Welcome to our 5 part podcast series elaborating on 5 crucial steps for planning a new website project. With the help of my friend and talented podcaster, Clark Buckner, we were able to touch on points to get you through the entire process from discovery to design. If you are a business owner, company representative, or anyone in need of a website who would like some insight into how to get started – stay tuned! This series is designed to give you a inside look at the process from the perspective of a web design company.

This interview is led by Clark Buckner–an extremely talented Nashville entrepreneur, mainly focusing on new media. His creativity and ability to think outside the box when it comes to strategizing for the modern web are just some of the reasons we chose to combine for this series. Clark’s podcast talents have been recognized all over music city at events such as Nashville NEXT Awards, ArtCamp Nashville, PodCamp Nashville & BarCamp Nashville just to name a few.

Website design is an extremely important investment for your business. It’s likely one of the most crucial investments for your success, which is why we put this series together for you. Over the next five weeks, we will cover everything you need to know to be prepared for your website project before you even meet with a designer. This series is designed to save you time and in turn, save you money. It is our hope that you will tune in every Monday for the next 5 weeks and share your experiences with us as you move along your own process.

Segment 1- Planning, Sitemapping & User Flow

Key topics included:

  1. Beginning the conversation about your website goals with members of your team.
  2. Best practices for whiteboarding your ideas
  3. Tips for efficiently streamlining your brainstorming process no matter your team size.
  4. Establishing a sitemap to help with organizing thoughts and improving SEO
  5. Common tools and best practices for optimizing your site’s user experience
  6. The importance of establishing your customer acquisition funnel and setting the right conversion metrics

You are about to set out on the creation of your new website and maybe you don’t know what to expect at all. The key is to be open-minded and ask yourself, or allow your designer to ask the questions that will establish the goals for your particular needs. This is called the discovery process, and it is crucial.

In the initial stages of a website design it is important to get on the same page with the other members of your team and any designers, consultants or developers you have enlisted to help. One of the best ways to get everyone on board is through whiteboarding, which is detailed in full in this segment. This helps with creating a sitemap and establishing a content strategy to help your site preform its best online.

Lastly, we talk about the importance of knowing your audience and what they need from your website. Establishing a functional user-flow will help drive sales and positive feedback from your clients.

Thank you for tuning in this week and make sure to check back in next Monday for Segment 2, which will go further into how this plan is used to build the acquisition funnel.