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Maximise investment strategies for web design profit in South Africa
Web design that works |
Whether you’re concerned with business-to- business, or
business to consumer, whether your organization is large
or small, commercial or nonprofit, these are some
fundamental questions around your Website and technology
strategy that should be addressed.
Otherwise, you risk missing opportunities, and not
maximizing the return on your investment in your online
presence.
If you haven’t visited your own Website for a while,
look at it again in light of these questions:
Prophesying Profit on the Internet . . .
Many business owners rushed into creating Web sites,
perhaps because "my competition has one", or because
"it's the hot thing right now".
Often, these sites are little more than online brochures
- and maybe that's all you really need.
But have you really considered whether you're making the
most of the online opportunities that exist? As with any
aspect of your business, some preliminary thinking will
help to maximize the return on your investment in this
key part of your marketing mix.
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Here are seven key issues to consider from the outset:
Are your markets online?
In February 2003, Jupiter Research reported that 61% of
business decision makers use the Internet to look for
information on products and services. Does that include
your buyers? Try a customer survey if you don’t know the
answer to this.
Alternatively, there may be new markets that you would
like to tap, who are already online.
Where is your geographic focus?
Is your operation confined to a local area, or can it
have national or even international appeal?
It is not currently possible to restrict display of Web
pages within geographic boundaries (e.g. "only
Johannesburg"). So if your business is only local, or
you only serve the South African markets, you should
state that clearly on the site, otherwise you might
receive leads and orders that you can't fulfill.
On the other hand, perhaps there are ways that you can
modify your "real world" offerings to reach online
buyers everywhere - perhaps by packaging your knowledge
into e-books or downloadable white papers.
What are the specific goals of your site?
What outcomes do you want from the visitors to your
site? Will you be selling product online, or are you
generating leads for a product or service? Do you want
visitors to leave their contact details? If so, how will
you encourage them to do this? Do you have a newsletter
that they can subscribe to, or a competition, or a free
offer of some kind?
And don't forget your existing customers. Will your site
also be providing ongoing support and education for
these clients?
How will you engage your visitors?
Remember that your Web site may be the first contact
that a prospect has with your business, and if they
don't relate to your site, it may well be the last! Make
their experience as close as possible to actually
speaking with you, and engage them in all the ways that
you might do offline.
Incorporate answers to the questions that are most
frequently asked during the buying and support process.
If you don't know these, have your staff keep a log of
customer interactions for a few days - you'll soon see a
pattern.
And, if you usually help the customer through product
selection, ask them to make their choices in an online
survey that can be e-mailed to you as a lead.
Do you want "hits", or qualified leads?
It's important to know whether you want as much traffic
and as many responses as possible from your site, or
whether you would prefer only to hear from serious
buyers. A nonprofit organisation might want as many
people as possible to see its message, but most
businesses have a specific focus.
If you decide to qualify the responses that you get from
the site, what criteria will you use to do this?
Do you have a promotion plan and budget?
Even the best-designed Web sites require effective
online marketing and publicity to generate traffic.
You'll need a strategy to position your site as well as
possible in the Internet search engines and directories.
Remember that marketing your Web site is an ongoing
activity, and allocate time and resources to this.
How will you measure your success?
If you've made decisions on all these issues, you'll
need a way to evaluate the results of your site and your
promotional efforts against the goals and outcomes that
you set.
Your Website traffic reports can provide really valuable
information about your visitors - in fact, I'd suggest
that without this data, you're shooting in the dark with
your online investment.
The reports will tell you how many users come to your
site, which search engines and keywords they're using to
find you, which pages of your site are the most popular,
and which are rarely accessed. You can use this
information to tweak your site, and to make strategic
development decisions which can often impact not just
your Internet marketing, but your entire business.
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