It’s tempting to look at the website of a trendsetting brand and want the same offerings for your site. Before you go down that path stop and ask yourself the following questions:
Would this work for my brand?
What will it take for me to implement something similar?
Ask your existing customers and partners if there are pain points you can address in a website redesign. Once you have a list of website requirements you can have meaningful discussions with your digital agency such as
Will I need photography?
Will I need written content?
Can I do this myself, or will it need to be outsourced?
Do I have a budget for content production set aside from website development?
If the answers make you a bit uncomfortable, there are several alternatives before throwing your hands up.
The first is to scale back the overall size of your project. Websites, unlike other tangible media such as print, allows you to publish as often as you want to. Instead of launching with twenty pages, try five and come up with a plan to release the rest at regular intervals.
Another approach is to utilize the wealth of free or low-cost assets found on sites such as Unsplash, or Design Cuts. Unsplash is my go-to site for images to complement my blog posts and proposals, while Design Cuts is perfect for those needing logos, illustrations, etc.
I’ll never be a copywriter, but with Grammarly, I at least know my content will be coherent and adequately formatted, and free of plagiarized copy.
Finally, you’d be surprised at the production quality of today’s Android and iOS phones. With a little know-how on photography and post-processing, you may be able to hold off on hiring a photographer or videographer.
Hopefully, these tips help you get started in producing the content that will make your site stand out.
