The phenomenal growth of the web over the last few years, as well as being generally amazing, means that pretty much as a cost of doing business you should have a website, for just about any business you can think of.
The worst reason in the world to have a website is just because everyone else has one, and tempting as it is to just jump in and start designing layout and writing copy, a few early steps before you do this will save a bit of confusion and wasted effort later down the line.
Over the next three blog posts I will look at three things you can do in order to set up your business website as a key and hard-working component of your overall business strategy.
1. Define your goal
As with anything else related to your business, you should have a clear goal and direction for your online activity. Focus on your audience, your market and how your business will help future and existing clients to achieve their goals – what value will you add to your community, and how best can this value be expressed on your website?
Make your goal very specific and you will make it more achievable – is it to sell product, or is it to sell x amount of product per week; to attract new customers or to attract x new leads per week? Whatever the goal, and there may be more than one, it is critial to ensure that all pages of your website support the achievement of that goal, from credible and convincing copy, through clear and simple site structure to having calls to action so compelling it is difficult for your target market to resist.
Your website will act as a hub or conversion mechanism for all of your social activity too, so it needs to be a strong piece of execution in order to fulfil its role at the centre of your business; there is less value in having a strong social presence if your website is unable to convert when people are driven there to see more in substance of what you have to offer.
For the next two steps in the process I will look at researching your market and identifying and choosing the help that you need – subscribe now if you would like to be alerted to the next installment.
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