The Best Web Designer in The Industry Helping Top Brands Succeed Online
Since 2009, we have created exceptional online experiences and revenue growth for hundreds of businesses from all industries and sizes. As top award-winning web designers, we understand the interrelated relationship between design and marketing and how to implement the best industry practices to help our clients achieve their business goals.
The best websites deliver an experience
As some of the best web designers in the industry, we have perfected our process of web development to mirror our client’s branding and revenue objectives and to be easy to update and maintain for years to come. From user experience and SEO optimized content to lead capture and technical savvy, we approach web design as a holistic process built around user needs and client long-term objectives.
The best web design is predicated on understanding user needs, their pain points, and their desire to transform their circumstances by purchasing a product or service. By designing your website around your ideal prospects’ needs, we can help you attract loyal customers and stand out from the competition.
The best web designer doesn’t simply create a technical website but a functional experience.
Web design best practices
Knowing the relationship between fonts, colors, easy navigation, and technical optimization, the best web designers in the industry strive to create a seamless web experience for users, making information easy to find and calls to action appealing.
For your website to be a business tool, it has to attract the right people at the right time in their customer journey. A web design agency can draw these visitors to your website with paid digital advertising campaigns or content marketing. That means your content has to be optimized to answer the questions your customers ask at every stage.
For many reasons, search engine optimization is best done during the web design process, not retroactively once the site launches. The on-page copy and the back-end meta descriptions and title tags can help your website rank for specific keywords, terms, and frequently asked questions.
Valuable web content that is delivered through a strong UX design can establish a brand as a knowledgeable resource and an industry leader. Reinforcing this identity supports positive referrals as well as the sales and marketing messages that brought each user to the website. Inevitably, by prioritizing and applying these best web design practices to your website, you will be able to achieve higher rankings and greater conversion rates.
What is included in our web development process?
We cover every detail of web design and will guide you through the entire process. Our goal is to minimize your time investment in the process since we’ll be the ones to drive the project and do all the heavy lifting. We invest the time to learn your story, your challenges, and your goals through team meetings and regular phone calls to talk through questions and maintain project workflow alignment. These are the main phases of our website development projects:
Website Roadmap – a long term plan for the build today and for the future
SEO Strategy – what to focus on and where
Content – we’ll help write and edit
UI/UX – responsive, mobile-friendly designed layouts
Website Development – custom made on WordPress, including APIs & Databases
Best Designs named Idea Marketing Group one of the country’s TOP CREATIVE AGENCIES, because we understand that good web design means much more than what a website looks like.
Free Website Redesign Checklist
Are you preparing for an upcoming website redesign? Maybe this is not your first rodeo or this will be your first website project. No matter your experience level, this checklist will help you prepare for your new website.
Custom Web Design Services Built for Better Search Rankings + Lead Generation
For over a decade, we’ve designed websites for brands reaching millions of users every month. We have a proven process for custom web development looking at every detail of a build while thinking ahead to how it will grow and evolve. You will not find any cookie-cutter templates here. Our web designers, developers, and content writers turn websites into strategic, customer experiences.
Website Strategy
Companies that want to improve or completely redesign their existing website should always start with a well-defined plan. Together, we will create a blueprint to be used for your website build.
Define Goal KPIs
Uncover Opportunities
Identify Solutions
Develop a Website Architecture
Build a Brand Board
Map Out User Journey
Perform Competitive Research
Website Content + SEO
We begin with in-depth research and planning before crafting search engine optimized copy for your website. We will simplify your visitor’s decision-making and improve call-to-action conversions.
Define Messaging Tone and Feel
Establish a Keyphrase SEO Strategy
Write Targeted Website Content
Identify Call To Action Messaging
Create Website Wireframes
CRM Integrations
We’ve worked with a variety of CRMs as well as different types of use cases. If there is an API, we have it covered or set help in creating an API as well as leverage Zapier.
Salesforce
Hubspot
Zoho
Pipedrive
SugarCRM
Microsoft Dynamics
Database Integrations
Simplify operations by connecting databases to populate content directly on your website. We can write scripts to import and handle a wide variety of data types and needs.
Product Catalogs
Specification Tables
Data Records
User Management
Cron Jobs for Automated Updates
Custom Built on WordPress
Where all of your marketing channels feed into. With a properly built website, you are reducing the spend needed on other channels resulting in long-term savings and improved opportunities to generate more revenue.
Responsive Layouts with UI/UX Best Practices
Completely Custom, No Poorly Made Templates
Code Optimization for Loading Speed
Usability Testing + Browser Compatibility
1 on 1 Website Training
Website Support + Improvement
Websites, browsers, and user behavior is always changing. We provide plans to support website needs with routine maintenance as well as continuously improving websites to beat and stay ahead of the competition.
Website Support Plans
Managed Monthly Hosting
ADA Compliance + Monitoring
On-going Search Engine Optimization
Content Marketing
Paid Advertising
Looking for the best to grow your business?
Is your website a good representation of who you are and what you do? If not, our best web designers in the industry can help!
I was skeptical after our other digital agency failed us over and over, but Idea has proven to be an exceptional partner for us.
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K. Gourlie, Carmex - Top Lip Balm Brand
They truly want to dig deep into the soul of your business and know about your values and what’s important.
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Show Your Logo - Chicago Promotional Company
Our Chicago restaurant group needed a complete website overhaul to match the new direction of our company.
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Phil Stefani Signature Restaurants - Chicago Restaurant Group
It was a pleasure working with everyone at Idea, because they are talented individuals who are professional, courteous, and exceptionally nice.
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Mirwec - Film Coating Manufacturer
Free Marketing ROI Assessment
If you’re struggling to generate digital marketing ROI, our quick survey will show where you can make impactful changes. Understanding why your marketing isn’t working is the first step to fixing it.
We work hard to be the web agency you actually enjoy working with. You can speak directly with any team member and can tell immediately they have your best interest in mind. No bullsh*t or technical jargon. Our agency was founded in Chicago on June 15, 2009. Since then, we have grown to include talented team members in various parts of the United States.
Erin Karper
Erin Karper
Senior UI/UX Designer
Frequently Asked Questions About Website Design
Do you have experience in our industry?
Most likely. Since 2009, we’ve built hundreds of websites within various industries. No matter the company, we invest the time to learn your story, your challenges, and your goals to provide recommendations to maximize your marketing ROI. We do know web design inside and out as well as user behavior. Pair those together and we get results, no matter the industry.
We build custom websites paired with digital marketing strategies to grow your customer base and improve inbound lead generation.
How much does a website cost?
This is a loaded question that requires a bit of a loaded answer. Websites today are complex marketing tools that require a team of specialists:
Project Manager
Account Strategist
Designers
Front-end Developers
Back-end Developers
Content Writers
SEO Specialists
Similar to building a home, it first requires a plan to ensure every detail is covered. We like to call it a website roadmap.
We approach every website build in phases. The first phase is a deep interview of your company with pertinent members of your team to answer key questions to help uncover pain points, understand your goals, identify opportunities, as well as analyze the companies you are up against.
Next, we take the recommendations and knowledge gained during the first phase to craft a well-defined strategy for the custom website build. This includes the website architecture, target user personas, user journeys, brand messaging/voice, and SEO strategy which allows us to more accurately define a scope of work for the remainder of the build following the roadmap.
We will have a detailed plan as to what will be needed to build a website that not only meets your current needs but also provides a system to grow and scale helping to land your next big sales opportunities.
With all of that being said, our custom websites start at $30,000. You will not find any cookie-cutter templates here and all work is done in-house by our full-time employees.
How much to spend on marketing?
Setting an annual marketing budget can be a challenge and there are many factors to take into consideration. A quick way to generate a rough figure is to base it on the annual revenue of the company. An average percentage for B2B ranges from 6% to 12% of gross revenue as recommended by eMarketer’s Marketing Spending, assuming the sales margins are in the range of 10% to 12%. If we use these rates, below are quick examples of recommended marketing budgets:
Gross Revenue $2,500,000 x 0.12 = $300,000/year or $25,000/month
Gross Revenue $5,000,000 x 0.10 = $500,000/year or $41,650/month
Gross Revenue $10,000,000 x 0.08 = $800,000/year or $66,665/month
Gross Revenue $25,000,000 x 0.06 = $1,500,000/year or $125,000/month
These are considered conservative numbers, as companies who are in aggressive growth stages will often spend up to 20% of their revenue on marketing as well as B2C, which is typically higher than B2B. Companies that are just starting out will need to set a higher percentage than those that are more established. Measuring the success of any marketing campaign is critical. Budgets should be spent wisely and spread out to cover various types of advertising.
What is recommended for marketing budget allocation?
Gartner CMO Spend Survey released an in-depth look at marketing budget allocation for 2021, below are the findings. It is important to be aware that marketing spending is impacted by the general nature of the business, competition, and consumer behavior.
Owned Media
20%
Website, Email, Mobile
Paid Digital
21%
Search Ads, Display Ads
Earned Digital
22%
SEO, Social Media
Offline Ads
10%
Publications, Direct Mail
Affiliates
9%
Partners, Distributors
Events
8%
Trade Shows
Another quick rule of thumb for marketing budget allocation is the 70-20-10 rule.
70% of your budget is allocated toward marketing strategies you know work well
20% of your budget is allocated toward new strategies aimed at helping you grow
10% of your budget is allocated toward experimental strategies
What is the average timeframe to build a website?
Our proven process has been continuously improved over many years of collaboration and best practices requiring each phase to be completed and approved before starting the next. We will schedule bi-weekly calls and ensure we’re on track with the project build.
Typically, the website timeframe from start to finish is about 5-7 months. The following are the stages that follow our website build:
Branding + Content Strategy> Website Architecture> Target User Persona(s)> User Journeys> Brand Messaging / Voice> Keyphrase SEO Strategy> Define Scope of Work for the Website Build
~1 Month
Website Build> Content> User Interface Designs> Frontend Website Development> Backend WordPress Development > Launch and Final Testing
~3 – 6 Months
Included WordPress Training > One-on-one or group training> WordPress training guide > Typically plan for 60-90 minutes
