If you want an effective online business presence, your first step is to figure out your website’s goal. Surfing the Internet, you probably noticed the wide variety of websites that not only look different, but perform different functions too. How do you collect all these features and communicate them to your web designer, so your website will accomplish what you want?
When I begin work with a new client, I ask what they want to achieve online. Here are six basic goals a website can provides that are worth thinking through carefully. Knowing your objective makes it easier to design and choose the web functions needed. At times, clients discover they have multiple goals are happy to learn it’s possible to meet all of them.
My website is the sole online sales point for my product or services. When your website will be only sales venue, your need increases for a reliable shopping cart with secure online payments. The site design must highlight the product and make it easy for the user to navigate the sales process.
I will use my website as the secondary sales point for my product by directing customers to vendors and other websites that sell my product. Your site will be a secondary sales point if you are a supplier to vendors. Highlight your product, but also consider providing a shopping cart and an online payment option. You make sales by helping your accounts make sales, so develop support documents, marketing materials, statistics, etc. that you will supply to your resellers.
I sell a service and I want my clients to be able to provide intake information or schedule an appointment online. Your website may have limited interactive providing a contact form or more interaction with an entire scheduling module. Understanding how you want to interact with clients online helps your website meet this goal.
Networking is very important to me and my business. Don’t discount the power of networking for selling products, services, and even fundraising for non-profits. If you are a novice networker or an uber-connected networker, your website can help you reach your targets by linking to your social media and networking accounts.
My website is a vetting site. If your website is the main source of information about you, your business, your services or your product, then customers need to confirm your credibility and credentials. here Keep your information up to date to make the best impression!
My customers use the site as a resource. It’s a noble goal for a website to be a resource. It serves this purpose when it provides directions to your business, instructions for your products, or samples to spur sales (like song lyrics to sell music, chapter excerpts to sell books, PDF forms to support your services, etc.
Your responses to these statements determine your website requirements. Reviewing these statements and planning ahead helps ensure that your website will satisfy your needs and be easy for visitors to navigate. The better the planning, the better the end results – more visitors, more subscribers to your blog or newsletter, or more qualified leads resulting in more sales. In addition, you will hopefully avoid costly revisions and the extra time required to fix things after the fact.
