A website is a crucial element for any small business hoping to make progress in this tough economy; your prospective clients and customers now turn to the internet to research the products and services they are looking for more than any other medium. When was the last time you picked up a telephone directory?
As a small business owner, you want a website that builds your credibility, positions you and your business as a reliable, trustworthy resource that can be depended upon to deliver the promises you make. Read the case study below; it will give you an insight into our approach and then take a view minutes to view some of our small business website design examples.
Small Business Website Development Process - A Case Study
Xcell Management, Phoenix AZ
Xcell Management is a revenue assurance consultancy that does business with telecoms clients across the US and in the Caribbean. When the partners met with us they knew they desperately needed a new website, but they were also unconvinced about their logo and even had misgivings about their business name. After our initial meeting, we presented a detailed proposal that addressed their concerns and provided a timeline and budget for how we would suggest moving forward.
Our starting point was to take a step back and consider their service offering, to define their target market and then work out how best to communicate with that audience. We developed a
brand platform that would form the basis of the project; it outlined our brand positioning (how we should act and behave, the tone of voice we should use) and we gave their target audience an identity that made them easier to visualize and therefore prepare for. The Brand Platform exercise gave the partners several solid conclusions; that a name change wasn't necessary, but a new identity (logo) and a website certainly was.
The next step was to design the logo; we agreed on a foundation, a style and then a color palette. A new logo evolved that visually represented the identity and brand positioning we had agreed on in the Brand Platform document. With a logo and corporate color palette agreed, we moved on to the design of the website. An immediate need was to take the old website down as quickly as possible, and replace it with a temporary holding page.
That accomplished, initial website designs were presented and a favored route agreed upon. During the website design process, one of the partners was preparing outline content for each page of the site map that we had proposed. That outline content was then handed over to David who began the process of rewriting/editing and structuring the content, ensuring the content was optimized for search engines.
Once the website design and the SEO copywriting process was complete, the pages were built, the flash components added, and the site was presented for a final read through and client approval before we put it live. You can see the site at
www.xcellmanagement.com.
We finished up the project by designing some new business cards that matched the new identity; they were printed and delivered the week the new site went live. Lionel, one of the partners, has given you his view of the project on our
client comments page.