Hi guys... I'm currently acting on behalf of a web design / web solutions client (Website Design Auckland, NZ | Leaders in Website Design Services) who've asked me to come back to them with brief, verbal recommendations (at this stage, anyway) on how I can assist them in upgrading their existing site to one that has "much greater appeal to the high-end corporate market" without automatically compromising their SME clientele.

Their email to me reads as follows:


QUOTE:

Dear Bruce,

We would like to upgrade our site (Website Design Auckland, NZ | Leaders in Website Design Services) so that it is targeted to the corporate market (medium to large organisations). We feel our current site is trying to cater to both the SME market and the Corporate market, which is sending a mixed message about where our company fits in the web design market. Large companies probably feel that we aren't specialists in delivering on large scale projects and small companies probably feel that we are too expensive and mainly deal with larger companies.

The objective of the website upgrade is to provide a website that promotes Labyrinth as a leader in the corporate website design space, which will increase the number of enquiries we receive from medium to large organisations. As a side thing, we still want to retain a solution for the SME market as these are our bread and butter jobs.

END QUOTE:

Basically, I'd appreciate a few words of advice from you as to "what obvious changes you feel could be made to this client's site"... "and why" (so I can "sell" these recommendations to the client).

If you could review the site (Website Design Auckland, NZ | Leaders in Website Design Services) with the above in mind, that would be brilliant!

Any help (no matter how small) would be greatly appreciated.
Regards,

Smeatz
Auckland, New Zealand

Sorry about the long-winded anchor text re the URLs in the above thread - I didn't realize it was so long!

Smeatz

Hi smeatz, The site navigation is totally messed up in FireFox. It stretches down the center of the page over the content. In IE it displays properly. I would recommend fixing the code errors as a place to start. There is a grammer mishap in the ‘Getting Started ‘ message. It should read as “Have a chat with our web specialist.” I must say that it is interesting that a company which makes the following claim… has to seek outside help for their own image presentation. It is also less than acceptable that they would have errors in their own site when selling an image of professional website development.

__________________
Clicken
Math Flash Cards Online

Portfolio is okay for the target. However, you would do better with case histories, especially those focussed on the client's explicit objectives. "State of the art functionality" is meaningless. That employees with no knowledge of code can update content is just barely adequate.

White papers are also good corporate fodder. You're likely to find mid-level employees doing the research on which few web design firms to approach. Think "Nobody Ever Got Fired for Buying IBM" and make it safe to recommend you through both the site copy and whitepaper subject matter.

Move from purely technical to human factors. Most firms have zero clue how, but it's based on interaction design. Part and parcel of making those mid-level employees feel safe recommending you is data about humans actually being able to use the state-of-the-art site. That means usability lab study results. That means your opinion of how the brand was improve means little, and actual metrics having something to do with brand results mean a lot.

Branding is the last refuge of people who can't understand marketing and couldn't sell to save their lives. These people are among the first to go in a downturn. Clue number one: They can't differentiate brand awareness from bankable brand preference.

All branding means to the vast majority of web design firms is Flash with little to no accountability for results.

Everything on the site is about technology. Make yourself relevant to business results. And then throw in something about the corporate culture, whether it is the meetings, committee presentations, reconciling differing stakeholder groups to get to deliverables, and so on. Include strategy along with the pretty technology.

Right now your site is all about the problem of technology (in the target's mind). You have no solutions, just deliverables in a client free vacuum.

Check the links in my sig. They're about the value added, business relevant side of technology ...not technology as an end unto itself. Nobody stays employed having a site just to have a site.

Related:

A List Apart -- for people who make websites -- Never Get Involved in a Land War in Asia (or Build a Website for No Reason) You want to move from the guys doing mental high-fives to the guy munching on a sandwich.

Calling All Designers: Learn to Write! Corporate demands full service, even if they don't use all of them. That means you jettison CMS installation for Content Strategy. Dump graphic art for visual merchandising. Steer clear of technology "for users" to interaction design focussed on a specific, detailed, user persona.

Content-Free Buzzword-Compliant Vocabulary List Clients may use the words, but you have to avoid them. Translate feature and buzwords to benefits. Buzzwords are a poor substitute for marketing.

__________________
Design Crux - infographic design,
content strategy Visual Merchandising online

Well, the current site looks good and the portfolio has some great entries so to speak.

Perhaps a new and fresh look would be needed for the site. It would be entirely depending on how graphically good you are. you may start from building temp designs from scratch and / or look at some other great designs for inspiration.

__________________
¤ Portfolio ¤