As a marketer or content creator, you're on the lookout for the newest and most compelling ways to present your message. You might even see components of a competitor's website and ask yourself, “why can't my website do that?”
You know your audience best and what will really speak to them.
If you're running into the boundaries of what your website can handle, it's time to start thinking about Feature Upgrades. These might include a new image slider, animations, or even an entirely new content section. How can you make this happen on your site? What’s involved?
As you start down this path, here are the top six questions to address with your website partner.
How do I ask for a new feature? What should I consider?
Here are the top six things to think about!
- Does the feature you want already exist (in any form) on your website?
- How can the feature be designed to look like the rest of your site (overall aesthetic, interactive elements, etc.)?
- Will this be used again or duplicated in any way in the future? This can be a good indication that the time investment in developing a new feature will bring a return.
- If the feature will be duplicated, what specifically will be the same and what will be different?
- Does the feature need to change in the future? How often? Who needs to update it? Answers to these questions can dramatically affect the time to integrate the feature with your CMS.
- Will any of the content for this feature need to pull in content or data from somewhere else? An example of this is a blog/news page, or an interactive map of projects.
Getting a return on investment
We often say, “anything’s possible!” But the question that comes next is often, “how much effort is worth it?” Asking these questions will help you determine the ROI for a particular feature upgrade. When in doubt, ask your website partner or in-house developer!