take three to six months to build or to redesign a website. It never has, I guess maybe in the late 90s or early 2000s, it probably took three to six months when we were doing HTML from scratch pre-word press, but here's the thing, it does not take three to six months to build a website. What may take three to six months is to get you into the rotation, and so what I want you to understand when you think about timeline is how much time are they actually spending on the website itself, and how much time is spent with you just standing in line waiting for your turn with the web development team, okay? Because like I said, it doesn't take three to six months. Generally it takes four to eight weeks, and I'm being generous because I mean, that's working time for somebody to build your website from the ground up. And if it's a redesign, if you're just coming into doing a refresh, then it could potentially take four to six weeks, okay? And so this is the amount of time that people would actually be working on your site. Any other time in that three to six months or in that quote that you have that's over eight weeks is most likely spent with meetings, with some back and forth, and honestly with just getting you in line. You're just in line, you're waiting for your turn. And so what's the timeline? Ask the question and figure out when are we gonna start and what can I see? You know, web development project happens online. And so there's always something that you can see every step of the way. I've never been a fan, slam has never been a fan of the big reveal, meaning that we're not gonna start a project, work it through to completion and then show it to the client. We like to work with the client step by step. And what this means is that you, if you were our client, would be involved every step of the way at every point in that development process, in that copywriting process, in that design process, you're gonna see progress, okay? It's not gonna be like, okay, four weeks later, boom, here's your website. You're gonna see the progression. You're gonna see the evolution. You're gonna see somebody working on your site. And this is important when it comes to timeline because you know that people are working on your site. The last thing I want you to be aware of and I want you to know is, does the agency, does the firm, does the developer that you are going to select, do they offer a turnkey solution? This is an important question because websites are more than what you see. I mean, there's domain names. So if this is your first website, somebody has to purchase the domain. I would suggest that that somebody be you. Never let your agency purchase the domain for you. Make sure that you purchase it for yourself. The reason why is it's very difficult to transfer domains and you never wanna get in a situation where you don't own your intellectual property. The other thing that's important is hosting. Do they provide hosting? Is this something that you can count on? You know, websites are hosted or websites sit on computers that are connected to the internet, okay? Those computers are called host and so somebody has to pay for hosting. I mean, this isn't free. Is that included as part of your web development design package that you're gonna be signing on the dotted line for? Or is that something that is going to, once your website goes live, is going to be additional? A lot of times, at least here at SLAM, what we do is we provide the first six months of hosting for free and then after that, we'll bill you for hosting. Some people aren't comfortable with giving the hosting to their agency so what they do is they go out and buy their own hosting and that's completely okay too. What else might be included? Well, you might not have a website without photography and so photography of your people, of your location, of your projects, that's important. Perhaps video is something that you want on your website. Are these things included? Are there additional costs to these things and is the person that you're hiring capable of doing all of these things or are there gonna be additional expenses later on down the line because they have to hire people to do these things? Copywriting, SEO, all of the above, I mentioned the rules earlier. Are these things included? Are they extra? Is it all happening in-house under one roof or are you gonna be at the end of the day working with a lot of people? These are the types of questions that you need to be asking so my five absolute must know. Number one is you just gotta go look at the firm's site. Is it something that shows that they're actually good at what they do or have they been dropping the ball when it comes to their website? Number two, what are you paying for? What's included, what's additional? What are you gonna have to bring in later on? Number three, does the firm, does the person that you're hiring understand sales and marketing which in my opinion is something that needs to be understood first before the site comes along because if you build the site and then you try to add sales and marketing to it later, you might have to rebuild the site. Number four, what is the timeline? And number five, do they offer a turnkey solution? These are the questions that I believe you should be asking. You know, over the years, we here at SLAM have had an opportunity to build a lot of sites, redesign a lot of sites and work with other agencies and other contractors who are building and redesigning sites. We've seen the good, we've seen the bad, we've had our own struggles and we've done some really amazing things that have helped our clients get to that next level. So if you're getting ready to start a web design project and you're not quite sure where to start or if you think you might need to make some improvements to your website but you're not quite sure and you just want an honest answer and honest like, does this need work or where can this be improved? Reach out to us. We'd be more than happy to take a look at your website and give you our honest feedback on next steps and where you need to go and where you really should be for your specific situation. You can find us at slamagency.com. Of course, if you're there, just click on the free consultation button. And if you're listening to us on a podcast network and you've enjoyed this episode, do me a favor, subscribe, rate and review. Those things are super important. Five stars if you believe this was a five star episode. And if you're watching us on social media, leave me a comment in the comments section. I love reading those and responding to those and I appreciate it when you take the time to leave a comment. So thank you for tuning in. I will see you next week. Thanks for watching. If you like what you saw, subscribe and hit that bell. You'll be the first to be notified when new content goes live. After that, you can watch more videos from slamagency. We've picked something we think you'll love.