If you’re a small business owner, your website acts as the lobby for your organization, and your mission and values are there for all to see. If you’ve been in business for any amount of time, chances are you’ve worked on your inbound marketing strategy and traffic is coming in from a number of channels and you’ve added and tweaked content on the site to match various marketing initiatives. If your website has been around since you opened your doors to the public, it’s likely there might be some visuals and content that no longer match up to your current vision. All of this to say that it’s very likely, depending on your business goals, that you’ll want to consider at some point a total website redesign.

Redesigns stem from rebranding or business pivots to add and expand upon website functionality, and the process isn’t that far removed from building a website from scratch, a process Forbes Magazine has covered extensively in a recent article. Since you already have a hosted website with your personalized domain, we’re not going to reinvent the wheel and talk through this process from scratch. Instead we’ll focus on how an effective web design services contract can help to keep costs of redesign in line and within budget.

Fresh Branding, New Graphics

If your business has grown and expanded, there’s a chance your logos, graphics, and the overall visual branding elements no longer capture the spirit of the company. Redesigning logos, and integrating the new logo elements throughout website components might seem like a simple task, but it does require creation of multiple image files and a concerted effort to transition your website page by page. Expect to pay your design firm the same rates as if you were starting the branding process from scratch and the associated coding costs to build these visuals into your existing website framework. There’s a good chance these costs might be reduced or even included with the existing website management service contract. A branding change is going to have associated costs well beyond the website – with changes to be made to letterhead, signage, business cards, and numerous other channels, so finding a cost effective solution is key to keeping overall costs down.

Read more: When is the right time to Rebrand your business?

Business Pivot Requires New Website Functionality

In the early stages, many companies start out with modular portfolio websites showcasing their work that they can hang services on in order to start catching the attention of clients, draw them to the brand, and start generating revenue. As a company matures, so too will the services offered, and the website will require expanded functionality, such as ecommerce, login and account management, and integration with CRM tools. In order to quickly and efficiently offer such services, easily customized template-style site builders like managed WordPress have entered the market, and have become such popular site building tools that many digital marketing agencies find themselves customizing and managing these templates rather than building sites from scratch. The benefit of these platforms is that content can quickly be migrated to a new template that better meets your business pivot, and again costs would fall under a managed service contract that is very likely already in place, and can range from $50 to $1000 a year for the rights to use and modify the template to your purposes.

Negotiate an Effective Website Managed Services Agreement

Digital marketing firms understand the need for brands and businesses to grow and mature. And they understand that your digital presence needs to grow and mature at the same pace. With this in mind, build a web design services plan with LP Creative that takes into account your current website needs, and allows for scalable solutions in the future. Taking the proactive approach early in the process means that when you are ready to redesign your website due to rebranding or have a need to add functionality to accommodate a business pivot, the associated costs are already accounted for and you’re not delaying the progress that needs to take place.