(Published Online:
31st january 2007)
You Cannot Cash "Compliments
And Admiration" In The Bank!
Sorry about this one. I know it's obvious,
but when you go by the number of people who think it is the
volume of "Ooh's", "Aahs", and "Wows"
that their website brings out of people, that proves it's
working, you will understand why I choose to include it here.
Otherwise intelligent business owners that I have had to work
with in building their sites, obsessed so much on the colors,
image effects etc of the site - ignoring repeatedly every
attempt I made to get them to answer my queries about - and
focus on - how their content could be crafted and evolved
over time, to get visitors to do what they as the business
website owner NEED: increased business marketing outreach
to a larger pool of potential buyers at lesser COST, with
lesser effort, in less time, while using lesser resources.
The Best Judge Of A "Good"
Website Is The Target Audience/Customer & YOUR Pocket
Only the reaction of those you aim to
reach out to using your business website(i.e. potential customers)
will be a VALID assessment of how "good" your website
is. If they visit it,and do what you want (e.g. stay long/return,
to read/click on article links and your google ads etc) then
your website could be said to be "working". If they
go further and use your website contact form to submit requests
for more information or if they signup for a FREE offer or
newsletter, your site would also be working.
If they contact you using your website
form in a bid to buy from you(or if they made a purchase from
your site using secure purchase tools you provided), the website
would DEFINITELY be working. But then even if you do not make
a single sale online, but you find you are able to cut down
on your daily offline business marketing expenses because
the website offers tools you can use to achieve the same results
online, then your website would be working.
Simply put, any website that enables
you to do MORE of what you do to win SALES, while helping
you EXPEND LESS time, effort, resources and especially MONEY(so
that you retain MORE of your income in your "pocket"
as profits), is a website that works.
A Website That Works Will Pay
For Itself - AND Do More!
The challenge therefore for you as a
business website owner is to find out HOW you can make your
website do the above(i.e. helping you EXPEND LESS time, effort,
resources and especially money). Does your website already
do this for you? If NO, then a simple cost-benefit analysis
is likely to reveal to you the sad fact that your website
is nothing more than a drainpipe for your hard earned profits
- since you must annually renew your domain name and hosting
accounts.
Your website must not only pay for its
own maintenance, but it must also help to make your business
MORE effective, efficient and therefore profitable. If that
is not currently the case, then I have a sneaking suspicion
that when you had your website built, you did not get a Web
Marketing Strategy developed along with it. That's not too
good.
A web marketing strategy will influence
the Search Engine Optimization(to make search engines find
your website when the relevant search strings are used by
your potential customers) that will be done for the site.
It will affect the decision about the site layout and logic.
It will affect decisions about content copy writing for the
site etc. And it will guide the owner on what to do daily,
weekly, monthly in order to make the website deliver the results
s/he wants when and how s/he wants them. If you don't have
a web strategy, it means you have been working in the dark,
and are not getting as much out of your website as it has
the potential to deliver.
But thankfully, you can always remedy
that problem. But this time, you must do it right. For one
thing developing your web strategy if done properly could
end up requiring that you make one or more changes to your
website design. That's the price you have to pay for putting
the cart before the horse as it were. I suggest you conduct
a careful search for a good web designer who demonstrates
a willingness to educate and guide you(while building a website
that does what you NEED for your business) by helping you
develop a Web Marketing Strategy to use with it.
Read my article titled "How
to choose the right web design company" to learn
more. You will also gain additional insight into why having
a Web Marketing Strategy developed for your website is crucially
important for your website's success.
Like A Business Plan, Your Website
Marketing Strategy Will Evolve Over Time
Business plans ideally are used as tools
to manage the running of a business. A business plan serves
as a guide to the owner, and s/he will periodically refer
to it in order to assess how well the business is doing relative
to the initial plans upon which the operation was launched.
The Web Marketing Strategy is the business plan for a website.
Aside from defining clearly the objective(s) to be achieved,
it outlines a plan of action to be implemented by the site
owner in order to achieve the defined objectives.
Over time, and depending on changes that
occur in the business environment, the owner may have to modify
aspects of the web marketing strategy, to ensure continuity.
Some people start out with a web strategy comprehensively
documented in print or on paper. Over time, they would have
internalised most of it to the point that it resides literally
speaking in their "heads". Then needed tasks, changes
and actions would be taken on the spur of the moment, within
seconds. If go about having your own web strategy developed
right, you will also get to that level of competence at some
point.
Essential Features Of A Website
That Works
1. Visually
Appealing, Fast-loading, And Interactive Pages. This
is fairly self-explanatory, but I'll elaborate a bit. Your
website must look nice enough to make visitors want to explore
it. The pages must not take too long to present something
for the potentially click-happy visitor to read(when s/he
clicks to "learn more" for instance). And you should
provide as a minimum, a means for him/her to easily and quickly
send you a message directly from your website. Typically you
would use a simple contact form like the one here.
2. Response-Generating
Copy. Visitors who fit the profile of your target audience
or ideal customer should "feel" a need to make contact
with you regarding what you offer when they read your website
content. You must say what you do, or what you CAN do in a
manner that makes it immediately obvious to them that they
NEED you and will benefit by engaging your services or purchasing
your product. if you do not know how you can write such compelling
copy for your website, PLEASE hire a competent web copy writing
professional to do it for you.
3. Optimised
for Search Engines. Actually, having a web marketing
strategy should make you identify a need to do Search Engine
Optimisation for your website. You might also find it useful
to do articles marketing/syndication(like I do) as part of
your strategy.
Key Benefits Of A Website That
Works
1. Gets You Name/Brand Recognition.
This is actually one of the main objectives of my web strategy
- especially for my parent domain: spontaneousdevelopment.com.
I aim to make it synonymous with high quality performance
enhancement information and education based on authentic real-life
experiences. You can do this for your business and use it
to launch a series of branded products and services - for
instance learning events like seminars etc - that people who
have encountered your widely syndicated content online will
be readily drawn to, because they "recognise the name/brand".
2. Affords You Marketplace Credibility.
Many times people "feel" they know someone they
have never even met simply because they have continually read
or heard about him or her regarding what s/he does for a long
time. Market place credibility will be - in part - a fallout
of Name/Brand Recognition mentioned above. However, the quality
of your website design and especially content/presentation
will add to the "believability" of your offer.
3. Helps You Make Profitable Sales.
When your website is able
to earn you benefits 1. and 2. above, that
would over time, with your continued effort translate to profitable
sales for you online and/or offline as may be relevant to
your type of business. If you sell products online, there
is a good chance that MORE visitors will decide to buy from
you as they get more convinced. Same applies to the potential
client who needs to decide whether or not to hire you - or
the one who needs to convince a boss or partners that YOU
are a better choice than the next service provider. A website
that works will "sell" you effectively in a way
that your most marketable offerings are instantly made obvious
to the potential client, making it seem logical for them to
choose you over others.
What I like most about this website
benefit is that most times you will not be there physically
with them when they will be contemplating choosing you. So
ALL the "talking" you would have had to do will
be done for you by your website! If you have done a good in
building your website so that it works, chances are high that
you will get picked. BUT even if you do not get the job, you
are likely to feel reasonably satisfied with your efforts,
knowing that you could not have done a better job than you
did in trying to win it. Sometimes that's good to know, and
helps one to move on.
4. Saves You
Significant Time, Effort & Money. A before and
after comparison could help here. For instance BEFORE you
started using the site, how much time, effort and money did
it cost you to get your products/services noticed by potential
customers, to the extent that sales leads resulted? How much
were you losing in expenses on hard copy proposals sent out
to prospective client companies, compared to what you now
spend doing say website/email marketing? Receiving payments
via credit cards etc is of course a must if products are to
be purchased from your site. Again, the convenience for you/your
customers, and potential savings arising from incorporating
e-commerce payment processing on your site are quite significant.
Summary
If you have gotten this far, chances
are that you fall into one of the following categories:
a. You are
considering building a site for yourself/business.
If so, then keep all that I have said here in mind and(request
your web designer to) apply them where appropriate to increase
your chances of getting the results you want right from the
start.
b. You already
own a site for yourself/business. In that case do a
through check and ask yourself hard questions based on what
I have said in this article. Wherever you find that you come
up short, make a note to effect needed changes as soon as
possible.
c. You are
a web designer curious about the subject discussed.
For you the challenge will be whether you can be open minded
enough to look at the issues I have raised from the perspective
of your clients. Typically they will hire you because they
think building a website for their business will help them
spend LESS time and effort while making MORE money, so they
can ultimately make MORE profits. By doing everything possible
to deliver a website that meets their needs (and not just
their expectations), you stand a chance of having them enthusiastically
refer others to you without your asking!
A website that works is good for everyone
- the owner, the customer/client and the web designer. It
makes them all look good in the long run. Most importantly,
for you, the business owner, the survival of your enterprise
in today's highly competitive markets is greatly dependent
on how well you are able to integrate your business operations
with the use of computer/Internet resources, and NOT on how
any admirers & compliments you get for your website!
Getting a website that works in the manner
that has been described in this article is therefore a good
starting point. 
Related Articles:
1. 10 Website Design Tips(What Every Website Needs To Do)
- By Anthony Hamill
2. How To Choose The
Right Webdesign Company
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