The Importance of Your Web Strategy
Times are tough and the news is full these days of e-business failures.
Yet, last year 30 percent of e-commerce sites reported becoming
profitable. What made the difference? Certainly a solid web strategy was
a contributing factor to each success.
What makes a successful web strategy? The components are much the same
as those for a good business plan, with emphasis on the word “plan.” Too
many websites show little evidence of forethought as site owners rush
to put a site up.
Purpose
What is your website for? This the most fundamental and most difficult
decision you must make. The internet presents opportunities limited only
by imagination and budget. Web sites can be marketing tools, retail
outlets, back office support, customer relationship management systems,
publishing media. Choose carefully and focus.
What business need will it satisfy? The simplest website provides a
place for customers and prospects to find out about you. Such
brochure-ware is a perfectly acceptable, if limited, use of the Internet
to support your business. At the other end of the complexity spectrum
are websites that transact business online, such as shopping sites, job
listings, banks, or B2B services. Every website has an intended
transaction. What do you want users to do at yours.
Market
Whom are you trying to reach with your website? Customers, prospects,
prospective employees? How will you attract them to your site and how
will you keep them coming back?
Because the Internet is a user driven medium, it is critical to
accurately predict user behavior in order to market your site. From what
you know about your target market, how do you anticipate your desired
users will find your site?
Industry stats indicate that more than 80 percent of users who find what
they are looking for do so using search engines, and many are not
surfing. Search engines integrated into Netscape and Microsoft Internet
Explorer assist in the background.
If you depend on traditional media coverage in your business, be aware
that the Internet has become woven into the fabric of modern journalism,
reports Don Middleberg, co- author of Middleberg/Ross Media in
Cyberspace Study. Journalists turn to corporate and association websites
for information when a story breaks.
Competition
Who is your competition online, and what bar has been set for user
expectations? Web users can and do compare. You don’t want your company
image to seem lacking because your website isn’t at least as good as, if
not better than your competitors.
Function
It is essential to plan your website from your users’ perspective.
Usability advocate and web design guru Jakob Nielsen recommends focusing
on the top three things users will want to do on your site and
structure it accordingly.
One of the most common errors in corporate websites is structure that
follows the company organization chart, or the corporate brochure. This
may serve executive suite egos, but sites designed this way receive the
user attention they deserve, which is not much. The Web is interactive;
you must give users a reason to visit and a reason to return.
Key players
Your website is going to serve as your branch in cyberspace. All
stakeholders in your company should have input: IS, Marketing &
Sales, HR, PR and Finance. Besides, you’ll most likely need their buy-in
to accomplish your goals. Involving all from the start will ensure
highly cooperative collaboration.
Timeline/Budget
You’ll certainly need to consider what financial resources you will
commit to your web strategy. The more functional your website, the more
experts in design, programming, databases and content development you’ll
need to tap. These professionals are not inexpensive. The days of doing
business with an simple and inexpensive Website are rapidly dwindling.
Marketing you web site is no longer a free ride. Most of the major web
directories require pay for placement. Evaluating these opportunities
has made a professional marketing approach essential.
So is setting a development timeline that makes sense for your business.
If you need to be online in a hurry, consider a phased approach that
gains you online visibility sooner while allowing for next-step
development. Be realistic. If you are attempting to support an company
event, such as a product launch, don’t leave your web development until
last. Integrate it into all of your marketing planning.
Your Web strategy Toolkit:
Industry Market research
Online competitive analysis
Stakeholder input
Corporate business plan
Marketing plan
Timeline
