as smoothly as possible. It can make or break your business and reputation. (Referrals vs No Referrals) It boils down to two things: Being the experts that guides them through the project Having a good process Leading Your Client to Success
How many pages? Which fonts/Colors/CMS/ Etc.? Start the Project “We want something clean and simple .” Present the Project Revision “Make it Pop.” Frustration Waiting on Content Revision “Can you make the logo bigger?” Prepping for Launch “Oh, can we add a blog?” ☠
Clients Frustrated at the Project. Even though you thought you did a great job! The Client is frustrated at you. Incomplete Projects No Content No Referrals Not meeting business/org goals Client thinks the project is a failure No Referrals Leads to:
discovery calls Setting Expectations Working with them to figure out responsibilities and creating a schedule for the project. Having a conversation about the content and figure out how much content they can work on. The Work Using Best Practices and Working w/ Others. Recommend CMS, font etc. based on your discovery and planning. Post-Project Help Setting them up for success even after you’ve done your work.
of Gets Project done faster with less back-n-forth Less wasteful emails/calls All relevant info is accessible on the website at the right time. Less Returns Due to helpful product reviews and descriptions Easy Opportunities for Improvement Due to having a well-documented project you can go back to months later and easily jump right into. More Referrals + Repeat Business Leads to:
The Client knows what they need. Hardly ever. The Client knows how to get there. Nope. The Client knows what content to put in, and where it should go. They also need help with this.
You need their involvement quite a bit at first. They’re the web expert. You’ve put them in the driver’s seat. They have no choice but to call the shots.
phone call to the time to push your first pixel, you should be finding out as much as you can about your clients business/organization It’s not their job to figure out colors, font, etc so don’t ask them Ask for things like: How big is your company? Employees? Sales? What does your sales/marketing process look like? Who are the stakeholders? Anyone dedicated to this project? How do your current customers interact with the site? What is your current primary purpose for the site? What was working with your last designer/developer like? Are there any events coming up you might need the site ready for? What does success look like to you? If you could wave a magic wand, what would you improve about your business? Ask Why? Why is it you’re looking to redo your site? Why are you looking to do it now as opposed to a year from now?
up payments due at milestones • GET A DEPOSIT. Deadlines • They’re a two-way street. • Ask them, “realistically, how much time they can dedicate to working on this project?” Settings up weekly calls. Having them on Mondays lets you set tasks for the rest of the week. Setting Expectations
under $1k 50/50 for projects under $10k 30/40/40 for project above it One point of Contact They’ll be responsible from getting decisions from the rest of their team. Kill Fee Regardless of reasons; no refunds of payments thus far. Third-Party Costs Fonts, hosting, plugins, etc. Changes/Revisions How many rounds in each milestone? Browser/Device Compatibility No, we don’t support for IE 9. Contracts
(e.g. project kickoff, content, wire-framing, mood- boards, design, development, testing, training, launch) Set Estimated Timelines in the proposal based on the project option Option A : $5k and 1 month turnaround Option B: $7.5k and 2 month turnaround Account for waiting due to third-party. Add padding to your estimated timelines The “Sh*t happens” provision. Double the time, if you can. Timelines & Milestones
most clients aren’t familiar with it) Dropbox Nearly everyone uses it. Trello Easy on-boarding for clients; sticky-notes on your computer. Asana/Basecamp Best if you typically work on large-scale projects with many team members) Tools ⭐ ⭐
get info like: Hosting/Domain SSH/ SFTP/ CMS Email Marketing Analytics, Sales Tools Passwords Password Manager: LastPass or 1Password Payment gateways/ API Keys ,etc. Content Have them throw it in a subfolder within your project folder Have your client setup any required third-party services Stripe, AWS, etc. Strategy Report Email Marketing, Analytics, Sales, Marketing Funnel Project Kickoff
content help the client? Context Where is the buying process are the visitors when they see this? Accuracy Is it accurate? Customer Value (UX) How does this help the users? Milestone Deliverable sitemap Tools: MindNode Existing Content
the design/development phase. Determine Best Solutions CMS, Hosting, Etc. Present at Different Milestones: Wireframes Mood-board/ Style Guide UI/UX (Not just site mockups, show different states and navigation) Prototypes (if you need to convey animations) Staging Server Upload Training/ Video Training Production Server Launch Design + Development
Invision/Figma Prototypes (if you need to convey animations) Build Tools, SFTP Tools Staging Server Upload, Production Server Upload Screenflow Video Training Tools
with the consultants/freelancers your project requires. (e.g. copywriters, designers, developers, illustrators) You’ll be seen as the main expert You’ve done more research on the client than anyone they bring in after you Working with existing vendors Developers, Designers, Illustrators, Content Strategists, SEO experts, etc. Ask about their process and any upfront requirements. Bring them in as soon as you can to keep them involved in the process Working with Others
goodpatch
zenkigenforrecruit
lycorptech_jp
hjmkth
bebe
culumu
kanzaki
t32k
kitami
smartbank
sachi337
quramy
carmenintech
panda_program
afnizarnur
speakerdeck
sachag
mclloyd
chriscoyier
aki_iinuma
tammyeverts
eileencodes
yeseniaperezcruz
