In 2010 your business or organisation needs an online strategy.
The web has come of age as a business tool. One thing is certain if you don’t have a strategy your competitor or worse still a new entrant to the market may have a strategy that could have a big adverse impact on your business.
The good news is , the web in relation to most business investments is not expensive. When compared to the cost of hiring extra staff or opening a new physical outlet a well planed website starts to look very cheap by comparison. Even better this new investment works 24*7 never complains, doesn’t take holidays and works in multiple locations.
The starting point though is to think about why you need a web strategy and what is it designed to achieve
Some initial questions include:
Is the site designed to
1) Sell product online- Do you need a full ecommerce site with online shopping and payment
2) Generate leads – Make sure you are easily contactable by phone and email
3) Inform and keep in touch – is your website an opportunity to keep members informed and net worked
4) Counter a competitor – do you need a cheaper low cost brand to cover the market while your existing strategy is via traditional distribution
5) Invite feedback - Do you want to invite customer communication feedback perhaps tracking of deliveries
6) B2B or B2C – are you selling primarily to end users or to the trade. Each streateguy requires a different approach and language
7) Cut costs – Can you make the ordering of parts easier. Would an instructional video cut down on service enquiries. Would a decent FAQ section cut down on phone and written enquiries Could accounting and invoicing be provided online . Could online eBooks replace paper brochures. There are a myriad of ways the web can reduce costs
8) Profile – do you want to lift your profile and position your organisation as experts the “voice” of your sector
9) Widen your distribution – Offer a national or even international product or service
10) Intranet – Do you need to communicate internally or with franchisees or distributors. A closed user website or intranet may be the solution with everything from training manuals to the ordering of product and spares shown online
11) Content delivery – Do you want to distribute information via digital signage or touch screen kiosks. Do you want to cut down queuing and let customers go to self service booths
12) Future proof – What about changes coming to your business or industry. how can you start preparing now and ensuring your web platform is capable of adopting to these changes.
13) ROI – What is your expected return on investment. Over what period do you want to write off development costs. How will you judge the success of your web strategy?
In all likelihood your objectives will likely include a number of these objectives.
At ePromotionz we specialise in working with clients to help them prioritize their online marketing objectives and implementing a plan to achieve these objectives with regular reviews and tweaks as required
