Choosing a Web Design and Programming Firm, a Customer's Perspective

When hired as marketing manager of Deaton Investment Real Estate, my first priority was to renovate the company Web site. What we needed to do was a complete tear down (minus all the melodrama), like those extreme makeover shows where the person/house/master bath is just something totally different after the big reveal.

The new Deaton site was to run parallel with a long-established and successful direct mail campaign to customers and qualified leads (current owners and company-registered investors) and serve as the primary brand introduction and selling tool for prospective leads (potential investors).

“Very important to Deaton was the size and business strength of our potential Web services partner. It should go without saying that the partner’s visual design merits, programming knowledge and customer service would also be critical factors in our decision.”

Good design is important

Our attraction to things visually appealing is a primal response. And a well-designed Web site will trigger that reaction every time.

Before vendor meetings, I would spend a good deal of time perusing Web site portfolios. You should too, because you'll learn more than you think. Repetition in design trends will become apparent, even across vendors. There are simply too many industry best practices to be ignored. And why should they be? Great designers learn from one another. They can see one thing and be influenced to give it their own spin. Essentially, a great design is a conglomerate of endless ideas, an avalanche of artistry that starts as one designer's snowflake and culminates in a torrent of coolness that hopefully all comes crashing down on your project.

That being said, some Web site companies simply employ better designers than others. The right designer, in conjunction with their creative director, can hear what you're not saying. Sort of like an auto mechanic knowing what's wrong with your car when all you can do is attempt to make broken car noises in the lobby. So by all means, if a company's design characteristics appeal to you, react to that. Communicate to the team as much as you can about your audience. Professional? General consumer? IT Professional? Housewife? Remember, the artists' ability to translate an audience's sensibilities into a visual representation of your brand is essentially why you are hiring them.

If your vendor doesn't bring in the creative director or a designer for at least a portion of your initial meeting, give pause. A good Web site needs to technically function, of course, but all the programming in the world won't save the site if the look and feel derails the user's first impression.

On matters of money

Oh man, don't choose a Web vendor based on budget alone. It hardly ever works out. Know this: Web services cost more than you think. But know this, too: they are worth it.

The ubiquity of the Internet and the endless menagerie of free Web site tools and do-it-yourselfers out there have given rise to the inane mindset that Web design is, well, pretty easy. After all, your uncle created a site for his beer can collection for nothin', right? My trucker hat is off to him. But your uncle's collection of empty Coors cans isn't responsible for helping generate a high six-figure salary overhead, creating global brand awareness or securely handling a thousand customer credit card transactions a day, is it?

By no means am I saying that a great Web site has to be the most expensive. Aim to strike a good balance between cost and results. Be open to an increase in budget if it means the right company getting the job. A $500 design scheme idea may seem like a lot but trust me when I say that the first customer who comments positively on it will make its cost an afterthought.

Like you would make any sound business investment, compare features and benefits, and consider time frames, added value and the ongoing working relationship. The most productive Web site projects let the marketing goals drive and the budget simply help navigate.

Know the code

A lot of Web site companies have reached a level of technical sophistication that could qualify them as software developers. In-house content management systems (CMS) are becoming increasingly advanced and a large number of very beneficial Internet technologies have been spawned by the efforts of Web site programmers coming together to solve a client's need.

While the power of Atlantic BT's CMS was one of the primary drivers of our decision to work with them, I understood that should for some reason Deaton and ABT part ways, I would lose a great deal of the content oversight power granted to me by their handiwork. I could take the copy and images and PDFs but the code underneath it all would stay put.

While ownership of the code was not a real concern for us, it may be for you. So understand the fine print relative to code ownership. It varies.

Service with a smile

There are a number of available vendors in the commercial real estate space clamoring to get in front of the market drivers, ranging from lenders, mortgage brokers, property managers, inspectors, appraisers and attorneys.

“One of the primary reasons Deaton Investment Real Estate has remained successful for almost 30 years in such a volatile industry is because of how carefully it selected its business partners.”

The Deaton "list" had about two or three in each space and more often than not, only one would get the call. It remains a very coveted list and has benefited the company greatly.

Deaton felt it was important to have access to management as well as a single point of entry for support, site development updates, billing questions and random questions. In fact, we even factored in physical location. Could we drive there if we needed to discuss something? Also, we wanted to know how the staff was assembled. Who had decision making power and did we have access to that person?

Basically, I recommend taking an "old school" approach here. Customer service, in the most fundamental sense, is key. Demand it.

Beware the vendor mix

Deaton's new marketing plan required a revamped e-mail marketing effort, calling for the streamlining of a rudimentary Outlook-based e-mail plan with something more robust and measurable. This need was presented as a challenge to each of the vendors with whom we met. I needed investor registration capability on the Web site but was leery about jumping back and forth between the soon-to-be-built database and a third-party e-mail marketing tool. It would be too cumbersome, not to mention risky from a data integrity perspective.

Each vendor approached this challenge of ours differently, one simply suggesting doing exactly what I described above because the additional programming would be "well out of our range." Bless our hearts.

Going back to the notion of added value relative to cost, your Web vendor should have a broad enough capability of in-house skill sets to handle this sort of client need without it becoming a hurdle to doing business together. If a potential vendor is unable to meet a need specifically related to your Web site, find one who can.

Hosting, etc.

I honestly don't know much about hosting. I know that physical logistics are important so random people can't just go traipsing around the building that houses my customer data. I also know to ask about up-time, specifically how many "nines" can I expect. (Maybe that's an outdated concept, but hey, it sure sounds like hosting jargon.)

I do know that we wanted to ensure our site would be online when we wanted it to be, which meant asking each vendor if they hosted the site themselves (again, so we could call them or drop by if needed) or if it was outsourced. If it was outsourced, I asked if they knew exactly how to respond to a service hiccup.

If you get the impression that your site will just be another speck of megabytes in a petabyte world, think twice about the hosting solution of your vendor. The point is to make sure your Web vendor can speak confidently about the reliability of the servers on which your site rests.

Give me the keys, man

For me, the functionality of a Web site design company's CMS is as important as their approach to the visual. As I mentioned earlier, the technical sophistication of Web site services firms today is quite compelling, and marketers who direct Internet strategy are reaping the benefits. From file and image libraries to page creation to permission-based user management, a robust CMS is essential to leveraging your investment in a Web site.

“Atlantic BT stood above all other Web site vendors we approached. That being said, we spoke to some strong firms and the Triangle is a great venue to for creativity and technological innovation; you certainly don't have to leave the area to find your solution.”

The quality of the site's underlying structure really comes to light when you examine a CMS' capability. Think of it as a building that gives you the power to move walls, windows and doors without losing structural integrity. By allowing technical neophytes to work in and around complex programming, quite the risk is posed to the site’s livelihood. If a potential vendor's CMS goes no deeper than allowing you to change font faces or upload a PDF to a static news page, the CMS is not the problem. It's the architect.

In summation, please consider this rather lengthy testimonial an honest account, as a marketing professional, of how I approached the selection of the company to handle the renovation of www.deaton.com. Two years later, the site remains the single best real estate company Web site in the Triangle. No other site can match its visual appeal, flexibility, content quality or financial return to its owner.

Atlantic BT stood above all other Web site vendors we approached. That being said, we spoke to some strong firms and the Triangle is a great venue to for creativity and technological innovation; you certainly don't have to leave the area to find your solution.

I am willing to answer any questions you have about Deaton's process of choosing Atlantic BT or about selecting a web development firm. Contact me at craig@copyandcontentgroup.com

About the Author

Craig C. Rowe is a commercial copywriter with The Copy and Content Group. He specializes in Web site content development, marketing collateral, SEO, direct mail and just about anything else that requires words to be put on screen or in print.

Prior to starting C&CG, Craig spent ten years in marketing management and public communications for several area corporate and non-profit entities. He lives in Raleigh with his wife of five years and dog of 12. www.copyandcontentgroup.com