Simply put "Michigan Web Design" or "Michigan Web Development" into your Google search engine and see how many results you have returned – 673,000 is what we got!

The big issue is how do you sort through all those firms offering Michigan businesses their web design and e-marketing services?

There are first principles to cover such as your budgetary and time constraints; what the objectives are for your web site; what tangible results do you expect to generate from an e-marketing campaign; but to get behind the numbers and into the detail, you are going to need a partner who can deliver real value. Before you dive in with a web design partner, filter the potential candidates with these questions and make sure you get answers you understand!

What type of outfit are they? "Web development" and" e-business" covers a multitude of sins; there are some providers who simply design websites, some simply provide e-marketing, others worry about hosting … very few actually have the ability to provide a 100% in-house service or act as a one-stop shop. What work do they really handle in-house? When you look at their portfolios, ask them what they actually did on the projects they are using as reference sites – was it technical (programming, online databases) or design (funky animations and effective marketing features)?

Where some of the work will be sub-contracted out, will it go to another agency or an individual freelancer and if so, who are they and what is their experience? We’ll touch on this again later.

Are they Creatives or Technicians? Ask your potential partners how they see themselves; a web design company; professional online marketers; a creative agency or a technical development and programming team? You are looking for a company which combines technical and programming skills with creativity in rendering good design and imaginative marketing; if they can’t deliver it all in-house, then how will they be able to deliver these ingredients to your marketing mix; by using an external contractor perhaps and if so how will that work and what experience do they have?

What aspects of the service will be subcontracted out? Before we start here, just because a firm sub-contracts work out does not mean they are not capable of delivering a really good service; web development and internet marketing covers vast areas of expertise and no single company has a handle on everything. The vast majority of professional service providers will sub-contract work outside of their firm and this is to your advantage when you are getting expertise which would otherwise not be available to you.

This said, you have to be clear on what is going to be contracted out, who is going to be performing the work and who is responsible for managing the project and meeting milestones and most of all, establishing lines of communication between you, the design team and the subcontractor.

Does the potential supplier understand the target market and target users?

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