Last week, we posted on why businesses should have a website. Now it has been decided to have a website. But before proceeding any further have you or your associates decided on what to expect from your website. What would be the goal or objective of the website? Like any business investment, investment in a website should also be measurable. It can be measured in terms of increase in revenue, fresh sales lead, improved customer relationship and spreading awareness. So before starting the work on your website identify what you want your website to do for your business. Given below is a sample list of points for businesses to ponder on.
What’s the goal of the website?
- To inform?
- To build a community?
- To gain valuable market research?
- To reduce support and customer service costs?
- To reach a broad audience with a message?
- To find sales leads?
- To conduct e-commerce?
- To gain advertising revenue?
- To brand your company?
- To build trust?
- To reduce printing and mailing costs?
Source: webcredible.co.uk
These are just some of the many possibilities. But many businesses think that a website is sort of a name-board to provide information on company, contact etc. Businesses need clear understanding on how to harness the power of web.
Internet, with inbuilt level playing field, has made it possible for even small businesses to compete against bigger retailers. So it would do well for businesses to build a strong business tool on the Internet rather than a simple marketing tool.
So like any business decisions, stakeholders should think like their target customers. Businesses have two options. The first is to study their competitor websites and identify features that are attractive or missing. Second is to put themselves in the shoes of their customers and ask these basic questions. 1. Why do visitors visit the website? 2. What information will they be looking for? 3. For what other reasons will they visit the site?
Businesses should present the identified points/features to identified stakeholder group for providing structure to the findings and translating them to a website. Then businesses can form an informal user group to identify issues related to usability, aesthetics etc.
Depending on the involvement and the effort, websites need to be newly developed or redesigned or scrapped and built from scratch. But the most important point to bear in mind is that a well designed website will attract good results and referrals. It would definitely be one of those decisions that you would want to take credit for.
