Your current website is starting to get a bit long in the tooth and you're ready for a new one! Even before you issue that RFP, here are five things you should consider:

1. What are your goals for the new site? Perhaps it's a certain image you want to portray, a certain audience you are trying to reach, or specific tasks you want users to be able to accomplish – thinking that through ahead of time will be tremendously helpful as you begin to prepare your RFP. And if you've gone so far as to create a preliminary navigation chart for the new site, all the better. The more information you can provide to the companies responding to your RFP about your expectations for the new site, the more detailed and accurate responses you are likely to get.
2. How will the new site fit into your company's overall marketing efforts? We are very into taking an integrated approach to marketing, and we think you should be too. As you think about your goals and objectives for the new site, you should also think about how the new site will work with your other marketing efforts – direct mail, social media, PR, etc.
3. What is your budget? Even if you don't share this information with the companies responding to your RFP, you should have a sense of your financial threshold for the project. A project's budget will often dictate what can be accomplished, so be prepared to prioritize what you want in the new site. Identify those things that are critical for the initial launch vs. those things that could wait for a future phase.
4. Who will be your internal champion for the project? After the project begins, it is tremendously helpful if there is an individual at your organization who is responsible for the success of the new website. While there may be a few individuals who will have input during the process, all project feedback should be consolidated and funneled though this person. Trust me, things will run far more smoothly.
5. And, possibly one of the more important ones (and probably the most overlooked): Who will be responsible for gathering and developing the site's content? Whether it's you, someone else at your company, OR the firm you are hiring, this needs to be decided up front. When there's no plan for this ahead of time, it can severely delay the project's completion. That's when very attractive, very functional "under development" websites sit and wait... and wait... and wait for content.

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