Technology Marketing by Tatum MarketingJust another WordPress weblog

As business owners and marketers, we all know the importance of setting objectives and selecting appropriate strategies. Why then do so many business technology companies skip this step when they update or replace a website? Maybe it’s the lure of the cheap website design firms who make website design seem so fast and easy  — who bothers with a strategy when you only pay $499 for the site design?

Maybe its articles like How to Create a Successful Website for Nothing (or Almost Nothing) that appeared in Monday’s Wall Street Journal. Writer Vauhini Vara goes on for 2675 words and never mentions strategy.

Whatever the reason, skipping over the website strategy step is sure to result in an inferior website no matter how much you pay for it. So, don’t do that. Instead, review and answer the following questions. This will provide a very useful guide for designers, copywriters, webmasters and anyone who needs to understand how well the website is performing.

To make it easier, I’ve divided the questions into six categories: objectives, audiences and questions, metrics, competitors, and strategies.

Website Objectives

1. What’s the main objective of your new site?
2. What are the secondary objectives?
3. Why are you replacing your current site?
4. What actions do you want your visitors to take?

Website Audience

5. Who is your target audience?
6. How do they make a buying decision?
7. What questions are they likely to have about you and your product or service?
8. What risks do they perceive in buying your product?

Website Metrics

9. How will you measure the success of your site?
10. What business contribution metrics will you track?
11. What site performance metrics will you track?
12. How will you get user feedback?
13. What analytics tool will you use?

Competitors

14. Who are your top 3 – 5 competitors?
15. How does their web presence differ from yours?
16. What calls-to-action do they include on their website?
17. How easy is it to find your way around the site?
18. What is their primary messaging?
19. What do you like and dislike about the sites?

Website Strategies

20. How will you answer your visitors’ questions?
21. How will you remove their perceived risks?
22. How will you be found by the search engines?
23. How will you drive traffic to the site?
24. How will you obtain contact information from your visitors?
25. What areas will you optimize to promote conversions?

There are many more questions you can ask and answer when creating your website strategy. The ones I’ve included here could be considered the minimum. Please don’t skip this step. When you see the difference it makes in your website’s performance, you’ll be glad you took the time.

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