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129Chapter 9: Hiring Help for Your Marketing Program
Prices
How to Order
Wedding Center
Wedding Ideas
Prices
Sample Packages
Ordering Guide
Contact Us
Phone, E-mail, Fax, Street Address
Map
ߜ How you plan to drive traffic to the site: If you plan to use your Web
site as a way to bring new people into your business, then you’ll proba-
bly want to be listed and ranked with search engines, and the designers
need to know this in advance. They also need to know the key terms
that you want the search engines to find.
ߜ The addresses of sites that are similar in look and complexity to the
one that you would like to create.
ߜ Copies of current marketing materials that represent your image
guidelines.
ߜ The level of site testing you expect from the design firm, and what
you plan to do on your own: One way or another you’ll want to be sure
that your site comes up quickly even for users with slow modems, that it
works with various browsers, and that each link works and goes where
it’s supposed to go.
ߜ The ways you plan to evaluate your site: This will help the designers
know what kinds of site traffic analyses and reports you will need, which
will affect the overall site design. (See Chapter 16 for information on
ways that you can analyze your site effectiveness.)
The top reasons that Web site design costs run over budget are 1) unclear
purpose and 2) content that wasn’t ready when it was needed. Shave unnec-
essary cost overruns by being prepared, not changing your mind frequently,
and having your content ready to hand off when it is needed.
Seeking responses from design companies
If you’re building a relatively simple and inexpensive site, interview a few
firms, choose the one that instills the most confidence, and ask that company
for a cost estimate and design proposal.
