Commissioning a company website used to be a risky, time-consuming process. You’d pay an agency a hefty fee and receive a site in return. Here’s the problem: Often, by the time your site was complete, it would already be out-dated.
Fueling updates with lump sums of your budget doesn’t cut it anymore. Not in today’s ever-changing digital world.
Let your website grow with you…
Your site needs review on a regular basis, followed by relevant updates. You need to be ruthless. Examine what is and isn’t working, what’s still relevant, what’s missing and what needs to change. It’s this interrogation and tweaking that helps you achieve your bottom-line goals.
How do you get this right? Meet the new kid on the block: the growth-driven design (GDD) retainer. This way of working (or rather, collaborating) with an agency, secures you month-to-month incremental changes for your website. In other words, your website gets to evolve as your company does.
GDD takes all aspects into account. Websites:
- out-date quickly
- are always works in progress
- should grow with your company
- need to be user- and results-focused
…and with your budget
With a GDD retainer, you’ll pay a manageable monthly fee as opposed to forking out a fortune every couple of years. This is an obvious cash flow and budget management perk.
GDD is the proactive approach
If you’re a successful, competitive company, you’re constantly changing and adapting to best fit your industry landscape. Your website needs to mirror this.
In the current digital environment, things are constantly shifting. UX changes all the time because technology and devices do. A GDD retainer is a smart way to ensure you’ll always be relevant.
It also allows you to build a relationship with an agency. Working together over a period of time means your agency will become like a partner. They’ll learn the ins and outs of your company and gain intrinsic knowledge of what you need and how best to give it to you. Better than blindly handing everything over and hoping for the best, right?
Your agency will also be able to give you results-based updates. That means changes will not just be made off the cuff. Rather, your site’s updates will be made after monitoring user behaviour and defining what consumers actually want from your website.
Keeping your site relevant is vital. Even if visitors might not notice every small change, if they are met with a significant website that addresses their needs, they’ll keep coming back.
You need to stay relevant
The old way of building websites is like trying to crash-learn a foreign language instead of attending weekly classes. It doesn’t get the best results.
Take the proactive, pocket-friendly approach and understand that there’s no end to your site’s evolution. It must constantly evolve with you, your company, your audience and your budget.
