REDEFINING THE ROLE OF YOUR COMPANY'S WEBSITE
Think Highest Value, Not Highest Traffic
By Steve Ebner, Internet Marketing Strategist, Steve Ebner Marketing, Inc.
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Communicating the right message to your business' target audience has never been more challenging. Today, businesses can choose from an overwhelming variety of offline and online marketing channels. Too often, businesses either rush to the latest marketing opportunity without regard to their brand strategy or sit too long on the sidelines while a competitor steals market share. The same can be said for the content on many business websites. An effective website is one that helps achieve corporate goals with high-value content and functionality. The role of most corporate websites should go beyond presenting a product catalog or directing leads to your sales team.
Step Back and Identify the Highest Value Role
Gone are the days when the only measure of a successful website was high traffic. While traffic remains a critical metric, it's more important that your website fulfills a need within your corporate strategy. Think about all your company's stakeholders, namely current & prospective customers, investors, partners, and employees. Then, think about how they use (or could use) the Internet. Brainstorm on various content, features, and functionality that could be integrated into your company website to better meet the needs of your stakeholder groups.
Even if your business is heavily dependent on a face-to-face sales process, or you're in a B2B industry, your website can contribute significantly to your success. Your website can generate sales leads, create a buzz, solicit customer feedback, process a sales transaction, build credibility, integrate a partner relationship, educate prospective customers, increase customer loyalty and more. The objective is to build and maintain a website that creates synergistic value with your Internet marketing campaigns, offline marketing activities, sales and operations activities, partnering programs, vendor and supply process, etc. The first step in this process starts by identifying your target audience and overall marketing goals, and then identifying how the website can support those goals.
Align Content & Functionality for Primary Target Groups
A common mistake of many small businesses is aiming your website's content at too many audiences. This weakens the ability to differentiate your brand, reduces search engine marketing effectiveness, and complicates the process of achieving the desired goal from a user visit. Just like a good marketing plan, your website should be designed around your primary target users (typically 1-3). Your site's navigation, content, and functionality should lead the target user through the website. Remember, it all ties back to achieving your corporate goals. This sounds pretty straight forward, but it's easy to get off track with web design.
Today the online marketplace is crowded, trendy, short-sighted, and rapidly evolving. Don't get caught up in the hype. But also don't miss an opportunity just because something's new. The best advice is to continually step back and evaluate the value of your website's audience related to your corporate goals.
Author Credit: Steve Ebner, Steve Ebner Marketing, Inc., www.SteveEbner.com |
