Doug: What kind of companies do you do this for?
Stephen: We have clients that are startups and we have clients that are Fortune 100 companies. It's really a company that recognizes that their business needs presence on the internet. They either need a good image, they need to get sales or leads, or they need to manage their customers online.
Doug: I'm really interested. It's fascinating because in chatting with you, just a few minutes before we started this, you said a lot of companies you talk to really don't know what they want from their website.
Stephen: There's so many.
Doug: Which is pretty surprising, quite frankly. Tell me about it.
Stephen: I actually think there are some companies that are back to that concept that, "I have to have a website. End of story."
Doug: Right.
Stephen: "I just need a website."
Doug: Right.
Stephen: "Once I have one, then I've fulfilled that requirement"; but it's more than that. It's more than just having a website. If you're going to compete with 60 million websites, you have to carve out your niche. You have to recognize that website presents you to your prospects, to your investors, to your employees, to your strategic partners, as far as who you are as far as a company, so it needs to do that well. As we already talked about, people need to be able to find you, and find you not only because they know you exist but because they're searching for your products or services.
Doug: When a client comes to you, how do you begin with him? What are the steps you go through?
Stephen: The very first thing we do with any client or prospect that comes to us is we spend time upfront understanding their business objectives: Why is it they want that website? What is it going to do? Is it going to deliver sales? Is it going to deliver leads that their salespeople can follow-up on? Is it going to just deliver people who register on their site for newsletters and information updates so that they can build their brand? It could be a variety of things, but the website should have a purpose. That purpose will then drive what our recommendations are, as far as what we can do to help them achieve that objective and truly be successful on the internet.
Doug: I would think with so many websites out there, you've got to have something really unique. It's got to pop out, doesn't it?
Stephen: Yes, and it has to be easy to use.
Doug: That's another thing. Sure.
Stephen: Yes. How many websites have you gone to and you can't find what you're looking for?
Doug: A lot, many.
Stephen: What do you do? First thing you do is you leave.
Doug: You bail out.
Stephen: Right. What a good website will do is it will not only address the immediate need as to why they came, but it will intrigue the visitor to want to learn more and go further and further and further, so pull them into the website.