How to Choose a Web Design Agency for Your Association Website?

Written by Web Bay | Last update: August 1th, 2024.

Your website serves as the virtual face of your organisation. It’s more like a must-have rather than a good-to-have. Especially for associations who want to showcase their credibility, visibility, and effectiveness. Apart from being visually attractive, a website helps provide valuable resources to members and help them connect with your organisation.

While a website is a worthy investment for an association, choosing the right web agency that is technically experienced, has a track record of success, and understands your association's requirements is the real challenge.

In this article, we will put an end to your problems and show exactly how to choose a web design agency for your association's website. We’ll also focus on the benefits of choosing a web agency in Brussels and how it fulfils the unique needs of Brussels-based associations.

Why Have an Association Website?

Having an association website allows you to reach your target audience and helps position your association as a leader in your industry. Here are some more benefits:

Increasing Visibility and Reach

A website expands your association’s visibility beyond traditional boundaries. It is the digital storefront that allows you to connect with potential members, partners, and stakeholders on a global scale. Also, by optimising your website for search engines, you can further increase its visibility and attract a wider audience.

Builds Credibility in the Digital Age

A professional and informative website enhances your association’s credibility and shows that you are committed to your members. It shows you provide them with value by staying current with industry trends. You can feature testimonials, member success stories, and partnerships to validate your association’s value and impact.

Helps Keep People Informed

You can share news, events, and achievements, keeping your audience informed and engaged. Apart from your audience, your website is also a centralised location for press releases, media kits, and contact information for journalists who are willing to collaborate with you.

Understanding Your Association's Needs

Before you choose a digital agency in Brussels for your web design journey, it’s important to have a clear understanding of what your association truly requires:

Defining Your Website Goals and Objectives

What do you hope to achieve with your website? It can be:

Increasing membership numbers
Improving member engagement and retention
Enhancing your association’s visibility and reputation
Streamlining administrative processes
Improving knowledge-sharing among members
Generating non-dues revenue

The list could go on. Defining your goals and objectives helps you guide your web design agency, regarding the website’s structure and content.

Tip: Having measurable objectives can help you gauge the success of your website, allowing you to know if the agency you chose did a good enough job or not. Example: “Increase membership engagement by 20% within the first year of new website launch”.

Identifying Your Target Audience

Who are you trying to reach? This is an important question to answer because your website’s content and design have to resonate with your target audience. Asking the following questions can help in this step:

Current members: What do they need from the website?
Potential members: What would attract them to join?
Industry partners and stakeholders: What information are they seeking?
Media and general public: How can you present your association to these groups?

Tip: Create user personas to represent different segments of your audience. This helps you and your chosen Web agency to design a site that resonates with your target users.

Determining Key Features and Functionalities

What essential features and functionalities should your website have? These will be aligned with the goals and objectives you have set above. These might include:

Member-only areas with exclusive content
Online membership application and renewal processes
Event calendar and registration system
Discussion forums or community platforms
Resource libraries
Integrated payment systems for dues or event fees
Blog or news section
Social media integration
Mobile responsiveness

Tip: Prioritise these features based on their importance to your association’s objectives. The web design agency with whom you partner should know this.

Establishing Your Budget and Timeline

Determine a realistic budget for your website project. Consider not just the initial design and development cost, but also ongoing maintenance, hosting, and further addons. It’s important to discuss the budget and timeline openly with the web agency you work with so they are clear about your expectations. Factors influencing your budget might include:

Custom design requirements
Cost of ownership
Complexity of certain features
Integration with existing systems

Regarding the timeline, determine how much time you can allocate to the project and establish a desired launch date.

Tip: You can announce the timeline through your social channels by adding an element of surprise that something big is coming soon. This will result in a great boost to your website by your audience when it's live.

What to Look for in a Digital Agency in Brussels

When selecting a web design agency for your association website, certain key factors are crucial to prioritise:

Expertise in Association Website Design

Association websites are mostly industry-specific and that’s the reason they stand out from normal websites. It’s better to choose a web agency with a proven track record in designing association websites since it brings experience to the table. Look for agencies that demonstrate:

Understanding of association-specific needs and challenges
Experience in balancing member services with public-facing content
Ability to respect your ideas while giving their own views as well
Portfolio featuring past projects of association websites
Knowledge of common association management systems

Look for a digital agency in Brussels that not only understands your requirements but also brings innovative ideas tailored to your sector. They should be able to show how they’ve solved similar challenges for other associations.

Portfolio of Successful Projects

A strong portfolio gives you the assurance and the peace of mind that the agency you’re working with knows its stuff. When reviewing an agency’s work:

Look for diversity in design styles, showing that their work isn’t monotonous and is adaptable to different needs.
Check for projects similar in scope to yours.
Have a look at the user experience and interface design of their websites.
Ensure that the designs are modern and aligned with current web trends.

Note that the portfolio shouldn’t only demonstrate how good the website looks, but also consider the functionality and results achieved for clients.

Tip: Ask for client testimonials of association websites they’ve created. Those can be a deciding factor in whether they are capable enough or not.

Technical Skills and Capabilities

A successful website requires a combination of both design expertise and technical proficiency. This can be the distinguishing factor between experienced and amateur web design agencies. Assess these capabilities through the following:

Proficiency in modern web technologies (HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript)
Experience with popular content management systems (WordPress, TYPO3, Drupal)
Understanding of database management and API integrations
Knowledge of web security best practices
Capability to handle SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and web accessibility guidelines

Additionally, for your membership website, look for:

Familiarity with EU data protection regulations (GDPR)
Multilingual website development experience
Understanding of local hosting and domain registration processes
Their commitment to long-term support and maintenance

Understanding of Responsive Design and Mobile Optimization

Did you know that 60.67% of website traffic comes from mobile devices alone? Hence, in today’s mobile-first world, this is non-negotiable. Look for an agency that prioritises mobile optimization and can create websites that adapt seamlessly to different screen sizes.

Knowledge of SEO Best Practices

SEO shouldn’t be an afterthought. It is crucial for increasing your website’s visibility and attracting organic traffic. Look for agencies that:

Integrate SEO from the beginning of the design process
Understand both on-page and technical SEO factors
Have experience with local SEO (crucial for Brussels-based associations)
Can explain how they implement SEO-friendly URL structures, meta tags, and content organisation.
Provide ongoing SEO support post-launch

This is really the dealbreaker. A good agency will emphasise that SEO is not just about initial website design, but an ongoing process that involves regular content updates, performance monitoring, and adapting to changing search engine algorithms.

The Importance of Expertise: Web Agencies specialised in Brussels-bubble

There are clear benefits of choosing Brussels-bubble expertise when it comes to selecting a web design agency for your association website. Here’s why working with such a web agency might be the best choice for your organisation:

Multilingual expertise: Ability to create websites in French, Spanish, English and others to cater to many countries in the EU.
Cultural Sensitivity: Understanding of Brussels unique cultural norms and communication styles.
Industry design trends: Having awareness of what resonates with EU audiences.
Regulatory compliance: Knowledge of EU digital regulations (e.g., GDPR, cookie laws).
Local SEO expertise: Understanding of search engine preferences and user behaviour for membership based websites.

Ease of Communication and Collaboration

Working with an agency experienced with associations website development eliminates potential language barriers and foster shared understanding, promoting seamless communication and collaboration. It’s just like working with someone you know. The relief and comfort it brings is golden.

A website is nothing but a digital representation of your organisation. It’s safe to say that it's equivalent to your physical organisation, its culture, and its environment. Just that it's digital. Hence, working with an agency that understands specifics of your industry allows them to better understand your work environment and needs.

Top Web Design Agencies in Brussels

Once you know the needs of your association, it’s time to start with the selection process:

Start with online searches by using keywords like “web agency Brussels” or “digital agency Brussels”. We also recommend checking online directories and business listings. Leveraging your network to get recommendations from colleagues or industry peers who have recently redesigned their websites is also a great way to find worthy agencies.

Here is our shortlist of top web design agencies in Brussels.

Reviewing Portfolio and Case Studies

A good web design agency has a wealth of portfolios and case studies displayed on its website. Examine them and pay attention to the quality of their work, their experience with association websites, and their ability to match your desired expectations.

Checking Client Testimonials and Reviews

Have a look at the testimonials and reviews section on the agency websites you visit. Look for feedback from clients in similar industries as you. Pay attention to comments about communication and project management. You may also ask the agency for contacts of past clients, particularly associations to get a fresh perspective (if they haven’t signed an NDA with them).

Selecting the Best-Fit Agency

Once you have a handful of agencies that you think are the best fit for designing your association website, you can approach them and get a quote from them. Many agencies also operate on call, making it easier for you to talk to them and even schedule a meeting. Use this opportunity to discuss your project in detail, ask questions, and assess their communication style, enthusiasm, and alignment with your association’s values.

Questions to Ask to Web Design Agencies

Asking the right questions will further improve your search for the best web design agency. It is important that the agency you choose has the answers to these critical questions:

Experience With Association Websites

How many association websites have you designed and developed?
Can you provide real examples of association websites you’ve created?
What unique challenges do you face when designing an association website, and how do you overcome them?
How do you balance member-only content with public-facing content?
How do you design for different member types of tiers?

Design and Development Process

Can you walk me through your design and development process?
How will you integrate our association’s branding into the website design?
How do you make the website accessible to everyone?
What CMS do you recommend for association websites and why?
What security measures do you implement on a site to protect member data?

Project Management Approach

How will you keep me informed about the project’s progress?
How many revisions and tweaks do you accept from my side?
How do we ensure that our vision is being properly integrated into the website?

Timelines and Milestones

What is the estimated timeline for completing our website?
What’s the next step in case of a setback or delay?
How much time is there between the completion of a website and launching it for the public?
How often does website maintenance happen and how does that affect my site?

Pricing Structure and Payment Terms

What type of pricing structure do you follow (hourly, project-wise, package-wise)?
Can you provide a detailed breakdown of the costs?
In the case of a new website, do you have hosting and domain costs included in the package?

Red Flags to Watch Out For

An important aspect of evaluating the best web design agency also includes watching out for probable red flags such as:

Lack of Clear Communication

Poor communication by the agency is an immediate put-off and a very prominent red flag that you must watch out for. Especially, if an agency fails to properly showcase its ideas, does not disclose its process to you, and lastly, they themselves are confused. If you aren’t sure about this yet, just ask them for a face-to-face video meeting. Their confidence will be the deciding factor in how well they are on the communication front.

Unrealistic Promises or Timelines

Are the promises given by your chosen agency too good to be true? Have a keen eye out for such promises and commitments. For example, an agency guaranteeing top search engine rankings in an unreasonably short time is definitely a red flag. Your website on Google can take months to organically rank on top SERPs.

Is your agency oversimplifying the complexities of your project requirement? This is mainly because they don’t have the knowledge of those complex tasks. The best way to get over these problems is to have a second opinion (or even a third).

Unwillingness to Provide References

A reputable agency should be confident about their past work and should be willing to provide references from previous clients. If they are hesitant to do so, consider it as a definite red flag. Also, ask for recent references and never settle for outdated ones.

Outdated Portfolio or Lack of Relevant Experience

When browsing through a web design agency’s portfolio, look for these 2 red flags. First is outdated portfolio items and websites with old-school designs. Second, lack of mobile responsiveness of the websites they have created. Both are the need of the hour so make sure that your agency doesn’t have these issues.

Inflexibility in Accommodating Your Needs

A good web design agency should be willing to listen to your ideas and adapt to your needs. It’s good to have their expertise and suggestions onboard but it doesn’t have to be their call on everything. It’s your money and your website. If you find them resisting your ideas and pushing unnecessary features, it’s better to avoid them completely.

Making the Final Decision

Take your time to search and evaluate your options until it’s time to make the final decision. Compare the agencies you have shortlisted and look for one with the most number of green flags. The final decision solely depends on how an agency is the best fit for your needs. We recommend choosing a web agency in Brussels that respects your ideas and also provides their share of expertise to make your website stand out from the competition.

Once you have selected an agency, it’s time to negotiate the terms and conditions of the contract. Clearly outline the scope, deliverables, timelines, payment terms, and most importantly, ownership of intellectual property. Spend a great deal of time here and decide the best of your knowledge.

Conclusion

Understanding your needs and having clear expectations of what you need from an agency will be crucial factors in choosing a digital agency in Brussels. Remember, a website isn’t just a visual representation of your association, it’s a tool for engaging your members, building credibility, and achieving your association’s goals. Understand its importance when making your decision.

Feel free to reach out to us at Web Bay, we will be happy to discuss your digital project needs.

We would like to hear from you

What’s your #1 takeaway from this article?

Or maybe you have a question?
Either way feel free to share it through the form below.

What’s your #1 takeaway from this research?

Or maybe you have a question?

Either way feel free to share it through the form behind.

Table of content