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Many companies and organizations have set
up a site on the World Wide Web (WWW) and have given very little consideration
to developing a website strategy for promoting the website. Some executives scratch their heads and sigh
when asked why this is so. As one confused executive recently said to me,
"Hell, I thought setting up the website was the strategy. You mean I have
to develop another strategy for the strategy? How do I do that?" Here is a simple six-step guide to
developing a successful website strategy: 1)
Define your target audience. Probably the biggest mistake made by
website newcomers is failing to consider the make up of their potential
audience when designing their site. The design and content of a site will
normally attract certain types of visitors. New webmasters make a serious
blunder by thinking that by simply attracting more visitors to their site that
they are achieving an appropriate goal. The goal should be to attract more
visitors who fit the particular profile of a potential customer for a company
or a new member for an organization. Savvy webmasters call this person their
"target". 2)
Develop appropriate content for your
website. Visitors will continue to return to visit
a website that provides interesting content. In general terms, content is
usually broken down into two categories: links to other sites and topic
specific information. If one visits
several sites on the same topic or subject matter, he/she would clearly see
that many sites would probably have the very same links to other sites. This fact tends to confuse people about the
relative value of a site. Therefore,
the issue of topic specific information that is useful to the visitor is
extremely important. After you assemble a profile of your target, you should
develop your site's content to satisfy the specific needs of your target. In
some cases, this might involve providing specific information within a very
narrow focus. In others, it might involve providing a broad spectrum of
information about a topic. Whatever the case may be, remember that once you
have satisfied a need of your target, you have developed goodwill that makes a
buying or joining decision much easier. By continuing to add new and
interesting content and keeping the site updated, you will continue to increase
the goodwill and also develop your site's brand loyalty. 3)
Align your site with online communities
and/or website partners. If you want very high visibility for your
website, it is essential to find and participate in the virtual communities on
the Internet that pertain to the topic or subject matter of your site. These
communities provide a forum where one can learn and exchange ideas with people
from all over the world who have a mutual interest. Increasingly, these forums
are also being used to provide business leads and enhance global business
outreach because the quantity of collective resources available tends to
attract many visitors from around the world. Experienced webmasters will tell you that
the best way to attract new visitors to a site is by having a reciprocal link
with another site that has an allied interest.
An excellent example of this would be a global trading company that has
a reciprocal link with a foreign freight forwarder. Both companies will gain
new visitors to their sites. More important is the fact that these new visitors
will match the target profile for both sites. 4)
Develop an intra-company support network. Somebody in the company will have to
assume responsibility for answering e-mail inquiries generated by the website
and also periodically visiting the WWW to look for new sites and/or virtual
communities that might be of interest to your company or organization. Somebody
will also have to assume responsibility for maintaining the website (adding new
content, fixing broken links and updating its features). Companies and
organizations that have set up an internal network to handle these tasks in a
coordinated manner have a better chance of deriving greater benefits from their
website. The fastest way to diminish
the credibility of your website and in turn your company or organization is to
fail to respond to inquiries properly and in a timely fashion and to not fix
broken or dead links at the site.
Regularly adding new content is equally important. 5)
Refine your collateral marketing &
promotion materials. This is a no-brainer. Simply stated, if you set up a website, tell
somebody. It is very surprising to see
the number of companies and/or organizations that have set up a site and then
failed to adequately promote it. Your
company's letterhead, all brochures, any print ads or radio & television
announcements should include mention of your new website. In fact, you should send a press release to
all appropriate media organizations.
Avail yourself of every opportunity for personal appearances on radio,
television, meetings, and trade shows to publicize your new website. Setting up
a website is a wonderful opportunity to contact all of your current
customers/members to show them that you are looking for new ways to satisfy their
special needs. It is also a fantastic
opportunity to reach out to new customers/members. Some companies use the
announcement of a website as an opportunity to offer special discounts to
attract new customers. Organizations
can offer limited time discounted membership fees to attract new members. This is very basic stuff and comes under
the heading of plain common sense, but entirely too many companies and
organizations fail to adequately promote their website by refining their
collateral marketing & promotional materials. It does not require any high
priced consultants or specialists. Many times, a simple postcard or a polite
telephone call will suffice. 6)
Obtain appropriate feedback. Feedback is the life force of any
successful website. You need to know
what your visitors think about your site.
Is the content useful? Is the content appropriate? Does it really fit
the subject? Is there enough content? Probably the best way to obtain feedback is
via an online feedback form. Some
webmasters also like to e-mail questionnaires to site visitors who have
communicated with them. Feedback will
often offer clues as to how visitors rate your site against other similar
sites. This can be very helpful in your
decisions about what to delete, add or change. Nothing in this six-step guide seems
extremely complicated. As a matter of
fact, some of the steps seem almost too simple. However, simplicity is too often under-rated. Our experience has been that some companies
and organizations looking to develop a successful website strategy are very
frequently looking for gimmicks.
Unfortunately, gimmicks do not work very well as an overall strategy for
promoting your website. Lest we forget,
the most important aspect of developing a website strategy is the necessity to
write it down on paper and post it where everybody can see it. Then make certain that the entire staff is
responsible for following each step carefully. Finally, learn to listen to your staff
people. Business executives and
organization officials tend to have very limited hands on experience with the
Internet. If you are the executive in
charge and therefore have final authority for making decisions, try to use it
wisely. You may have a vision for your
company or organization and that vision might be quite admirable. However,
developing a good website strategy to promote your vision in the context of the
website and the company/organization mission can only be accomplished if you
factor in the expertise of your staff people when making decisions. While developing a website strategy might be
considered part of an executive's responsibilities, an executive assistant
might better accomplish it. The most
egregious error that companies and organizations make is allowing Internet
decisions to be made in a vacuum of real hands-on Internet experience. Companies that really do develop an
intra-company network to support the website can often draw upon the rich and
diverse talents of many employees from different disciplines. Because
developing a website itself is a collaborative process, it seems clear that
trying to develop a strategy to promote the website is collaboration as
well. Companies and organizations that
involve all staff members in developing their website strategy tend to have
greater success in executing that strategy and thereby deriving the benefits of
having a site on the World Wide Web. |
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