Some organic business owners cringe when they see the cost associated with custom website development. Often it’s because their web design provider has sold them on a lot of functionality that they may or may not need.

It’s easy to think of a new website as a fun, new toy to deck out with all the features you can think of: video and social media integration, ecommerce capability, motion graphics, social networking capabilities, gallery features, and more. But what does your website need to help you achieve? Walking into a meeting with your website designer with an unclear view of how the website supports your strategy will lead you to nod “Yes” to a lot of features whose development you don’t need on your final tab.

Most professional and conscientious website designers will walk through this strategy question before they submit their bids. But the problem is if you haven’t thought this through before, a lot of their suggestions will sound really good on the spot.

This is a common pitfall of technology purchases at large companies; a rep or consultant starts quizzing the decision makers about what they need in their solution, everybody starts naming a bunch of stuff, and the vendor starts putting together the package. It’s backward, and the kind of companies that spend $6 million on ERP systems have started to correct their thinking on the matter. What are our strategic goals? What functionality do we need to reach them?

This question may point to a deeper problem: If you haven’t looked at your company or organization from the 1,000-foot level in a while, you may be hard-pressed to answer the “Where are we going?” and “What do we need to get there?” questions. Take some time to do it; it has many virtues, one of which will be a highly informed viewpoint on what kind of things your website needs to do by the time you sit down with a website designer.

Remember, technology is here to help us meet our goals. If we don’t have a clear view of those goals, there’s no telling what you might sign up for, how much it will cost you, or how much good it will do.

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Planet Media is an eco-friendly and sustainable creative agency specializing in branding, UX/UI design, web development, ecommerce, and digital marketing solutions. We have extensive experience in developing, promoting, expanding, or reinventing your web presence.

Contact our Denver, Colorado office for a no-obligation, project cost analysis.