Well, here goes my first post … so keep your tomato throwing to a minimum.  In coming to Prime, as a Project Manager for the web department, I have learned a ton in the past months on our web process and watched customers really learn some great things during it.  I thought I’d make you a little more aware of what we offer in case your sitting on the fence, just waiting to be pushed into a great web project with us.

To many of you, the idea of creating a new website for your business or redesigning your outdated site can be very nerve racking. From new business to site redesign, whatever position you are in, we are here to help you through every step of the process.

Step 1: Lets talk
An initial meeting helps us learn more about your situation, challenges and goals.  We give you insight into our methods (madness), experience and abilities and outline some possible scenarios and solutions.  After meeting, our staff researches and analyzes your needs and customer needs to get a complete feel for the goals of your project.  From there we create a fixed cost proposal and recommendation.  You know that for exactly this amount, you are getting these exact services, pages and functionalities.  This proposal, once agreed upon, becomes the blueprint and working document for your project.

Step 2: Creative meeting
You will need to gather the key players that will be the decision makers for your business. When you meet with our Web Team the process begins. Aaron does a great job of explaining the layout options of a web page and how it functions within the design and layout. You will learn the reasoning behind things being arranged in a particular way and how we can better serve the site users within that layout. It’s all about usability and your site user finding what they need easily.  We will educate you on the variety of ways that users look for information on your site and how we can cater to each of those ways with the use of the navigation, text links, highlight areas, icons, site search and site maps. You will learn how changing the shape or color of a highlight area or navigation tab can provide a completely different feel to your site. When the creative meeting is over, you will have learned quite a bit about websites (sometimes more than you thought you ever needed to know). The next step is taking those ideas, strategies and goals and then putting them into a visual interface design!

Step 3: Creating your website mock
During the meeting Jeff (our lead Web Designer) & Janna (your Project Manager and point of contact through your entire process) are feverishly taking notes so that after the meeting, Jeff can work his magic and layout an interface design for your website. As a team we work on different design and layout features that will attempt to capture the look and feel that will help your website users accomplish their goals and one that reflects your organizations image and offering.  Five to ten days later we present you with your website mock. From the mock we gather your feedback, discuss the methods and tactics to certain elements and make any final tweaks to arrive at an agreed layout and design for your site.  Once approved, we can start slicing, programming and building your site at a BETA address.

Step 4: A BETA site is created
A BETA website is created for you to continually review the progress of your site while it is being built … a “for your eyes only link” to stay in the loop without having to meet in person. As new pages are added, functionalities are created and all visual features come to life, we are able to gather your feedback and approval.  The BETA address is your project’s virtual meeting room so that we can view all aspects and make adjustments, without having to drag you into our offices and away from your busy schedule.  That said … sometimes our clients prefer to walk in and have a face-to-face meeting on where things are at.  Whatever works best for you, makes sense to us.

Step 5: Content, content, content    
Hopefully you took advantage and invested in Prime’s copywriting services to get the most out of your website’s information and flow.  Not all of us are writers, and the web has it’s own set of nuances, including search engines (SEO), to write for. We will add your photo’s, graphics, video and any other content element to complete sections and pages of your site.

Step 6: Completing the site
Once all the pages have been created, they are ran through quality assurance … testing, clicking and reviewing every small nook to make sure the site hits the web running smoothly.  Finishing touches and features are applied and then we’ll be scheduling your training to understand your new abilities.

Step 7: SMC & analytics training   
For our clients that take advantage of our SMC content management tool, training with Luke gets you up to speed. He will train you on the core basics of managing your own website with ease and also show you the unlimited possibilities that you now posses with your new site. From adding new pages to updating your content you will learn it all. You also will learn how to utilize our analytics tool to track your sites performance, traffic sources, search engine keywords and more.  Support once LIVE is very important to us and Luke is also your Customer Support contact when you using the SMC down the road.  If you forget how to create a new page or add a link, one phone call to Luke and you’re back on track.

Step 8: Launching the site
Once everything is complete, we go live with your site.  Some of our clients time this with a large e-mail push or promotional launch to build excitement and interest to their new site.  We love to give you ideas on how to leverage this new launch or re-birth to give you some buzz with your customers and make them aware of new features.

Don’t let the fear of taking that first step into a new website hold you back. Of course there is a bit more to things than listed here, but we really wanted you to see the kind of interaction you’ll have with us to produce a tool your information and sales process can thrive around.

Our team is here to consult, teach, guide and support you through the entire process (and then ongoing) and we look forward to working with you.  Feel free to contact us with any other questions you might have to to find out more on web design with Prime.