A website is a key part of any business in today’s online society and should form an important part of your marketing strategy.
Consider just a few key points and use this checklist when planning a website to ensure it gets the end result you are aiming for.
Who is the website for?
Who is your chosen audience? Who do you want to attract? Don’t fall into the trap of trying to make your website attractive to everyone. It just won’t work. Think of your ideal customer and plan everything to attract just them. They are the ones who are most likely to become your future customers and spend money with you.
Aims and objectives
What is your USP? – Why will people use your site and not that of your competitor? What is it offering that others don’t? If there isn’t a clear differential then you really need to narrow down your niche target market and give them exactly what they want. It could simply come down to the ease of use and navigation or that the checkout process is easier.
Decide on content
What type of information will you be using and how will it be structured in terms of navigating through the site? Will you be using white papers, videos or infographics? Think about the different types of content that will be used and how they may link together.
Lead capture
Most small business when planning a website want to create more business and one of the best ways of doing this is to create a database from visitors. To turn your website visitors into contacts and future clients you need to capture their details by use of a sign up form. Make it clear and easy for them to sign up and offer an incentive in exchange for their details.
Comply with the law
When you collect information and data from visitors to your website, you need to comply with the law. Even if you don’t have a sign up form but use Google analytics or any other type of tracking, you need to comply with data protection laws and meet the criteria on the use of cookies.
Email accounts
How many email accounts are you going to need for your site? You may wish to have a generic info@ along with separate ones for existing clients or order queries. Check with your hosting company how many your plan includes to ensure you are able to have the ones you want.
Integrate social media
Think of your website and your social media accounts as a spider’s web all linking back to each other. Make sure people can link to your social media accounts from your website and vice versa.
Branding
Make sure your website ties in with the branding on all your other marketing material. The colouring and logo should be consistent across all your marketing mediums whether printed or online.
Personality
Make your site stand out with its own personality. This will depend upon your business aims and your target market but consider if you want your site to fun and funky or whether it should be more formal and serious.
Taking the time to think about the checklist above when planning a website can make the difference between it achieving what you want it to do or not.
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