Your website is one of the most important home health care marketing tools your agency has.
Following up on our previous post about home care marketing design vs. development, it’s time to recap and start the actual process. Now that you know the differences between the two, let’s talk about how they play out.
Getting a new website up and running is a marathon, not a sprint. While it may seem easy to make a website, there are actually several steps to the process. It is required that you understand the whole process so that you know what to expect and understand what your web design company is asking of you. Once you have chosen us to design your website, you can expect a workflow similar to the following:
Discussion of Requirements
This is sometimes referred to as an “intake meeting” where we will ask you a lot of questions about what you want and need your website to do. This will be more in-depth than the initial gathering of requirements the design shop did during the selection phase, so you will need to be prepared to go over your requirements in greater detail.
Wireframing
A wireframe is the document that lays out the website’s pages and functionality and can be compared to the site’s skeleton. It includes each type of content page—front page, landing pages, content pages, etc.—and is completely free of design elements. It describes how pages will appear and connect with each other as well as any databases or applications the site may use.
Design
The design phase is where your website is mocked-up in color, graphics, and typography. Determining what your actual website will look like is the goal of this step. Multiple pages will be designed to show the flow of information and any special features such as slideshows or image galleries.
Development
Development is the phase in which the site is actually built. The wireframe will be turned into an actual site architecture, and it will be skinned with the approved mock-up design. There may be several stages to the development process, including cross-platform and cross-browser testing. This is the step where you will want to remain hands-off until a “final” site is presented for approval.
Beta Testing
Until your site launches for the world to see, your site is in “beta.” This means the site is undergoing testing of all its functionality and any final design tweaks. There may be several rounds of beta testing to ensure the site functions properly, so be patient and don’t panic if it doesn’t all go right the first time. It’s better to find out now that there are issues than after the site goes live.
Payment
The final part of the process is where payment is made and the contract is signed to indicate the job was completed.
The corecubed team strives to provide clients with the home health care marketing tools they need and to make the website design and development process run smoothly right from the planning phase. We can help you plan your content marketing strategy and we work closely with exceptional web development partners who create award-winning websites. Give us a shout and let us show you what we can do for your website.
Click here for part three of our home care marketing web design and development series.