Close Up Interview with Industry Expert David Lawrence from The Web Showroom

From their humble beginnings as a 'two man band' back in 1999 ,The Web Showroom has grown into one of Australia's top website development firms. The Web Showroom now has more than 30 staff, including some of Australia's leading web designers, programmers and online marketing experts. Through Their hard work they have developed a reputation as a cost effective, and highly trusted provider when it comes to developing websites that actually work for Australian businesses.

This week we have the opportunity to get a close up interview with David Lawrence, Managing Director of The Web Show Room.

Tell us a little about The Web Showroom  and your role?

The Web Showroom designs and markets highly effective websites for a wide range of Australian businesses. We use beautiful design, powerful functionality and cutting edge strategy to create revolutionary change in our clients’ businesses.

I am one of the founders and the Managing Director of The Web Showroom. The most exciting part of my role includes deciding how we are going to use technology to most effectively solve our clients’ problems. Aside from always being actively involved in a number of web projects, I am always looking for better ways of doing things online and communicating this to our staff and clients alike.

 

What are the five words that people who know you would use to describe your  The Web Showroom?

 Proactive, Innovative, Genuine, Creative, Friendly.

Tell us about The Web Showroom and what you can do to help creative community and retail busiess owners?

We have a vast amount of experience in creating truly successful and effective websites for a large number of creative and retail businesses throughout Australia. Our specialty is in taking a website brief and delivering a website that is not only visually pleasing but also ensures that site visitors take the kinds of actions that will make the website a commercial success.

What was the purpose on starting The Web Show room and how has the concept come about?

When we started The Web Showroom we wanted to fill what we saw as a big opportunity in the web development market. At the time there were a number of excellent companies offering seriously successful solutions to the top end of town. There were also a large number of smaller companies specialising in either design, programming or marketing. Our mission was to offer growing Australian businesses all 3 of these critical services under the same roof.

From our very first year of operation we have experienced tremendous growth and have built up a loyal and successful client base.

  

What are the most common issues that relate to business owners who come to see you?

It can be different for different customers. Common issues include:

•  Not understanding what their website needs to do to be successful

•  Being overwhelmed by the choices, and technology available

• Not understanding the importance of an online marketing strategy in a successful website

• Not knowing where to start

Tell us more about your service offer?

Our offering is full service and aims to take as much stress and uncertainty out of the process as possible. We design, develop and market websites for a wide range of Australian businesses and have an experienced team of account managers, web designers, marketing consultants and programmers.

Tell us about your process for working with clients?

Before any project starts we make sure we understand our client’s business and what their website needs to achieve. From there we prototype their website using a highly intuitive approach which allows the client to understand what their final website will do before considering colours, images and other design features. Once this prototype is agreed upon we move into the design phase where we develop a look and feel which matches our clients requirements perfectly. Once prototyping and design are completed, our clients work with their account manager on content as well as other processes essential to launching a successful website.

What advice can you offer to new business and existing business who want a new website for their business?

The simplest and most effective advice I can give any potential website owner is to clearly understand what the mission of their new website is going to be. What is the one (or two or three) things that the website needs to achieve in order to be a success? Does it need to generate leads? Make sales? Create a community? Once this is clearly understood, making big (and small) decisions becomes a lot simpler and more effective.

Do you have a book that you would like to recommend?

Absolutely. Whenever we have a new employee we give them a copy of Steve Krug’s excellent web usability book “Don’t Make Me Think!”. It is all about the importance of designing websites that are highly usable and intuitive. This is a must read for anyone serious about effective website design.

Where do we find your services?

Everything you need to know can be found at www.thewebshowroom.com.au or by calling us on 1800 981 442.

Here  is a special offer that you may like to take advantage of. Please mention Quantum Compass -ArtSHINE to receive the special offer.

The Web Showroom is happy to give readers a free online marketing consultation if  you get started on a new website before January 31, 2011 with the Web Showroom. The Web Showroom will assess what methods of online marketing will work best for your business and also do introductory research into appropriate keyword selection and much more.