As a digital agency owner, you know how important it is to keep up with and embrace change—especially when your website is concerned. Do you ever wonder if you need to build your website or outsource it?
Now and then, you’ll have to take a look at your so-called “digital billboard” and review what’s working and what isn’t.
Upon evaluation, you may conduct a revamp to give your layout a fresher look and your market a better experience. You can convert them into leads and eventually turn them into customers.
Fortunately, you have options to select from once you’ve decided to revamp your website. You can either choose to do it yourself (DIY) or turn to outsource web development.
The question is, which works best for you? Which can address your needs better?
As a digital agency, it’s reasonable that you would consider doing all the work yourself. After all, you have extensive knowledge about the digital sphere and your target market. You also know what you need on your website, so chances are, your final product will be exactly what you want it to be.
There’s also the fact that you’re already familiar with your brand—it’s yours—as well as what functions you expect your website to have.
DIY allows you better control over the conceptualization of its design and functionalities, assuring you that your website is in good hands.
However, consider that revamping your website is not as straightforward or as fast as it sounds.
As a digital agency owner, DIY-ing your website revamp can be overwhelming and time-consuming all on its own. Remember that you already have clients to serve, employees to manage, and an agency to grow.
If there isn’t any, don’t fret—you can always turn to your second option: outsourcing web design and development.
When juggling other responsibilities for your company, outsourcing the design and development of your website can be one of the best decisions you could ever make.
Outsourcing allows you to offload tasks, save time, and focus on the things that matter—like supporting your clients’ creative requirements and growing your agency.
Instead of working long hours on your revamp, you can shift your attention to managing your agency (or get much-deserved rest) while an outsourced team develops your website.
Typically, outsourcing companies are composed of specialists from the web development department and other disciplines such as web design and digital marketing.
These specialists can work together to conceptualize and build the perfect website for your company. Imagine the quality of output when you combine their knowledge plus your expertise.
For instance, you don’t need to spend time, effort, and money hunting for and recruiting specialists for your website project.
Your outsourcing partner will also cover the expense of training, salaries and benefits, equipment, software licenses, utilities, and office space. You’ll only have to worry about and pay for the hours billed for the project.
Although the benefits of outsourcing are plenty, it’s understandable that you may hesitate about this solution.
With numerous outsourcing companies to choose from worldwide, selecting the best one for you and your company can be challenging. You may have also read or heard stories where outsourcing failed to deliver. Or perhaps you’ve had first-hand experience that has caused doubt.
Check out their portfolio, case studies, and testimonials to see if any proven processes are in place.
Alternatively, schedule a discovery call with the team handling your project.
Look up their LinkedIn profiles to better grasp their level of expertise and capability to handle your project.
In addition, to verify the outsourcing company’s credibility as a whole, you may also want to check their references and get in touch with them directly if needed.
When you’ve finally selected an outsourcing agency to engage with, it’s also good to ensure a smoother experience by clearly establishing your expectations and responsibilities.
You and your outsourcing partner should align on the processes (accountability and turnaround times), resources required, costs and payment terms, and other contractual terms.
Be sure to document all these and execute a written agreement that covers both sides.
After discussing all these, let’s go back to the initial question:
Should you build your website or outsource it?
There’s no correct universal answer, but you can continually assess your needs and gauge from the above items that fit best for you.
If you still can’t choose after evaluating your requirements, you might consider a third option: an entire website product.