Today I’d like to talk to you about your company website. We get calls all the time from potential clients and the calls usually go something like this;
“Hi, our company needs a new website, we do XYZ, please send us a quotation?”
Well this is really the wrong approach to developing or designing your primarily digital property for your company. And when I get that question I always push back and ask, “Tell me more about your company, what you sell, what are your business goals, your current customers and who is your target audience” Because this is the information you need to keep in mind when building your website.
Whether you are an e-commerce company looking to sell products online or a non-profit looking to engage with donors and/or your constituents, you always need to keep in mind that your company or organization has a specific goal or objectives and your website will have to play a very major role in helping you achieve those objectives.
Your website is a very key piece in your overall marketing and communications strategy and unless it is directly helping you achieve your business goals, then you might as well not even have one.
You don’t just need a website, you need an effective website.
So before you start the process of identifying someone, or a marketing agency to build your website, you need to ask yourself the following questions:
- Why do we need a website
- What business purpose do we want it to achieve: Conversion examples – Hotel rooms, Online sales
- Who is our website’s target audience – who is your target audience as a company
- How do we want our website to serve them
- What is the success criteria for our website
- How will our website help us achieve our business or organizational goals
Remember, your business has, or should have a business plan that is reviewed and updated annually. And included in that business plan is a marketing plan that hopefully includes a digital marketing strategy. Therefore, with the cost of smartphones and data dropping, resulting in more people getting online in huge numbers, your website is actually the backbone of your business growth and marketing strategy. At least for most organizations. That’s how important it is to your overall success.
So, when the time comes when you are ready to build your company website, be sure that you work with a partner who takes the time to understand your business, understands the importance of your website to the success of your business, and is able to guide you through the process of not just building a website, but building an effective business tool.
