5 Practical Tips to Vetting a Web Agency in Jacksonville

5 Practical Tips to Vetting a Web Agency in Jacksonville

Most people like to think they have a great website that is appealing visually. Picking and vetting a web agency in Jacksonville can be a different story. Having a vision and taking it from an idea to a finished product can be overwhelming. Wanting to take on designing a website, many soon realize that they may not have the technical knowledge, patience, or time to create their vision to their own satisfaction. This is where picking a web agency to create your website can help.

Finding and hiring a web agency in Jacksonville is easy. Vetting the right agency that has the web professionals skilled for your project might not be as easy. Our designers and developers at HeartWired are trained professionals that will guide you through the process of designing your website. Whether you are a start-up just starting out or an established business in need of a redesign. Our focus is to create and tell your business’s story in a way only you can.

Let’s discuss what five tips we have to vetting a web agency in Jacksonville.

Determine your budget

While this may seem a logical step, we have found many clients who have no idea what their budget is. Having a budget in mind will help you eliminate those web agencies that are simply outside of what you are willing or able to spend. It also helps you establish guidelines upfront when selecting an agency to work with.

Check References

One way to find a web design professional in Jacksonville is to ask their previous clients. Hopefully, you can find some testimonials on Google, Facebook, Yelp, and others as a starting point. It is also important to ask the web agency during your discovery consultation if they have references they would be willing to share. A great way to vet the agency is by the words of others.

Storyboard Your Vision

Having a vision for your business will make the design and development process simpler for all involved. Using a storyboard or some other process to iron out the majority of your business vision before shopping for a web agency in Jacksonville will make the vetting and hiring process simpler. In addition by having a vision, you will eliminate potential scope creep that is encountered when you are not sure what you want.

Watch out for Trendy Designers

This may sound a little counterintuitive but hear us out. We firmly believe the trends that appear in the design space many times are gorgeous..but. Those trends tend to lack longevity. What is popular today could be outdated in a year or two. Having a focus on modern design versus trendy will help your website from becoming the next GeoCities page.

Make Sure You Own Your Website

We cannot stress this enough. So many agencies find it appropriate to hold their clients’ site ransom by controlling the ownership. Whether the agency offers ongoing services and support (and they should) your ownership is not a bargaining chip. When we build a website for our fellow small businesses in Jacksonville, we are more than willing to give our clients access to their site. This includes access to the WordPress dashboard along with their database as they so desire. So many times we hear horror stories about clients who have no access to the website they paid for, and we simply do not understand that methodology.

Agencies in Jacksonville as well as elsewhere that operate with transparency and integrity should have no problem being vetted. They know their work, as well as the relationships with their clients, speak for themselves.

We at HeartWired hope you have enjoyed these 5 tips on vetting a web agency in Jacksonville. While this list is only the beginning, we pray that it has given you a good understanding and foundation for starting your web development process.

We love serving our local community in Jacksonville, FL as well as elsewhere. If you or someone you know could use a new website, please share these tips and contact us to discuss your website vision.

Collaboration Increases Creativity

Collaboration Increases Creativity

We pride ourselves on being able to provide digital solutions of all sizes and scale for our clients. To provide the level of service expected and on time, we periodically collaborate with other creatives. Sometimes the concept of ‘outsourcing’ invokes trepidation, and we want to put your mind at ease with our process. We see collaboration with other agencies or freelancers as a win-win solution.

Outsourcing used to come with the idea of offshoring business somewhere overseas. In doing so there were language barriers, security and trust issues galore. The kind of outsourcing we do here at HeartWired does not have any of those issues. In fact, you likely will even get to meet the outsourced party during the creative process as many times they are local resources. We actually believe that this kind of collaboration increases creativity.

Why do we collaborate with our competition?


This is often a misconception, while we are all service providers there is generally enough business to share. We are competitive and the businesses or freelancers that we use would technically be the ‘competition’. Yet, if we are able to help more people in ways we could not otherwise do on our own, collaboration over competition wins every time. This allows us to serve our clients’ needs as well as build better relationships with other vendors in our area.

Outsourcing to someone else, isn’t that risky?


Unlike some web agencies, we vet our freelancers and outsource partners as if they were working for us as an employee. We will only work with or allow someone to work with one of our clients if we trust them with our business because we do. Working with only providers of service that we have done business ourselves allows us to have complete confidence to have them represent our brand. Our collaboration efforts have been tried internally before being offered to our clients.

But I want to work with someone local.


Working locally has its perks for sure. If you are located in the Northeast Florida Southeast Georgia area, it is a good chance you will get to work with someone from your area working with us. Currently, we serve clients in and around the Jacksonville area where our office is located. We also have been blessed to work with businesses and organizations throughout the United States and even globally that serve in other countries.

The misconception that if a company outsources they are shipping the work overseas is just not the way it used to be. We live in the gig economy. An economy where people provide services as a side hustle or as their own small business. These freelancers live here in the US, likely some in your own neighborhood.

What if I just don’t want to have my project outsourced?


There is a good chance that you would not even know that it was outsourced. Our partners usually serve in a capacity like that of an employee. They represent our brand, our methods, and our processes transparent to any agreement. In the situation that is simply not enough, we can accommodate a solely in-house service guarantee. This guarantee could, however, increase pricing and time for your project.

We believe the more we give the more we gain. This philosophy stands true within our outsourcing process as well. Hiring freelancers or other agencies locally we all win. They get work to do during times there may have been a lull. Our clients receive the work they hired us to do timely. Lastly, our local economy wins as small businesses and entrepreneurs are the foundation of a stable economy and when you keep it local we all win.

If you would like to learn more about the services we offer, the clients we serve, or the creatives we collaborate with give us a call or visit our website. Perhaps you too are a freelancer or agency that has the capability and interest to collaborate, we would love to hear from you as well. Or if you simply have thoughts you would like to share, we welcome your insights on how you collaborate creatively.

Cracking The Web Design Process Code

Cracking The Web Design Process Code

What’s the web design process a web designer goes through when preparing to take on a new client?

If you are curious keep reading for a behind the scenes “sneak peek” of sorts on the process that we follow while meeting with a potential client. One thing I personally love about running a boutique web design agency is the ability to share others’ stories. Stories are at the center of every client and their business or organization. As a web design agency, we follow a creative process that allows us to visually relate that story online.

Research

Knowing your client goes beyond just what they may or may not tell you during their discovery session, not that they are hiding anything but they may not feel it is important. Doing a somewhat deep dive on the client, their customers, social media, and more allow us to better understand who they serve. When someone looks to hire a web designer, they usually think they know what they want before they ever call to set up their consultation. When they get to talking to us the project they thought they wanted many times changes in scope as they share their story.

Client Story

Your story as a client is one that only you can tell. No matter how small of a gesture or reflection back into how you got started, we focus on the nuances behind the story. We spend time researching you and your story long before we sit down to hear you tell it. Stories are shown through the clients you currently serve to the social media posts you share. We know you will be a bit guarded when you meet a stranger for the first time. The more we know about who sits across the table from us, the easier we can put you as well as ourselves at ease.

Ask Questions

Too many designers make assumptions that they know what is best for their clients. We at Heartwired are firm believers that the client knows best, even when they don’t know they know. Some of the questions we ask whether in the form on our website, on the phone, via chat or email may seem simple or silly. However, we have found asking questions gets you comfortable to share the real you. Many times it is in the things you don’t say that we find the most about you and your story.

Listen

When talking with a potential or even current client it is often what they don’t say that matters most. They likely have a frustration point they are looking to solve. Whether it be lack of sales, or traffic or perhaps conversion into sales. They will say things like “the site does not work” or is “not being found”, or they want it to look like their competition. One of the easiest things to change is the website.. or even the designer. Truth is without appropriate planning, marketing, and a strategy it won’t matter how pretty your site is.

A web designers job is to translate their clients’ needs and frustrations into actionable changes that make sense.

Its the small things

Whether it is a change in a page, or the client’s overall approach to their website, many times it is the small things. Small things like the placement of a button, a font adjustment, or color, the things that seem to not really matter actually matter most. When we pay attention to the details, it allows us to hear what they are really saying. Details many times are hidden in the things the clients don’t say. Sometimes that can be while they share their story about their business and why they started in the first place. That glimmer in their eye or the slight welling up of emotions as they share their “why”. It is in those moments that as a designer we can find the heart of their story and how we can help design their story in a way only they can tell. It is in these moments that as the owner of a boutique web design agency like HeartWired, that I truly find the love in what we do. If you would like to learn more about how we are cracking the web design process code at HeartWired we would love to learn about your story. Contact us today to get started in sharing your story.
What I Wish Everyone Knew About the Name HeartWired

What I Wish Everyone Knew About the Name HeartWired

Nobody cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

Our company name HeartWired Digital Solutions literally defines our business. Sure it may be a play on words, but it encompasses much more than that. Ever since I started my company in 2016, I have hoped and prayed that everyone would know that we were a company that cares for the individual behind the organizations we serve just as much as we care for our own. We pour our heart into every web design project and treat it as if it were our only one.

HeartWired was initially a play on words for “hardwired” a common term in the technology industry meaning “involving or achieved by permanently connected circuits.”

Even the Ethernet cable in the form of a heartbeat in the logo is representative of the vein of our company’s being. Our deep rooted desire to serve each client where they are has become the focal point of our business model.

Compassion and technology are usually terms that are rarely used in the same sentence. In a fast paced world, focused on numbers rather than service, it is all but a lost art. Our motto “Technology and Web Services with Heart” has become our mission.  Rather than treating people like a number, we prefer to learn about their story and get to know their heart before we ever take them on as a client.  In doing so we believe we believe we can restore the heart and compassion one satisfied customer, better yet friend at a time.

Small business owners at the core are community leaders, they hold the responsibility to build relationships within their local neighborhoods and cities.

Whether your business is a brick and mortar or strictly online or perhaps a combination of both, you serve your community first and foremost. The more involved we have gotten in our own local area, the more businesses we have been able to serve, the more we have grown through word of mouth more valuable than any advertisement dollars we could spend.

Occasionally there is confusion when people look at our logo, they ask if we are in the medical or health field. While we have served clients in those industries as well as nonprofits, realtors, local businesses, bloggers and more, we are a technology and web design agency through and through. While we offer web design solutions, SEO services, digital reputation management, proximity marketing and more, at the heart of it all we provide various ways for people to share their heart-filled stories online.

Give Your Business a Gift that Keeps on Giving

Give Your Business a Gift that Keeps on Giving

With all the hustle and bustle of Christmas and the holiday season, there is one on your list that is always forgotten… Your Business.

We search high and low for the perfect gift for our loved ones and friends. Yet we tend to neglect the one that makes it all possible.

All the hard work, the late nights and long hours go unappreciated. After all of that, not even a Christmas card or Fruitcake is sent. However come the New Year when all the holiday lights dim, it will still be here supporting you and your family.

What better way than to show appreciation than to give your business a gift that keeps on giving.

You might ask what that might be right?

The best gift you can buy your business is a new or renewed website for the new year.

Every day, twenty-four seven it will keep giving back.

Websites provide a portal where your customers or clients can find you any time of day. Whether you have an e-commerce site where they can buy the same or perhaps even different items that you have in your brick and mortar. Or perhaps you offer goods and/or services strictly online. Your business is open for business all day every day when it is online.

People used to use the Yellow Pages to find a business, now they just Google it. What if when they Google, they don’t find you?

Let’s face it – we live in a world where people Google before they shop, visit online review sites like Yelp before they buy and “check-in” via Facebook as they go about their days. – Forbes Magazine

Websites create a level of trust for the customer that your business will have a hard time obtaining without one. People like to “shop around” before they buy, and many of them prefer to window-shop from the comfort of their own home or mobile phone.

So wrap your business a brand new website design or redesign this Christmas and holiday season. A gift they will never return or exchange and one that will keep on giving throughout the New Year.

From all of us at HeartWired Digital Solutions, we wish you and yours a very merry Christmas and blessed Happy New Year in 2018.