4 Selling Points For Your Next Website Design Pitch
An important skill for those looking to build a successful web design career is learning to effectively sell your services by explaining to clients the benefits of redesigning their website. While different clients will have different things that are important to them in a new website, there are some general selling points that are relevant and important to almost every project. In this article, we will look at 4 important selling points that you can focus on in your next web design pitch.
1. Responsive Multi-Device Support
Websites are no longer being seen exclusively on desktop computers with large screen monitors. Today's websites are being viewed on a variety of devices with a wide range of screen sizes - from small screened mobile devices like phones, to mid-sized screens found on tablets and laptops, to those aforementioned wide screen desktop monitors. To succeed online today, a site must accommodate all these different screen sizes with a design that reflows its layout for those different screens and which works well for each of them. The way to accomplish this is with an approach called responsive web design
Many responsive websites are hand coded from scratch, a process that can be time consuming and costly and which will require the assistance of a developer. For designers looking to bring this important selling point to their work in a more cost and time effective manner, a platform like Webydo may be a perfect fit.
Webydo is a cloud-based web design platform for professionals that allows designers to "to create and manage exceptional HTML websites without writing code." One of the features of this platform is their "pixel perfect responsive editor." This feature, which gives designers total control over the look and layout of a website for all screen sizes, is something that is an absolutely critical selling point for websites which you can focus on in your sales presentation.
2. Updated Design
The most common reason why a company decides to redesign their website is to update and improve the visual design of that site. As a design professional, this is a great place to begin the conversation about the benefits of a new website. You can do this by honing in on a few key areas:
The Company's Brand Identity - if a website was designed many years ago, it is likely that the visual look of that site no longer reflects the visuals that are a part of that company's brand identity. A site redesign can bring the look of that site in-line with the rest of the company's marketing materials to provide a consistent voice and visual appearance throughout all of their customer facing communications.
Modern Web Design Best Practices - web design is an always-changing industry. The best practices that were relevant when a website was last redesigned are likely to have undergone substantial updates in the years since that time. Some of these updated best practices may be small changes while others may be ground breaking developments that are critically important to a site's success today (see the section on below on Responsive Multi-Device Support). A redesign can bring current best practices onto the site in a way that would be impossible by simply tweaking what the company already has online.
Improving User Experience - the way that people use websites has changed rather dramatically over the years. Today's website visitors demand an experience that is easy and intuitive and a redesign of a site can focus on these traits and greatly improve the site's overall user experience.
3. Editing Capabilities
One desire that many clients want out of a new website is the ability to make edits to the content on the site themselves, instead of relying on a web designer or developer to be involved in even the simplest of changes. To give clients access to make these changes, you will likely need to build a website on a CMS (content management system) that makes it easy to edit website content without needing to understand website code.
From popular platforms like Wordpress and Drupal to the myriad of lesser known solutions; when it comes to content management systems, there are a large number of options available - the trick is deciding which platform to propose to potential new clients.
All CMS platforms will allow your clients to edit their website, so you need to consider what other features in each platform are the real differentiators. For instance, the Webydo platform we mentioned previously includes CMS editing capabilities, as well as the pixel perfect responsive editor and a host of other features. If a project you are pitching requires both CMS editing and responsive design, then those may be the differentiators that drive you towards this platform.
When deciding on which CMS solution to include in your presentation to a potential client, consider all the features available in each platform and choose the right one for your needs as well as the needs of the project and client.
4. Search Engine Findability
The best website in the world is useless if it cannot be found by customers in need of the services or products that the company offers. For many organizations, search engine findability is very high on the list of driving factors behind their need for a website redesign and you can highlight this point in a sales presentation.
While SEO (search engine optimization) best practices are always changing, there are a handful of constants, including:
Current Best Practices - building a website with code that meets current standards is first step in any SEO strategy.
Content - search engines like content that is relevant, current, and useful. A redesign project is a perfect chance to rethink content and improve it to make it more appealing to search engines.
Mobile Friendliness - the aforementioned responsive multi-device support is another way to achieve better search engine rankings since Google has begun rewarding sites that are "mobile friendly" and thereby penalizing those that are not.
Very few design professionals are also SEO experts, but these search engine benefits are ones that any designer can bring to a project with a quality website redesign.
In Closing
Learning to sell is an important skill to have under your belt, and knowing which points to focus in a presentation will ultimately help you become a more effective salesperson and a more successful web designer.
About Nir Barlev
Nir Barlev is the product manager at Webydo, a cloud-based platform that allows designers to create professional websites.
