Building a new website can fill the most capable business players and experienced marketers with fear and dread. Many website projects leave permanent scarring from running late, coming in over budget, not meeting expectations and a series of fractious conversations.
So why is a new website often such a tricky project? Are they so very different from other marketing projects? The answer is yes and no.
Clients want a website they are proud of, delivered swiftly through a process that doesn’t detract focus from the day-to-day business. It sounds completely doable, but some constant barriers can hamper client ambitions.
What are the key challenges?
Stakeholders
It’s not surprising that everyone wants to give an opinion on flagship projects of this type. Websites are important. For many businesses they are critical – it is their virtual shop window for customers, employees and potential employees. Everyone loves to have a say in a website project – even the CEO’s partner. We all use websites in our personal lives, so we all believe we can bring ideas and value to the table. The real question is how to harness this input and marry it with the expertise that marketers, web designers and developers bring to the table. As David Ogilvy said,
“In my experience, committees can criticise, but they cannot create. ‘Search the parks in all your cities You’ll find no statues of committees.”
David Ogilvy, Ogilvy on Advertising
Ownership
One of the key critical success factors for us in any website build is having a strong project manager on the client side. If working with the right website partners a client doesn’t need to have website experience. What they do need, is the support of the wider client team and the ability to manage stakeholder input and feedback effectively.
Expectations
The next key pain point is often around expectations. In our experience, expectations are often mixed, at times unclear and on occasion unrealistic. On any project, expectations have to be aligned as well as realistic and websites are no exception.
We all ask a lot from a website – it needs to be inspiring yet simple, beautiful and functional, content-rich but still able to perform competitively in the digital space. Already you can see why it is a question of juggling and we haven’t even touched on budget!
Robust conversations at the outset, on objectives, budget, content, SEO, long-term maintenance etc. ensure that expectations are understood, clarified and agreed upon.
Client organisation
At times, a new website build ends up being a catalyst for debate around wider unresolved company issues. When collaborating with clients on the site map and wireframes, questions are often raised about a company’s structure or how its services and brand should be positioned. A website process no matter how good is not going to solve these issues. A company needs to be clear on who they are, how they are structured and what they offer before embarking on a website project.
So with these challenges in mind, what are the critical Success Factors for building a website?
Our top ten critical success factors
- Expectations that are aligned and realistic
- A process that is mutually understood and respected
- An effective client-side project manager
- Clarity upfront about what is required
- A client who is clear about their offering and messaging
- Good communication from both sides
- A realistic budget so the job can be done well
- Fixed goalposts, or at least acknowledgement if they change and understanding of the potential impact on budget and timings
- Being organised – assets, copy, testimonials, statistics, images – available before the build phase
- An experienced website team who are good at what they do and will make it easy for clients
So, can a website experience be pain-free? Honestly, there will always be some pinch points. Although every client is different and presents unique challenges, the process for all websites is consistent. We have done a lot of websites, so have plenty of hindsight, which means we can make it smoother for clients.
