At HirMon, we take the approach that all websites we design must fit the following criteria:
- They should be cometically "clean" and reflect both the nature of the owner’s business and the owner professionally.
- "Visitor friendliness" is an absolute given.
- Website owners must have the option of upgrading all or just part of their websites 24/7 without special tools.
- The functionality that will support an owner’s business or the services they provide for visitor use is essential.
- Website creation is a "partnership" between ourselves and our clients. We would rather work with you rather than just for you to produce the most effective presentation possible. (If the difference between with and for escapes you, then HirMon is not for you.)
- For our clients that are willing to learn, we will teach them how to use their website to best effect instead of just creating it and leaving them dangling. (Not surprisingly, 90 % of what most of our prospective clients think they know about websites is usually - 100% wrong More... )
- Including a wide range of options that can best fit a client’s needs such as (but not limited to): Audio/video clips (or full renditions), creation of audio/video clips (third-party), specialized data entry forms and custom programming must be available, as needed or required. (We supply these in-house or through third-party agencies).
- Must contain what website owners expect as "standard features" (link opens new browser window) - not extra-cost items.
Here’s the point: Like us, a website owner is going to do more business with people they actually meet and talk to in person than those that interact with a website alone.
Understand this: a website is a business tool; meaning that it is only one part of the communications equation and not an be-all or end-all unto itself.
We do only custom website creation. To a lot of people custom = expensive. In reality, getting the website you want and need created to your specifications = cost-effective.
Once in a while, we get an email along the lines of Have you ever created a such-and-such type of website?
The answer is usually: Probably not.
The way we work - it doesn’t matter. We understand business and how to make it work on the Internet!
As our client, we expect you to be the expert in your particular business. We are the experts in what we do.
Between the two of us, amazing things can (and frequently do) happen.
Here are a couple of the most "brain dead" obvious features most site owners would like to have -- but for some reason -- rarely consider for their website:
- Some way to alert visitors accessing a website that something "new and exciting" is available on the website.
In other words - put an announcement "in their face" so they can miss it, even if they wanted to! Could be something as simple as a PDF file for download announcing a seminar, special holiday package or some such.
With our Home Page Popup process which is included with all our websites - job done.
- Get online payments for invoices, deposits, contributions and other types of transactions.
It is amazing how few business owners think to have such a process available online! If you are going to have a website, then make it a true business tool and have it work for you!
- Have a contact page that does more than just send you email.
In fact, one of our most exceptional "successes" is a little mountain B&B that gets something like 15 email messages a week. No bad, considering - there is no contact page on the website!
As a matter of practice, we do suggest that our clients take a look around the Internet and find 3-5 sites that "look like and do what they want their website to do." Please note, however, that HirMon does not "pirate" those designs (we can always do better).
What a couple of our savvier clients found out surprised them:
I clicked the link to the website’s designer and you know what? All their websites look the same!
It happens! But why it happens is not nearly important as what it means to a website owner.
Why it happens is easy enough to understand. A web designer invested a lot of time and effort to create an "impressive" design, then took the opinion:
You know, the odds of anyone else actually seeing two of these sites at the same time is kind of remote, so there is no real reason why I can’t "adjust" the same basic design and use it again.
And - that’s true! Unless a visitor happens to think to click the web designer’s link -- they will never realize how similar a designer’s productions are from one instance to the next!
What happens because that happens is fairly obvious with a moment’s reflection:
A website owner might be getting a product that does not actually meet their real online needs.
In other words, they are settling for a "canned" presentation.
Why HirMon doesn’t do business that way is very obvious!
We create custom website to meet the needs and expectations of our clients, based on their goals and requirements for an online presence.
Does that mean that HirMon never uses a "canned presentation?" No, it doesn’t. We have a separate product line called: Rent A Promotional Site (R.A.P.S.) that is basically a "canned presentation." However -- R.A.P.S. sites are dedicated to a specific purpose. (For more information, click here: new browser window).
For our main-stream clients, we would not recommend a R.A.P.S.-based website, except under the most unusual circumstances.
The main reason is that a website is a business tool and part of an over-all marketing strategy that can potentially include graphic design for printed materials, communications strategies as well as the website itself.
Designing an effective business tool takes work and we’re not afraid of doing it for one simple reason (something that bears repeating, even though a lot of our visitors really hate to hear it...):
A website is not the be-all and end-all some developers would like you to believe they are. Unless you know how to use a website - save your money.
Understanding that concept can make all the difference between websites that produce results and those that are frustrating and disappointing to their owners.
