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I bet you don’t need me to tell you that until your new website is live that you’re losing out on potential business.

The cliché is true – time is money. And the big secret to getting the most out of your website is quite a simple one.

You need to keep the momentum going and make sure that you are in a position to smoothly go through the project efficiently and end up with a successful website launched (and with it taking up as little of your time as possible).

It always sounds easier said than done doesn’t it? Well there’s a little known way to make it easy. In fact, it’s truly obvious once you think about it. You may have just been in denial because it sounds awfully like hard work.

And you know what, we’re not going to lie. It is hard work.

But it’s always completely worth it.

Plan properly now and save time later

Pull one or two long meetings right now and you will save yourself a lot of time and money. By thinking properly about your aims, and thinking ahead to what questions your designer will ask, you will end up with a stronger initial concept that matches your needs which naturally leads to a shorter, smoother project.

Your first planning session (pre-logo, or redesign)

1) Write/ go over your business plan. Look at your objectives and how you plan on increasing your sales

2) Think about how you can develop or tie-in your brand to help you achieve your business goals.

3) Think about how your logo can be the best platform for your brand and for your message

Deliverables:

  • Write/tweak/redraft your business plan
  • Write/tweak/redraft your brand values and outlines
  • Write up your logo design brief

OR – if you already have a business plan, brand and logo that you are 100% happy with then proceed to the next step.

Your second planning session (pre-website)

4) [Deciding your call to action] Think about what action you want customers to take after looking at your website

5) [planning your content] What information do your customers need to see in order to be persuaded to take your call to action?

6) [planning your website design brief] Think about the main message you want to get over. Do you have any ideas about how to display this visually? (don’t worry if not – your designer should be able to help you with this).

Deliverables:

  • Write up/redraft your content for the website
  • Write up your design brief (most designers will provide you with a questionnaire)

These two planning sessions could be as quick as a few hours (obviously allowing extra time for one person to write up the plans, content and design briefs as necessary – but those tasks can be delegated with confidence once all the decisions have been made). It’s time well spent as these questions will be asked of you anyway and if you aren’t prepared and busy in the necessary day-to-day running of your business then your website project will inevitably start to stall and lose momentum. In fact, a fairly simple website can be stalled by months for a lack of good planning in the beginning where you can easily put aside time.

Work hard (and efficiently) and you’ll find yourself working a lot less to realise your next big goal of getting a stellar website up on the internet and bringing you in new business.

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