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Before You Call the Web Developer

Part 2 - Strategy

Your Internet strategy defines how you will use the Internet to pursue your mission, accomplish objectives, and expand your outcomes. An experienced Web developer can help you define and hone your Internet strategy, but you should develop your own answers to some strategic questions.

Mission: By now you should have defined your mission. What kind of Web site is congruent with your mission? Achieving your objectives with your visiting audience requires that you convey a sense of your mission to them. What tone will accurately convey your mission to your visiting audience? Decide clearly how to make the Web site relevant to what you're trying to do.

Audience: Defining your target audience is essential. Who exactly will the visitors and users be? Do you have demographics? Are they businesses or consumers - seniors, affluent, or younger? Do you want end-users to come and purchase, or are you aiming at distributors and resellers? Or do you want to attract end-users for brand development and then send them to a dealer? Are your customers local, regional, national, or global? If global, are other language versions desirable?

Audience Relationship: Will you use the Web site to manage your customer relationships? What kinds of relationships do you currently have with them? Would a focus group or survey of users be useful? There may be a lot about your customer base and their Internet habits and preferences that you don't know.

Positioning Shift: What view does the target audience have of the company now? If you don't know, maybe you really should consider some polling. What image would you like to have in the marketplace after the Web site is functioning? Define how you think the Web site might contribute to that shift.

Measure of Success: Imagine the site is successful. What will it have accomplished for the company in 3 months, 6 months, and one year after it is implemented? What exactly will be your quantitative measure of success for the web site?

Current Web Presence: Do you have an existing Web site? Have you had any means of measuring its success? The developer should understand whether the existing site has been effective, and whether it should be used as a building block or discarded altogether. You should analyze whether limited success with an existing site was a result of concept, content, design, or marketing.

Objectives: Finally, identify some objectives that you want to accomplish with a new Web site. Do you want to build your brand, conduct online commerce, provide customer support through technical information, provide a conduit to your in-house staff, or build relationships by providing information like handy tips or humor? Try to think a little out of the box.

Now you and your Web developer are ready to consider exactly what Web site features will fit into this strategy.

Copyright © 2001 Mary Ann Chapman

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