5 Benefits of Hiring A Squarespace Web Designer
The universal question that Squarespace designers get thrown is - why? ‘Isn’t the whole point of Squarespace that the average Jane/Joe can build their own website?’ If I had a dime for every time I have been asked that question, I would be on the Forbes Rich List! Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration… but you get the drift.
Think of an orchestra conductor. A maestro brings out the colour, character and dynamics of the music, the timing is slick and the transitions smooth. They have studied all the intricacies of the piece; they know what is coming and how each part supports and edifies one another.
They live and breathe the music! Now, anyone with a reasonable ability to keep time might fancy their chances of keeping an orchestra playing to the end of a piece.
However, without the confident, creative and clear leadership of a conductor, we imagine it would feel clunky, incohesive and hidden gems left by the composer not communicated (irrespective of the musicians’ talents).
A dedicated Squarespace Designer knows the ins and outs of the platform. They know how to make an intuitive, user-friendly experience and create sleek designs that really sing the heart of your brand.
So let’s delve a little deeper into 5 reasons why we think it is beneficial to hire a Squarespace Designer.
1. Time is of the Essence
There is this TV series in the UK called Sort Your Life Out. An expert team goes into homes to help families declutter and create usable, liveable spaces. All their belongings are loaded into a van and then displayed neatly, filling an entire aircraft hangar, ready to be culled. In every episode, for one reason or another, there is some sort of emotional attachment to physical items which is preventing them from letting go. The experts always turn it on its head and encourage them to think of the space they will gain?
When setting up or running a business there are so many different hats to wear: financial, administrative, marketing etc. All of these areas are important and demand attention. They probably also involve learning a new software, which can be time-consuming to learn and get to grips with. If you are contemplating building a website yourself, we encourage you to weigh up your time. If design isn’t your thing, or even if it is but Squarespace is an entirely alien platform to you, building a website from scratch is quite a hefty task.
When you start to tally up all the time you have spent experimenting with different designs, reordering blocks, changing colours to find the ‘perfect hue’ and watching multiple tutorials for every query that crops up, the hours quickly rack up! Like the experts on Sort Your Life Out say, think about what could be gained by appointing a Squarespace Designer?
Consider how many clients you could have onboarded in that time?
Could you have engineered a whole marketing campaign?
Is it an effective use of your time?
As they say, time is a commodity.
2. Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees
Following on from the previous point: time = money. In the time it would take you to set up your website, how many products could you have sold? How much money could have been raised?
If the money in, is more than a Squarespace Designer’s fee, it would seem the obvious, logical, business choice to hire one. But even if it wasn’t, consider this. Contrary to the well known wisdom ‘don’t judge a book by its cover,’ in business, that doesn’t really stick. The reality is your website can make or break a prospective client's first impression.
A well thought out, beautifully designed website can make you money.
In addition, Squarespace Circle Members have access to many fantastic perks that their clients can also benefit from. If you were doing the website yourself, you would only have a 2 week free trial before having to pay full whack.
Now learning a whole new skill and completing an entire website in that short window of time - whilst running your business - is a recipe for stress and rash decision making. Squarespace designers get a full 6 month free trial for every website we create.
We can also pass on a 20% discount off the first payment as well. This way you have time to make considered choices, resulting in a website that is truly fit for purpose.
3. Stand Out from the Crowd
Squarespace was set up with the complete novice in mind. How it works is that there are a series of website designs that people can input their own images and information into. The downside is that most websites start to look the same.
In order to adapt a design adequately, to achieve a unique look that does not look like a “typical Squarespace site”, the ability to use custom code is imperative. This is where we Squarespace designers come in.
Take the below example for instance. In the straight ‘out of the box’ version provided by Squarespace, the drop-down menu is limited to a monochrome list that is visually quite compact. If you were to add more items to that list, the text could look a little bit overwhelming.
Despite there being more items in the bespoke option, it feels more legible and easier to navigate. The text is spread out and on a different coloured background to the main menu.
It has also created an opportunity to inject some personality, further consolidating the brand with the imagery. A website is a key part of a business’s branding and you want to stand out and have the edge over your competitors!
4. Focus on What You Do Best
When running a business the buck ends with you. It can be so tempting and easy to feel like you need to do everything. One of the greatest traits of a leader is knowing your strengths and weaknesses. It is good to keep reminding yourself why your clients are your clients.
If you sell pancakes, are your clients looking for yummy, beautifully presented food, made from fresh ingredients and in a clean and safe environment? Yes. Is it critical that you built the website yourself? I don’t think they give a toss. Sorry, sorry - excuse the pun! Outsourcing is not a failure. Flip it on its head (the puns keep crepeing in), look at it as giving yourself permission to focus on what you do best!
5. A Fresh Pair of Eyes
You, more than anyone else, know your business in all of its parts. It’s your baby. However, when you are so intimately involved with the day-to-day running and miniature details, it can sometimes prove quite difficult to distill your message and know what the most powerful points are to communicate to your customers/clients.
When you hire a Squarespace designer, you are not just getting a website designer, you have someone who understands the power that visual communication can wield. Us humans, we all operate and perceive things differently.
A Squarespace designer can provide an alternative, outsider's perspective and help you distill what ideas are important to feature in your design and how to communicate them effectively in a visual way.
There you have it. 5 reasons why it is beneficial to hire a Squarespace Designer.
Not to blow our own trumpet but we are Squarespace Experts for a reason. Across our team, we have racked up over 10,000 hours on the platform and have built well over 300 websites.
If you are in need of a website and the above points resonated with you, we would love to hear from you! Do get in touch and let’s help you transform your digital presence!