Why do I need a web site?

Here is a short and sharp list of reasons why your business needs a web site:
1. To establish a presence
2. To network
3. To make business information available to your customers
4. To serve your customers
5. To heighten public interest in your products and services
6. To sell products and services
7. To reach a highly desirable demographic market
8. To answer frequently asked questions
9. To stay in contact with salespeople
10. To open yourself to international markets
11. To create a 24-hour service
12. To make changing information available quickly and easily
13. To allow feedback from customers
14. To test market new services and products
15. To compete with your competitors online
16. To reach specialized markets
17. To serve your local market

Most SME’s in Australia have a very limited marketing and advertising budget, so why should these precious dollars be spent on a web site?

1. Web sites don’t have to be expensive
2. You can monitor exactly how successful your web site is through site visitor logs and other stats
3. Much more information than a yellow pages ad. We can create a tailored, dynamic and professionally designed web site, filled with a vast amount of information covering your entire product and service range for less than the cost of a 1 unit yellow pages advertisement in most Australian capital cities.

Why should my web site be professionally designed?

There are many reasons why you should have your web site professionally designed. Below is a list of a just a few of these reasons.

1. On the Internet, first impressions count. Quite simply, you may have only one chance to attract new customers through the internet, and no matter how good your quality of products and services are, you will not be acting in your best interests if you do not pay a little bit extra to have your web site professionally designed.

2. Your web site is a reflection of your company. A low quality web site says to people “I don’t care enough about my Internet customers to provide them with a rich user experience.”, or, “This web site is a reflection of my company, unprofessional, badly organized and out of date”.

3. The level of quality expected in a web site has increased dramatically over the past 2 years. What used to be the norm in terms of web site quality is now seen as very sub-standard. The quality will not improve greatly over the next few years, as advances in web development skills and professional software tools have started to plateau.

I know someone who is willing do build our web site for free/not very much. Why shouldn’t I use them?

Of course you could, but what guarantee do you have that they:

1. Can actually do what they say they will in the timeframe you ask of them?
2. Will produce a quality, professional web site?
3. Will be around when you want the web site updated?
4. Know what they are talking about?

The Internet is littered with poorly designed web sites that have been put together by friends, family members or employees that were created, put on the internet and never updated or reviewed again.

These web sites are doing your web site more harm than good. In most cases they should be removed from the Internet before potential customers stumble across them and are put off from contacting your company.

How expensive is a professionally designed web site?

Interesting question. Without giving you the how-long-is-a-piece-of-string answer,
a good rule of thumb is that the greater the level of interactivity and the greater the level of complexity in a site, the more expensive it is.

At one end, a simple web site that is professionally designed and branded to your corporate image, with say up to 7 sections, no second level navigation, no interactivity (e.g. forms, e-commerce, etc) and all text and images supplied ready for addition into your site will cost approximately $1,000.

Once you start adding functionality like database interactivity, e-commerce, more navigation levels and search features, the cost can quickly increase. The cost of developing, hosting and maintaining an online store can cost anywhere from $3,000 to $3,000,000, depending on the size, speed, security, interactivity and functionality of your site.

The only way for us to tell you how much your site will cost is if you contact us to discuss your exact requirements.

What are the important things to look for in a web design firm before selecting them to develop our web site?

This is an important question and one that is often asked by businesses seeking the services of a web design firm. Who do you turn to for help? How can you tell if they’re any good?

Your final decision on your preferred web designer should not just come down to their initial budget estimates, but rather should consider the budget and the other factors raised here.

The following is a list of issues that are important in the selection of a web design firm. The order of importance is up to you – different businesses will rank these points differently.

Working Relationship
Can you work with this firm? You may be spending a significant amount of time working closely with this company so it is important that you have a good working relationship. You need to be able to respect and trust the web design company with whom you work.

Experience
How long has the company been in existence? Have they completed any web projects similar to the one on which you are about to embark? Check out their portfolio of work - it is a good place to get some ideas for your own site. If a web company has implemented a certain site feature before, chances are they can do it again easily and quickly, perhaps cheaper than they charged the original company who asked for that particular feature.

Testimonials
Don’t be shy about calling companies for whom the web company have worked in the past and asking what their experience was. Some may give you the answers the web design firms want you to hear, but others will be more forthright and let you know what to watch out for.

Budget
When you receive a cost estimate, make sure it includes a list of all assumptions that went into the quotation. In general, the less information you provide to the web design firm upfront, the greater the list of assumptions and the greater the possible variance in the final quote. Many businesses wanting a web site ask for a firm quote up front, and THEN sit down and scope the site with the web design firm who is the cheapest.

This is generally the wrong way to go about things for a number of reasons. Often web design firms realize that you are choosing your service provider purely based on price, so submit an unrealistically low bid in the belief that they will be able to increase the quote at a later stage, or reduce the scope of the site to fit their quote.

The end result is that you have hired a web design firm to either create the site you didn’t want or one with a final budget that is significantly higher than you originally expected, leading to tears and (even worse) legal wrangling.
A much better approach is to ask for an indicative quote which includes a price range or a couple of different scenarios for site development. This quote should contain a list of all relevant assumptions made up to that point. The web designer is then able to adjust their cost estimate only if their base assumptions change or the site scope is markedly different from your initial plans.

Availability
Finally, find out whether they have the time and resources to apply to your web development. A “straightforward” web should not take longer than 4 – 6 weeks to complete, assuming you are able to provide your input (e.g. for meetings, sign-off and content) as and when required.
 

Why should I choose Katalyst Web Design to build my web site?

We have a detailed breakdown on why you should choose Katalyst Web Design to help you with your web site, Internet strategy and presentations here.

How will a web site help me make or save my business money?

1. Reach more people. The world is becoming smaller and smaller as the Internet allows companies and individuals to communicate in the global marketplace much more easily.

2. Reach your existing customers 24x7. The Internet allows you to remain open to your customers and the public 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. More and more people are accessing the internet in Australia, with over half of the Australian population accessing the internet over the past 12 months, and more than 1.3 million Australians purchasing goods and/or services via the internet over the past 12 months. With nearly one third of Australians accessing the Internet from home, this means that a lot of people are researching companies for the provision of goods and services outside regular shopping hours.

3. Provide a faster, better and more efficient service to your customers. A well designed web site provides you with an opportunity to deliver an incredible amount of information to your customers quickly and easily. More people are turning to the Internet to research goods and services as they can do so in an environment in which they are in control. They can browse and take their time over purchases, find out detailed information about businesses and quickly compare costs and services between companies offering similar goods and services.

4. Leverage additional sales from your existing customers. This can be achieved through the use of web technologies in building up detailed customer profiles. The possibilities of using this knowledge are endless. What is the profile of your typical customer(s)? What sorts of products are most popular? What other products or services will they be interested in purchasing? Can you redesign your site to better target your better customers? Which products or services have they purchased from you recently?

5. Develop a one-to-one relationship with your clients. Understanding your individual customers’ needs allows you to customise the products and/or services you offer to them, thus maximizing the possibility of incremental sales. The Internet allows you to communicate and interact with your customers whenever they want to, something that is not possible with conventional businesses.

What is Flash?

Flash, a popular authoring software developed by Macromedia, is used to create vector graphics-based animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces, graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an antialiasing, resizable file format that is small enough to stream across a normal modem connection.

Flash enables you to provide a very rich and dynamic interface to the user. Approximately 96% of web users can view Flash content without having to install a browser based plug-in, and over 200 million people have downloaded the Flash player, making it one of the most common and popular plug-in on the Internet.

What is e-commerce?

E-commerce (electronic commerce or EC) is the buying and selling of goods and services on the Internet, especially the World Wide Web. In practice, this term and a new term, "e-business," are often used interchangably. For online retail selling, the term e-tailing is sometimes used.

E-commerce can be divided into:

	E-tailing or "virtual storefronts" on Web sites with online catalogues, sometimes gathered into a "virtual mall"
	The gathering and use of demographic data through Web contacts
	Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business-to-business exchange of data
	Email and fax and their use as media for reaching prospects and established customers (for example, with newsletters)
	Business-to-business buying and selling
	The security of business transactions

We have included a list of commonly asked questions. We don’t pull any punches here – our clients expect straight answers and honest advice, so we deliver. If you have a question that is not listed, please fill in our contact form and add your question in the appropriate place. We will be adding further questions and answers here from time to time.