We Get it Right… On the Third Try

By Jessica Albon

Bet you didn’t know that Thrive Your Tribe isn’t the only company doing fabulous design work for WordPress based blogs, sites, and HTML email newsletters! But, since we do, in fact, have some wonderful competition, here’s why you would hire us instead of the other guys:

We get it right. Eventually.

Killer benefit, isn’t it? I mean, who wouldn’t want to work with a company that, sooner or later, stumbles on the gorgeous design that catches your eye?

Oh, right–most people! You’re busy. You don’t have time for endless rounds of trial and error. So, perhaps you do think it would be great to find a company that promises to get it right right out of the gate.

Unfortunately, at least 97% of the time, that’s not possible. In fact, most of our clients come to us with only a vague idea of what they want their site to look like, or what they want their blog to do. And, after taking them through our Know Your Tribe, Lead Your Tribe, Thrive Your Tribe process, we’re able to present them with a handful of

graphic versions of what the site *could* look like

. Then, we all work together to refine the mockups to one, streamlined, gorgeous design for the client.

In 8 years of design work on hundreds of projects (307 and counting), I’ve gotten the design “perfect” from the start a whopping 2.8% of the time. Does that seem like a crazy low rate to you? It sure does to me! But in talking with lots of other designers, I’ve found it’s about average.

See the truth of the matter is this: good design takes as long as it takes. It takes as many rounds as it takes. And it’s up to your designer to be innovative, fresh, and creative to keep the process moving forward until you’re delighted and until the new design genuinely has what it takes to Thrive Your Tribe.

What might that look like?

• For someone who serves people by appointments, that would mean an easy way for clients to make appointments and pay online.
• For a branding expert, that means an online identity that’s both complete AND layered (so, not so boring that everything looks cookie-cutter alike, but also not so different it’s all unassociated).
• For a speaker, that would mean a complete speaking kit, ready to download and easy to find.
• For a B2B marketing consultant, that would mean plenty of case studies, sortable by type of business and type of problem.
• For someone who runs not-your-average book clubs, that would mean an up-to-date calendar, archived past events, and links to purchase the next discussion book.

What this means in your particular case is something we uncover as part of our “Know Your Tribe” excavation process. Then, we put it to work in our “Lead Your Tribe” process where we make what needs to happen HAPPEN on your site, blog, and ezine, so that the technology will get out of your way and you can step up and lead your people. Finally, we make it all interactive, valuable and gorgeous in the way that will best Thrive YOUR Tribe. It’s awesome. Really.

But, what it’s not, is instantaneous. It’s not one-size-fits-all. It’s not even all that fast sometimes. So, we may not get it right on the first try, but we do get it right. Eventually…

P.S. Happy New Year!

P.P.S. I’d love to hear your stories of getting something spectacularly right… whether it was the first try or the hundredth! Leave your comment below.

Image by Neadeau.