Anyone can build a website – right?

When it comes to building a website, many companies and individuals can claim to set up your website for minimal costs, publishing it live for the world to see within hours. Amazing right? Wrong!

A website is an investment, a business shopfront and with savvier than ever consumers, it needs to be not only aesthetically appealing but highly effective at engaging and converting your target audience. If it’s not, *poof*, your customers will take their budgets to your competitors who have invested in a proper job.

Cue a trustworthy agency to plan, design and build a bespoke website to suit your business needs and budget. More importantly, we will create a website that will work hard for you to position your company at the forefront of your customers (so when they search, you appear) and set you apart from your competitors.

So yes, anyone can build a website, do you want to tick the box to say you have one or have a website to actually drive your business in the right direction?

Remember, marketing professionals, sales experts, website developers, UX designers (user experience) and graphic designers are all different specialisms and it is import

It starts with understanding your customers

At DP Marketing Communications, website planning is rigorous and detailed – not every designer or developer will go through these steps but we believe in both style AND substance!  Our methods encompass several key stages starting with understanding the features and benefits of the product or service on offer.  Identifying and creating customer personas provides a thorough understanding of your customer, who they are, their buying behavior and what influences their purchasing decisions.

UX planning to understand the user experience and physically mapping out how your customer will be guided through your website results in a site that converts your visitors to sales and will help set you apart from your competitors.

We will also look at your marketing and sales funnel so that you can monitor the success of your campaigns and easily detect where people are dropping off.

The final stage before development commences is to sign off a detailed web brief with communication between the client and DP Marketing Communications. It ensures that every page has been structured, written copy has been carefully crafted (or reworded) in line with the tone of voice of the brand and images are chosen to spark an emotional connection.

Providing a positive user experience and guiding customers through your sales funnel will ultimately draw that potential customer into taking a call to action. A website that allows users to have a positive experience increases trust and brand loyalty.

Optimise, optimise, optimise

Even the most aesthetically pleasing website will be a poor investment if it can’t be found online. SEO, ‘Search Engine Optimisation’ shouldn’t be an afterthought. The process should be a fundamental part of the planning process to ensure website pages are built to be found on search engines. If a detailed understanding of the customer hasn’t been completed – how can the pages be created to be found by popular searches?

A professional approach with experts in their field and an understanding of your business is essential. If you are investing in a new website, you want to ensure that it is being built with the latest technology in its appearance and functionality. As a given, you would expect a responsive, mobile friendly site that loads quickly with clear navigation.

Make your money work harder and smarter for you

In every business, but particularly in SME’s, every penny counts, you want to be confident your money is working hard for you and making sales. Opting for a cheap website that jumps straight into the design stage, missing out mapping the customer journey will often result in repeating the exercise at a later date, a waste of time and money. Lost sales and clients add up. A cheap, ineffective website suddenly is looking less attractive.

With websites starting from £599 and payment plans available to spread the cost, a professional website is a worthwhile investment. Most of our websites are built with WordPress but we can work with other platforms too and we also have marketing packages available for your social media, SEO and other digital marketing needs. We can also provide CMS systems for you to easily update your own website – or we can update it for you too. We’re happy to work around you! So to work out the best solution for your business, email us at hello@dpmarketingcommunications.com to book a FREE consultation appointment.

Lastly, we offer a range of packages suited to protecting your website – click here to find out more.