The Keys to Success:

1. “Take Ownership”

If you've paid good money for a web site, you're a “site owner.” But does this mean that you've really taken “ownership” of your site?

All too often, we encounter site owners who've spent considerable funds on having a web site built, but have been sorely disappointed by a lack of return on their investment. If this has been your experience, you may be skeptical toward the idea of a web site as an effective business tool.

There can be many reasons for an underperforming web site, but often as not, in our experience, the root of the problem lies in a failure by the business owners and/or managers to take ownership of the site—to truly “buy in” to the idea and take responsibility for its success. It's very important to understand this key principle, because all of the other steps here flow from and depend upon this principle being taken to heart.

So, what happens when you take ownership of your site?

• Your business's owners and managers are on board and committed to making the site an integral part of the business.
• You have a realistic and adequate budget for your site project. (If you have budgetary constraints, your web site can be developed in stages, phasing in new features later on as funds allow.)
• You've allocated sufficient time, thought and staff resources to site planning, development and ongoing maintenance.
• You're committed to taking an active, participatory role—in partnership with your web developer—in the site's planning and development stages.
• You see your web site as an evolving, dynamic business tool that grows and develops along with other aspects of your business operations.

Once you've taken ownership of your site, it's time to...

2. Plan for Success

It’s a well-worn truism that “No one plans to fail, but many fail to plan.” This certainly applies to many business web sites, and the Internet abounds with underperforming (or failing) web sites that are hampered by a lack of proper planning. Conversely, successful web sites generally have a solid foundation of thorough planning behind them, and if they’re growing in terms of customer base and profitability, they continue to plan for future growth and effectiveness of the site.

Think of building your web site as you would approach building a new office building or facility for your business. First, you will need to plan the building to meet the physical and functional requirements of your business, and then you will need to translate those requirements into a clear set of blueprints that can be followed by the builder.

Similarly, you need to plan your web site to serve the needs of your customers, your site visitors and prospects, and your business goals, processes and requirements. Thorough planning should include not only the basics such as site navigation, organization (information architecture), design, and features/functionality, but also the critical aspects of marketing, customer relationship management, providing quality content, and ongoing site maintenance and expansion.

“But I don’t know how to do that sort of planning,” you may say. That’s why you want to hire a professional with experience—like us! Clearly, the more homework you do to understand the principles of successful online business, the more likely you will be to have a leg up on success with your online venture—and we do encourage our clients to invest some time and study to increase their own understanding. However, you can rely on us to guide you through the process of advance planning for your site.

Consider also that by investing time and resources in planning, you will gain several important benefits:

• Advance planning helps to keep your costs in control by maximizing the efficiency of the development process.
• Planning helps to give you a clearer road map for your own understanding, and for your web developer.
• As a result of thorough planning, you will ultimately have a more effective, compelling and user-friendly web site.
• Finally, this can all add up to having a more successful, profitable web site as the end result, increasing your ROI.

3. Integrate

Related to planning, it’s also important to think about how you will integrate your web site into your overall business operations. Particularly if your business is not a strictly online venture (rather, a hybrid brick-and-mortar and online business), this is another critical element that can make the difference between your site’s ultimate success or failure.

All too often, we’ve seen business owners put up a web site, and then treat it as a “neglected stepchild,” in terms of inadequate attention and resources devoted to it, and in terms of not integrating it tightly into the ongoing business operations. So we urge you not to make this critical mistake; your web site should never be a “back burner,” isolated project. Instead, keep in mind the following aspects of integration when planning your web site:

• Make your web site an integral part of your business plan. If you have an existing business plan, revise it and include web site development, maintenance and expansion as a key part of the plan. Note that this also entails budgeting adequately and realistically for initial development and ongoing operation of your site.
• Allocate sufficient time and staff resources to the entire life cycle of your web site: planning, design, development, marketing, maintenance and future expansion. Even after your site is built and deployed, it won’t take care of itself (if you think it will, then you’re likely to end up with a stagnant, underperforming or failing site), and you need someone (one or more competent staff members) to oversee it. Even if your web developer will have the major responsibility for operation of your site, someone in your organization needs to be tasked with coordinating the ongoing work.
• Look for ways to have your web site support your ongoing business operations. It doesn’t have to just be an online marketing, sales and information tool. This extended business support can include features such as customer feedback, customer support, order management, lead generation and referrals, viral marketing, scheduling, estimating, inventory tracking, vendor support, and much more.
• Integrate your online marketing with your offline marketing programs. They don’t have to be separate, nor should they be in most cases. Always include your web site address in all print, radio and television advertising. Tie in your offline marketing promotions with web and email promotions. Track your sales and leads from your various offline marketing promotions that take a path through your web site; analyze this tracking data, tweak your marketing message and your web site, measure the results, and tweak some more until you optimize your results.

You can probably think of other ways to integrate the online aspects of your business with the offline, brick-and-mortar aspects, if you devote some thought to it. And we can certainly assist you in discovering more.

A note for non-profit organizations: You should also plan to integrate your web site into your ongoing operations. Even though you’re not in the business of generating profits, you want to maximize your organization’s effectiveness, and your web site can be a powerful tool for doing this in a variety of ways.

4. Focus on the Customer / Site Visitor

Is your site a tool for your customer, or just a tool for you? Are your site's messages overly focused on your company? Or does your site content address the needs and interests of your visitors?

5. Promote Your Site

Coming soon...

6. Fine Tune Your Site

Coming soon...

We can help you develop a blueprint for your own online Field of Dreams.

Contact us today for a free consultation.