Website Planning: 10 Keys for 2010
Is your website ready for 2010? Are you planning ahead and proactively ensuring your website success? Have you taken the time to plan what you need from your website to maximize your business results in the coming year?
To help you get the most out of your website in 2010, here is a list of 10 keys to website planning.
Website Planning – 10 Keys for 2010
1. Goals
Be sure to identify, clarify and document the annual, quarterly and monthly business goals of your website. The more specific your goals, the more likely you are to achieve them.
2. Audience Segmentation
Be sure that your website is set up to target and resonate with very specific audience segments. You’ll have much more success by targeting your best prospective customers than by trying to be all things to all people.
3. Differentiation
Too many companies ignore differentiation and think that anyone visiting their website will of course understand why they should purchase from their particular company. Wrong. Make sure that your differentiation is very clear, right from the home page.
4. Customer Voice
Consumers and business buyers are now expecting a voice in the conversation. Empower them with multiple ways to communicate with your business, whether through online forms, toll-free numbers, email, online chat, forums, surveys, polls, Q&A, crowdsourcing, etc.
5. Customer Value
Make sure your website is truly serving the needs of your prospective customers, and not just “selling” to them. People are tired of being sold to. You should offer real value throughout the year. Identify how the needs and wants of your prospective customers change through the different seasons, quarters and months of the year, and align your website updates accordingly.
6. The WOW! Factor
Remember that your customers are real people with real emotions. Part of their decision to purchase from you or to do business with you will come from their emotions. Be sure to include some great “WOW!” elements to your website to evoke a positive emotive response in your site visitors. These could range from an amazingly useful eBook to a fantastic blog to a special, seasonal offer.
7. Budget
Remember the basics when you conduct your website planning. How much money will you dedicate towards website improvements and upgrades in the coming year? How will these funds be allocated throughout the year? Are your budgets aligned with your priorities?
8. Schedule
Many companies update their websites randomly. Don’t fall into this trap. You’ll enjoy much greater success by allocating set times in your schedule for continual website updates. Remember to allocate time for keeping up-to-date on the latest web capabilities and trends (e.g., real-time search) as well, and to incorporate changes to your site accordingly. Remember also to include a testing schedule in your calendar, to ensure that you are consistently pushing to achieve the full potential that your site has to offer your business.
9. Resources
Plan ahead to ensure you have all the resources you need to maximize your website results in 2010. There’s no need to feel that you have to take it all on yourself. Hire expert marketers, designers, programmers, copywriters and blog specialists to help you achieve your website goals.
10. Plan
Take all of the above and document a solid website plan for 2010. Documenting your website planning will ensure that you have thought through your site visitors’ needs upfront and have all of the time/money/resources you need to execute successfully throughout the year.
Related posts:
- Website Planning – What?? You Don’t Have a Plan??
- 5 Keys to a Successful Website in 2010
- Developing a Wonderfully Whiz-Bang Website Strategy
Tags: small business website, small business websites, web planning, web site planning, website planning