Director Jam Sesh (Q&A with Greg Smuk)

A delicious deep dive into agency life, website planning and supermarket jams with our technical director.

This month, our evil corporate overlord beloved director, Greg, is taking some time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions for us. Greg’s also a big lover of jams and preserves of all kinds, so we thought we’d let him have a little sweetness in his life while we chatted. Read on – or watch the video – to learn about Splitpixel’s roots, and how you should go about planning your next website.

Who are you?

I’m Gregory Smuk, known as ‘G’ in the office. I’m the co-founder and technical director of Splitpixel.

What inspired you to start Splitpixel?

Basically, 11 years ago I was working for another web design agency and I could obviously see that I wanted to do things in a bit of a different way to how they did it. I got on really well with Charlie, who was my colleague at the time, so we thought… why don’t we give it a go ourselves? I was only 24 and thought it would be fun to start a business with no clients!

How has Splitpixel changed over the years?

We started off trying to be everything, then quickly realised we can’t be everything when there’s only three of us. So, then we sort of stripped it back and said, “what are we really good at?” – which is web.

We stuck with that for a while – just focusing on websites – but as the team grows, we’ve realised that it’s not just about web and creating a really nice website. It’s about the planning that goes into it, it’s about the marketing alongside it, it’s about generating leads more than anything with most clients.

We obviously needed more people, so we’ve got SEO people in, PPC people, content, video, and photography as well. I think we’ve got everything that we need now to function as a full-service digital agency!

What’s the first step in building a website?

The first step is to not build it! The first step is to plan it, and this is where the full remit of what we do comes in. It’s all about what we do in the beginning, and the marketing side – such as the buyer personas. If we don’t know who your customers are, for example, and we don’t know the story of how you get them, we can’t make a website that caters for them.

Any advice to those looking for a new site?

I’d make sure that you weigh up the options, and the pros and cons of each, and try and get the best value.

For example, you can go and get a Wix website, you can build your own WordPress website, or you can go to an agency to do it for you – but you need to do your research. Even if an agency says they do X, Y and Z, you need to look at case studies and testimonials, and meet the whole team that you’ll be working with. You might be surprised at how much they might outsource – and you’ll be paying for that.

If you’re thinking in investing in a new website soon, we’ve got a blog on our website called “Five things to consider before you get a new website” – so head over there and have a read!

What does the future hold for Splitpixel?

It’s exciting! We’re looking at increasing our service offering all around – especially across content, photography and video. We’re also investing heavily in training and web development to keep us ahead of the curve. We always want to continue to offer better value to our clients – that’s my biggest goal as a business owner.

Favourite sandwich?

Obviously, it’s the classic jam sandwich – the on-the-go lunch of choice for any good web developer. Have a watch of our video to learn more about Greg’s jam knowledge!

Ready to meet the whole team? From web development to design and marketing, we’ve got you covered. Learn a little more about the Splitpixel squad here.