Assemble a Web site development plan that is integrated with
your overall marketing processes. The content should be
consistent with offline materials; the graphics/images don't
have to be identical with traditional media, but should be
consistent with your overall branding, style guide, usage of
colors, etc.
Hire a Web site design firm that understands your market
position. Find one that won't get "geek crazy - meaning they
are so in love with their own design capabilities, your site
gets bogged down with graphics, plug ins, GIF garbage, etc.
But, conversely, check your ego at the door when you work
with your design firm - we've see so many good Web site
designs ruined by clients who can't or won't listen to sound
advice.
Pay attention to "load times," how long it takes a Web site to
load on an industry-average 56 KBPS modem. If it's more than
12-18 seconds you may experience the "click of death" - the
site doesn't load quickly and the surfer is gone. Of course,
if you're targeting broadband customers who are reaching your
site via ISDN or DSL, then you can build a site that
incorporates multimedia-ready content that may include
streaming audio or video, or Shockwave or Flash capabilities.
Go ahead and let those digital geeks get carried away with
cutting edge content presentation.
Keep it simple - make your site easy to move around in. Build
a menu structure that is consistent with industry standards:
local menus (for a page or section) on the left and global
menus (overall site navigation) at the top and/or bottom of
each page. Keep as much information "above the fold" (above
the cutoff point at the bottom of a monitor); don't make
people use horizontal scroll bars unless absolutely
necessary.
Inculcate "digital speed" into your overall site design. Your
clients/customers should be able to get to their desired area
of your site within one or two mouse clicks; they will
quickly get frustrated if they have to click through multiple
menus to find information they are seeking.
Develop content that is Web enabled. People don't read Web
site content like they do offline media. Keep your paragraphs
short (no more than two to three sentences), build in white
space with your content, and include links in your pages.
Don't try to tell your whole marketing story on your site -
get people to call you (hello the telephone still works!),
e-mail you, or fill out a profile form.
Make your site permission-based marketing ready. We recommend
Seth Godin's
Permission Marketing book.
He champions building a long
term-relationship with a customer by asking permission to
continue to market to that customer and incorporating
value/information in all marcom processes.
Ensure your site is optimized for search engines. Identify
eight-12 keywords that people will use to find your site.
Incorporate these keywords into your site content (to drive
relevancy with search engine spiders/bots) and then manually
submit your site to the top ten search engines. We don't
recommend most of the free or $19.99 specials available; yes,
all will get your site registered with the search engines,
but getting listed on page 75 of 350 pages (for example)
won't really drive qualified traffic to your site. You need
page 1-3 listings on the top ten engines to really drive
qualified traffic.
Delve into your log server files to uncover "digital tracks"
made through your Web site. Your log files are raw files that
show how and from where (in most cases) people accessed your
Web site, where they went on your site, how long they stayed,
etc.
Think global in your overall site design. The greatest
Internet growth is occurring outside North America, so it is
essential to build a site that can be accessed easily by
people around the world. What issues do you need to look at?
1) Load times are very important.
2) Develop content that avoids colloquialisms that may not be
understood by others who may not speak the same language.
3) You may want to make your site's content available in diverse
languages (there are a number of emerging applications that
will facilitate this process), ensuring your e-commerce
capabilities can be utilized by all.
