We believe that every business should have a website. A website is the equivalent of having a 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year salesperson. Your site is often the first impression potential customers get of your business, and these days people are making decisions about who they’re going to do businesses with based on what they find on the internet. But take a moment to think about these questions.

• What if your website isn’t quite up to par?
• What if your website isn’t very good at making sales?
• What if your competitor has a great website and they’re taking away potential business?
• Could your website actually be hurting your business?
• Might it be time to reevaluate your own website?

There’s tons of reasons to consider a redoing your site, and if you’re serious, we suggest you start by taking our website redesign survey and evaluating your current situation.

If you design websites, the question you most often hear is:
“How much is a website?”

This is not an easy question to answer, and the easiest way we have found to explain why is to ask “Well, how much is a house?” This instantly resets your frame of mind. We, as people who are familiar with living in homes, understand that houses come in all shapes and sizes. They offer different amenities and features and levels of quality. We all know that those factors affect the price.

Here are some examples to help you value your options for a website.

Pre-Owned & Furnished Condos

These are those do-it-yourself website builders. The cost to gain entry is generally pretty low which makes them seem very attractive. But they were essentially designed for someone else (a generic someone else). You don’t have a lot of control over the set-up and general aesthetic. Pretty much you just move in your furniture (i.e. some copy and images), and make it work. Although this is fine for some people, many find it restrictive to live within the rules that someone else set up.

Image via Wikipedia

Modular Homes

This style of website generally involves purchasing a template and having it customized. You get to pick a base design, and then you can upgrade with add-on features. You will work with a designer to decorate everything to your taste. Here, you have more options to get the features that are right for you, and generally this is still a pretty affordable option. However, if you decide that you want a modification that isn’t part of the standard options list, it can get very costly and cause more than a few headaches.

Custom-Built Houses

Here you get it your way. Every part of the layout, every finish, each and every tiny detail was created just for you. You work with a team to architect exactly what you need and then they get work to build it to your exact specification. These types of website generally have a higher initial cost, but can provide greater value because they are exactly what you want/need and generally you are more satisfied with them in the long term. Just as you can custom build a 2-room cottage and a 23-room fully automated mansion, there is still a wide range within this category.

So, what does this mean…

Well, it means you should follow a similar process for purchasing a website as you do your home.

1. Make a list of all your must have features.
2. Make a list of your nice to have features.
3. Decide how much sweat equity you are willing to invest. (this would be upfront copywriting and design as well as on-going maintenance)
4. Look at your budget and come up with what you can realistically afford.
5. Realize that you may have to adjust your expectations.
6. Select the best value for you knowing it may be more or less than someone else.

If you would ever like to discuss your options for creating a website for your business, we’d love to grab a coffee and chat. Drop us a line via our contact page.

It’s recently come to 3thought’s attention that a some businesses don’t have a website. I know, we were just as shocked to learn this as you may be. We’ve also noticed a few of you do actually have a website and quite frankly, it’s terrible. But that’s a discussion we’ll save for a another day. Today, we’re concerned with businesses who don’t have a website yet, and we’re going to shed some light (actually 3 thoughts) on why this needs to change.

1. Discoverability: Hands down and with a doubt the number one reason to get online is “discoverability”. We’re not ever positive discoverability is technically a word and if it isn’t, it should be. 3thought defines discoverability as: The ability of one to be discovered. And, since we’re feeling feisty, we’re going to make a declaration today. We declare, from this day forth, your business no longer exists without a website. Sure, you may be thinking: “I hand out business cards to everyone I meet; I run ads in the paper; I attend networking events. Most of my business comes from word of mouth and referrals. I’ve had my business for 30 years and I’ve never needed a website before.” Yes, we’ve heard all those excuses before. Those things are all great things to do, but they’re no longer enough. The world has changed and business has evolved. Business will continue to evolve to the point where you may be so far behind, you may never be able to catch up again. Need an example? Drive to your local “big box” electronics store (if it’s even still in business). Go in, look at the prices of any item. Then check that price against someone selling it online. In most cases, you’re going to find that exact same product is cheaper online. We refer to places like Walmart and Best Buy as “the showroom for Amazon.” Like it or not, the world has changed with the invention of the internet, and we can all stand still, or we can be active participants in that evolution. Every day your business goes without a website, is a day where you’re missing a huge opportunity to find new and connect with existing customers. The same people you handed your business card still matter, but even they are probably going to try to check out your website before following up with you. Unless your product is so unique and so much better than everyone else’s, you’re going to lose out. Having a website is a no-brainer for keeping the odds of being found in your favor. On the internet there may be 100′s – 1000′s of people looking for what you have to offer. If you’re not there to be discovered they’re probably discovering your competition.
2. Competition: That’s right, your potential customers are most likely looking at your competitor’s website. You’ve heard the phrase “Keeping up with the Jones,” well it’s just as true on the internet as it is in the real world. If you competition is putting an ad in the yellow dinosaur (yellow pages), you may want to consider having a presence as well. And online, if you competition has a website you probably want one too. You might even want to consider jumping on the Google, Facebook and Twitter bandwagons, too. Just saying. Here’s a wake up call for you: Go to Google and search for what you do in the town you do it. Does your business come up in the search results? How many of your competitors do? Who’s ranked higher in the results? Now do that same search in your region and state and see how many businesses do exactly what you do and how easily your potential clients/customers are finding your competition. How did you find a business 30 years ago? You probably looked it up using one of those yellow dinosaurs. Now people find business listings on the internet with their computers and increasingly on their smart phones. Listings on online directories aren’t enough either. People decide who they trust and who they want to be associated with by looking at your website.
3. Opportunity: Our last thought is about opportunity. Besides being found, there’s so much potential to sell your goods and services online. Even if you don’t physically sell anything online, you can still sell yourself and your business to your potential customers. The internet is like one big shopping mall with lots of different stores inside. Having a website is like having a storefront for people to browse and walk past. The internet, although virtual, has physical world value. Here’s a real world example that will hopefully demonstrate just how valuable an opportunity a website can provide. Recently a potential vendor, who was very talented and sold a service that we could use, reached out to us via a cold call. Cold calling is a legitimate and long standing method of drumming up new business, and we don’t mind especially if it a resource we can actually benefit from. But it takes a lot of time and the success rate is not too high. After we spoke for awhile, we asked if this person could direct us to their website so we could learn more about their services and see examples. They simply said, “I don’t have a website.”. So we asked, “well, how do we find you if we need your service?” And they responded, “I’ll email you all my information.” Again, this takes effort, and we have a pretty high chance of loosing it in our bottomless pit of an in-box. This person was investing a significant amount of time in a pretty chancy operation. Not the kind of business model we’d feel comfortable with. An hour or two later, the person’s email showed up and it had everything you’d ever need to put in a website right there. Everything you’d need to know to be able to hire this person was right there in this email. The content you’d need to have a website was already created, but the opportunity to share this information was limited to the list of people this person had a rapport with on the phone. The opportunity this person was missing out on was the ability to effectively sell themselves to us. The opportunity to build trust and reputation. The opportunity to be found by someone seeking their services anywhere in the world, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. The opportunity for us to share their website with other people who might be looking for that service. This is just scratching the surface of the opportunity having a website can offer your business.

So what have we missed? We’d love to hear other people’s takes, for or against having a website for their business. If you have a real world example we’d love to hear that too.

Last week, the 3thought team attended a roundtable presented by AIGA Boston for FutureM called “Design 2014”. The theme was to discuss how we apply the design thinking of tomorrow in today’s world. We left with our brains buzzing and they really haven’t been quiet since.

This week’s 3 thoughts are dedicated to the philosophical discussion of design. What makes a designer? What is design? What is the role of design? Here are some ideas that really resonate with our approach to design.

1. Jan Kubasiewicz, Head of Graduate Program in Communication Design at the  Dynamic Media Institute, MassArt,  explained there is a constant underlying exchange of information between everything. This happens not only with standard media and methods of communication, but also within simple interactions and observations, and much of it is subconscious. Designers need to exercise a heightened awareness of this information current. When they are effective, they are able to influence it and guide it to accomplish their purpose.
2. Michael Hendrix, Associate Partner, IDEO, stated that designers use a combination of methods and sensibilities to practice their craft. Methods are skills that can be taught. These include methods of execution such as layout, typography and various types of software. Methods also include conceptual methods such as ideation, research and storytelling. But it is the sensibilities that separates a true graphic designer from a production artist. Designers have sensitivities and intuition that tap into emotion, connotation and all the subtleties of communication. It is these sensibilities that cannot be taught. These are the qualities that are innate in designers and makes them different from other professionals.
3. Design Thinking is integral to business. All the members of the panel were clear that the future of design is going to be built with teams. No one person is going to have all the skills necessary to solve all design or business problems. But a designer’s approach to framing, defining and solving problems is applicable and often necessary to finding solutions in all areas of business and across all industries. The leaders of tomorrow need to be able to recognize the talents of diverse disciplines and build the right team on visionaries to guide them forward.

Do these ideas resonate with you and how you want to work with designers? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

In addition to speaking, Shea also donated the event program cover design.

Shea joined Reiko and Tom Beach of GymSmarts and the Non-Profit Toolbox to provide a series of informational sessions focussed on marketing technologies and techniques. She gave 3 presentations over the course of the weekend conference. Her presentation topics included:

DIY Brochure Design

An overview of basic design principles and some practical tips to help Do-It-Yourself-ers create more effective brochure layouts and marketing materials.

The Guerilla Guide to Marketing Promotions

A review of branding principles and techniques along with some real life examples of out-of-the-box promotions to help inspire attendees to take a fresh approach to their marketing initiatives.

Putting your Digital Photos to Work

Tips on taking better photos for marketing pieces along with instructions on basic photo adjustments and retouching techniques using Picnic, a free online photo adjustment software, and saving files for use in print or web.

The conference, themed Gat to the Future, took place over Labor Day weekend, September 3-5, 2010 and drew near record attendance.