If you step into a supermarket with a shopping list, chances are you won’t go impulse shopping. If you go online with a web consultant in tow, he’ll help you define what you need and get it, and your money won’t be wasted on services you don’t need.
Before you hand over your business to any web design or SEO company, though, stop and ask yourself: what do I really need?
Set your goals
Yes, the shopping list. It sounds like all the advice you’ve ever gotten since kindergarten, but it’s true. You must have a clear vision of what you want, and you must have clear steps to achieving your objectives. Here’s one way of going about it:
- Make a table. List down all your business goals in the first column. You can follow the handy project management mnemonic SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound. Some businessmen have even added Evaluate and Re-evaluate to make them SMARTER goals. For example: Instead of just putting down “Reach more prospects”, write “Send marketing proposals to 50 new prospects per month beginning Quarter 2.”
- In the second column, list down your web goals or what you think you should accomplish online in order to fulfill those goals. For example: “Create a webpage that can receive inquiries from business prospects online.”
- In the third column, write down items that you think you need to know more about in order to fulfill your web goals. These are, in effect, the “to-do items” for your web consultant. For example: “What’s the best way to bring prospects to my website?”
Scout around
A web consultant’s portfolio isn’t necessarily a gallery filled with flashy web designs. If you want to learn what a web consultant can do, find out which clients they’ve worked with and ask for recommendations. Look for a web consultant with flexibility, someone who doesn’t just fall back on the same template web strategy used for the last client.
Communication with your consultant is crucial, so find out what lines are open between you two: e-mail, phone, fax, instant messaging. Are face-to-face meetings possible? Set your principles of decision-making clearly from the start. If you and your consultant disagree on the design or marketing plan, you should know you still are ultimately in control of your business.
Finally, try to look for someone who can be passionate about your business, someone who isn’t just about metrics and figures but caring for and interacting with your customers.
Sometimes the best web consultants are small business owners themselves, who got their expertise from years experimenting with marketing methods online. Of all people, they know what you’re going through as an entrepreneur.