Should old acquaintance be forgot,and never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
and old lang syne?
As the old year drew to a close and a new year began, many of us were clinking together champagne flutes while singing along with the traditional New Year’s melody Auld Lang Syne. The song, written more than two centuries ago, still has the power to move listeners because it reminds us of the importance of maintaining meaningful relationships.
Maybe you didn’t have your web designer in mind when you toasted the new year and all of your old acquaintances, but that doesn’t mean that relationship isn’t important. A trusted web designer can be one of your most powerful business allies.
A professional web designer knows your business.
If you’ve hired a professional web designer, she’s walked you through a discovery process in order to understand your business before she begins the design process. She’s researched your target audience, listened to your business goals, and helped to establish your brand position. Very few people outside of your business (and, likely, very few people inside your business) will have the working knowledge of your brand that your web designer does.
Web designers are natural problem solvers.
The design process is about more than making pretty websites. It’s about addressing the most common problems confronted by brands: extending brand awareness, creating new clients, establishing intuitive operational processes, etc. If your designer is invested in your brand, she’ll use her knowledge of your goals and needs to help you come to solutions for emerging challenges more efficiently.
They can help you anticipate trends that will boost your brand’s reach.
While some elements of design remain consistent over time, others are subject to trends. Designers must stay on top of these trends in order to remain relevant in their fields. If you’ve developed a relationship with your designer, she’ll be eager to alert you when there are trends that could take your brand to the next level.
A trusted designer provides valuable insights on your brand’s development.
By developing a long-lasting relationship with a reliable, thoughtful designer, you’re developing an advocate capable of providing you with insights you can trust. Many of your advocates may have ideas for your brand’s development, but not all will have the industry expertise that a professional designer has.
Changing times call for changing websites.
A well-designed website can maintain its effectiveness for around five years. However, like a fine sports car, that site is going to require some maintenance along the way. As your website matures, it’s important to track user analysis and plan ongoing development based on those findings. Since few people will know your website as well as your designer does, knowing that she’s available to make the necessary adjustments ensure changes are timely and consistent with the existing design.
Ongoing calibrations are more cost-effective than complete overhauls.
It’s possible to keep your website fresh, responsive, and appealing through a regular regimen of ongoing calibrations. The alternative – a complete redesign – is both costly and time-consuming by comparison. Your designer can help you make little improvements and adjustments as they become necessary without breaking or unbalancing the site she designed. A newcomer, on the other hand, will have to be ramped up on the design elements before even beginning to make changes. Even then, she may not be able to match the designer’s style, which could negatively impact your brand’s consistency.
You don’t have to invite your designer to your New Year’s party next year, but if you’ve chosen a good one, you may actually want her there. After all, her efforts on your behalf played a significant role in your 2017 successes.