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Formulating a Website Design Strategy
By Richard Igoe
Fred R. David, a business strategy author, defines strategy
as "the art and science of formulating, implementing, and
evaluating cross functional decisions that enable an
organisation to achieve its objective", Strategic
Management, Prentice-Hall (1985).
My definition of Website design strategy is "the process by
which to optimise your website to take advantage of the
opportunities in the external environment, whilst
addressing the threats that are likely to impact on it".
Formulating a website design strategy is very important to
the success of your website. By laying out your strategy at
the start, even before choosing a domain name, can save
months, even years of redesign and wasted promotion
efforts.
Even if your site is already established, there are a
number of basics that need to be questioned to ensure you
are heading in the right direction. The answers to these
questions will form the basis for your web design strategy.
1) Firstly, what is the purpose of your site? Is it a
marketing tool, a shopping cart to enable online sales, or
both? What are your objectives?
2) Secondly, what are your strengths and weaknesses? if you
were in your visitor's "shoes", would you buy from the site
and what would make you return?
3) Thirdly, how is your income going to be generated? Will
it be from advertising, from site membership fees, from
affiliate programs, or from selling your own product? What
are your capabilities and how will you use them to maintain
a competitive advantage over your rivals?
The answers to the above will determine your content
strategy and this in turn will have implications for all
other aspects of your web site design.
1) THE PURPOSE OF YOUR SITE
Most websites serve one main purpose - they are either
informational or they are e-commerce sites.
Informational sites usually make their income from
membership fees, advertising, commissions, or selling at
the back end.
E-commerce sites usually make their income by selling a
product or service.
It is often difficult to combine both into the same website
because an informational site needs to provide unbiased
information about the topic of the website, while an
e-commerce site needs to generate sales and use direct
marketing tactics.
The main objective of informational sites therefore needs
to be to maximize your site membership, or your subscriber
list. Site usage could be regarded as the internet's
equivalent of intangible assets.
The more information the site gathers about its
subscribers, the more valuable the list is because it
allows marketing to be targeted at specific groups of
people, defined by where they live, how much they earn,
whether they are male or female, etc… However it is also
VERY important that any subscriber list is entirely opt-in
because they want information from you.
Your objectives must therefore be: 1) Clear focused and
specific 2) Measurable 3) Feasible and suitable for the
industry you are focusing on.
2) IN YOUR VISITOR'S SHOES
Always put yourself in your website visitor's "shoes". If
you were the website visitor, what would keep you on the
site. What makes your site sticky?
By doing this you can easily identify your strengths and
weaknesses!
The more focused your site it, the more likely you are to
satisfy your visitors requirements, and the more likely
they are to return and use your site in future.
The layout and navigation of your web pages are going to
affect the usability of your site. It is very important to
get these right and to know which web technologies to use.
Your website layout and navigation can make or break your
site.
Even more important is your Content strategy because you
need to provide content that is likely to be targeted at
your visitors. Are you providing the content your visitors
are looking for?
3) HOW YOUR INCOME IS GENERATED
Informational sites usually generate their revenue from
membership fees, advertising, commissions from affiliate
programs and making sales to their members or subscribers
using off-the-web marketing, for example through a
newsletter or direct mail. Selling is the secondary
objective.
The main objective of an e-commerce site is to promote an
effective marketing message and to make the buying process
as easy as possible. Creating a marketing base is the
secondary objective. They usually have two types of
customers, transactional and relational.
The purchase decisions of transactional customers are
influenced by short-term reasons such as price,
convenience, and/or availability.
Relational customers have built up a relationship with the
business usually through previous contact. Their purchase
decisions are based more on the customer relationship that
has been built up, quality of support, and knowledge of the
product or service or brand.
You need to identify where your market is and what your
capabilities are. You need to identify what gives you a
competitive advantage over your rivals.
Once you have done that you will be able to generate
qualified traffic, turn the traffic into qualified leads,
and turn the leads into customers.
Your website strategy is therefore critical to the success
of your site. It must be focused, to ensure your site is
visible and attracts qualified leads, and your web pages
must be usable to ensure you can convert your traffic.
You can find out more about how to design a successful
website at - http://www.TheWebsEye.com/wsc.htm
About the Author
Article by Richard Igoe, website design consultant since 1998 and founder of http://www.TheWebsEYE.com
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/21991.html
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