Design your way

Web presence is everything these days.

Your startup needs a startup website, and not just something thrown together cheaply and without any effort.

Most people will find your company through the net, so it’s vital you create a professional and topical site.

There are a ton of benefits to building a startup site.

You’ll find yourself with increased revenues, reduced operating costs, better relationships with customers and other businesses, and increased workflow efficiencies. It’s well worth your time to make sure you have a good website.

What do the best startup websites look like? Here are a few rules to help you figure out how to launch a startup site for your company.

Your website can’t just be a side project. It should be integrated into your business goals.
Always create a strategy with quantifiable website goals.
Build your startup website incrementally, with both short term and long term developments specifications.
Don’t try to build the entire startup at once. Try a ‘build and release’ approach toy your startup website design.
Establish a realistic website design budget. Treat it as another expense of your business and remember that successful startup websites are not free.
Build and release a static prerelease website before you create your more dynamic, final site design.
Remember, how you approach your website is going to reflect on your entire approach to your business. It will demonstrate how you demonstrate your customers and partners.
If you’re going to build this website, you need to take the time market and promote it.
Make sure you watch the site’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). They are the most important numbers for your website.
Take the time to work on the areas featuring your greatest core competencies and hire professionals to help with areas that you can’t take care of.

These ten rules will help you get started in starting a startup site. Here are some more website ideas for you to figure out how to make a startup website.

Present Your Message Clearly

Your message is the most important part of websites for startup companies. Your messaging should take up most of the time and energy you spend on creating your company’s website.

Copywriting is usually treated as an afterthought.

It’s the stuff you put in to fill spots, the last thing you worries about or put resources into.

That’s wrong.

Writing your copy does matter. It’s the way you get your message across to anyone who visits your site. One of the reasons companies like Apple are so successful is because of their message.

What Makes for Good Messaging?

The same rules that apply to professional writing apply to your messaging: be clear, concise, and to the point.

However, it also more than that. You’re not looking to beg people to buy what you’re selling, though you certainly shouldn’t hide that you’re selling it and you’d like them to buy it. There’s a sweet spot you’re looking for, which is both clever and honest.

Good Messaging Is Worth People’s Time

You and your company know who your customers are. You know where your target audience spends time online and what they spend their money on. You know your product is for them. You know all this, but do your customers know about your product?

The faster you can let them know about your product, the better off your site will be. The people who wouldn’t be interested will leave, and the people who are will stick around longer to possibly buy what you’re selling.

You need to figure out how to communicate if your target is for a viewer or not. If it’s not, that person will leave. This is no loss because he or she wasn’t going to be your customer anyway. If you have good messaging, that means they just figured it out that much faster.

How do you know your message is good? You test it!

Show your site to some neutral users, members of your target audience. See how fast they understand what you’re trying to say or sell to them. This can give you excellent feedback throughout your start-up website’s design process.

Think About Using Video

A lot of content nowadays is communicated via video. How can that help out your startup website?

A well-made video can communicate a lot of complex ideas quickly. Sometimes it even manages to demonstrate things or ideas that are hard to explain just using words.

On many occasions, you can demonstrate your product’s use or your team’s processes more easily with a video.

Another thing to remember is that web users tend to be lazy. Give them the chance to click play to see the details of what your startup is trying to sell, rather than offering them a long article they’ll have to scroll through.

Why Are Startup Websites Usually Useless?

Well, this breaks down to two primary reasons:

The company quits paying attention to the site after its launch. There are no more updates and no adjustments made because of feedback. It largely just sits.
There isn’t much, if any, marketing budget or effort provided after launch. The site is just one more among thousands selling similar products. Without ads, it never stands out.

Static Versus Dynamic Startup Websites

What’s the difference between static site and a dynamic site? You need to know the difference, as it will make a difference about how you manage your site budget and strategy.

Static Sites

Static sites stick to presenting only information. It provides relevant info to site visitors. It also provides contact information to them. It doesn’t offer much interaction or offer the chance to allow for transactions.

Usually, static websites are used as temporary sites until a more complex and larger site is able to be launched. The term usually used is a prelaunch site or a temporary landing page.

These prelaunch sites are used to create awareness of a company and get info from visitors so that they can be contacted about the full site launch. Static websites are not going to cut it in these modern times. Consumers expect complete and dynamic websites that allow them to complete transactions and do other business with a company.

Dynamic Sites

Dynamic sites are designed and developed to automate procedures and processes through technology.

Dynamic websites provide information of a static website with additional functionality, allowing consumers to buy what you’re selling. Information inputs can be used as results immediately.

The site offers the chance for employees to train and test almost any time. A dynamic website is very powerful and creating one costs more. Maintenance can also costs more. As such, the site should generate more value for your business.

Interfaces Aren’t Everything

Make sure you don’t focus on surface level issues. You may fret about how to render existing content, or present aggregated data. Don’t get caught up on these issues.

Look beneath the surface. The systems you use make all the difference. Change those systems and you’ll change the rest of the issues.

Who Should Develop Your Website?

Time is money, as the saying goes. One of your first decisions needs to be figuring out how to develop your website. Choose wisely, as you’ll not only be paying but also because any delay to your site will cost you exponentially.

Option 1: Build It on Your Own

This option can save you and your company a lot of money. It may now, however, be the best choice. It might waste your time or generate a site that is less than what you need. You already have to manage finances, marketing, sales, strategic planning, product development, and much more.

Developing a website requires a lot of effort and has a steep learning curve. You’ll need to keep learning, too, as your site needs to be kept as up to date to possible.

Developing a good website is hard and time-consuming even for people who do it professionally. There are a lot of tools and templates out there to shorten the process, but it still takes time to put those pieces together into a coherent whole.

Option 2: Have Professionals Build Your Website

Professional website developers design websites for a living. They are faster, more efficient, and more up to date on current trends and technology.

They know how to identify and implement different technologies that can make a serious difference for your startup company. You need to know what you’re good at and learn how to hire the right experts.

How to Know You’re Working with a Professional

Professionals are not going to be your cheapest option. The lead of your web design team needs to understand both front end and back end parts of the project.

They need to demonstrate how their solutions will impact your company. A lot of companies will do exactly what they ask for, but very few bother to make a good business case for the features they integrate. Professionals solve problems.

Full-time Programmer, Web Development Company, or Independent Contractor?

Independent Contractors

Usually, these are freelancers.

Pros: These contractors have more flexible schedules and relationships. You can start and stop the project, as well as adjust hourly schedules, more or less as needed.

You aren’t going to be spending money long-term on these freelancers. You won’t have to be concerned with employment liabilities. They also usually work for cash.

Cons: Most contractors want to be compensated for time, not results. They have an incentive to take longer to do a job, and they’ll generally try to do it with the minimum amount of work.

They don’t have a long-term investment in your company. You’ll need to provide these individuals with leadership and technical involvement.

Web Development Companies

These are teams of contractors. You’ll hire the company and they’ll assign their contractors to your job.

Pros: These companies share a lot of the same benefits as hiring individual contractors and then some.

You can usually expect a high quality of work. They tend to be more professional generally. The company will usually provide their own project manager to keep everything on schedule and within budget.

Cons: This is usually the most expensive option, in terms of cash. A reputable company will run you $10-$20K a month. You can easily pay more than that a month for a really good development firms.

They’re also not generally as flexible as individuals and will want longer contracts. You’ll also usually have to use their own legal contracts, rather than yours.

Full-Time Programmers

These are formal and dedicated members of your team, usually hired on a long-term basis.

Pros: As your employee, these programmers’ interests align with yours. They have a vested interest in your company.

They are much more likely to go through extra effort than contractors and innovate on their own. If your employee has equity or option in your company, that shared interest only increases.

Cons: You’ll need to identify and then sell the best candidates for the job. This can be a long and involved process. You’re also taking a risk on new hires. Any single person in a startup can sink the ship.

You’ll also have to deal with worker’s compensation, tax liabilities, unemployment insurance benefits, and other legal implications. You’ll need to provide leadership as well to keep everything on track.

You can hire from universities, craiglsit.com, startupers.com, and even take a look at relevant job boards. You can find quality hires from any of these locations. You just need to make sure your vetting process is solid.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these tips have helped you figure out how to start a startup and provide it with an excellent website.

As you can see, it’s a multifaceted process. You’ll get out what you put in, but a good website is undeniably a necessity for any modern startup company.

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