Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

When clients come to our firm for interactive recommendations they generally have a lot of ideas. The interactive world is scary. There are a lot of acronyms. There are nerds that keep information shrouded in secrecy so that you will have to continue to rely on them. Or worse, there are nerds that complicate things by overexplaining things you don’t need to know.

As a result, clients try to get up to speed on current Internet trends or hide behind their IT person. 

The first thing they will try to tackle and understand is the development language. Clients will often agonize over the language used to develop their site, but this is the wrong focus. Technology is going to change. Developers are smart and they will figure out a way to make new technology work with what you have established. If you build a site and continue to pay attention to the backend as well as the front end, you are going to make a long lasting Web site that will have a longer shelf life. If you build a site and don’t touch it again for 18 months, you are going to have to rebuild it the next time you touch it. So why agonize over the language? Trust the experts.

As a client, your focus should be...

The most important thing you can do as a client is decide what function your Web site will perform. Is it a brochure site? Is it an application? Is it core to your company's business?

There are plenty of companies out there that don’t need to create anything more than a brochure site. We don’t all need social networking sites.

The clients that are most successful are focused on the results, not the way we get there.

Instead of blowing all of your money on a redesign and then doing it again 18-48 months later, spend your money wisely. Invest as you go along. Pay attention to your analytics. Find an expert that is going to keep you up on technology without boring you with the details. You don’t care if Django or Python is the best solution, but you do care that users are finding the right information on the site.

This approach is not always applicable to large companies. When your Web site has to fit into a large-scale enterprise solution, it is very important to perform the due-dilligence to ensure the technologies you invest in will be supported later by your in-house technology team.

As an interactive professional for the past 10 years, I have seen a lot of languages and development theories come and go. Don’t agonize about the language, you’ll always be able to find someone to support it. Instead, focus on the content and the user experience.

Marketing is all about relating to humans. One way to truly be a step ahead is to take the budget you have for your redesign, double it and spend the second half on committed maintenance on your site. It will guarantee a longer lifespan and will help you focus on customers- the reason you made the site.