Website Objectives

If you don't have a crystal clear picture of who you are marketing to and exactly what you're selling them, the best web site in the world won't get you clients.

Before you even think about building a web site, you should know who your target market is, how to describe your professional specialty, and what specific benefits your work provides for your clients. You should also be very clear about what results you expect from your website.

Today most businesses have a web presence, with a range of reasons for building one. The single most common reason businesses invest in a web presence is simply because: “everyone else has one”.

Jumping on the website bandwagon can actually be detrimental to your business and your brand. When building a website you need to identify key objectives as to why you need a website, these could include the following:

Create an E-Commerce website
Convert traditional sales to online
Build a customer database
Reduce costs of traditional marketing
Build brand awareness online
Distribute Information
Gather Market Research
Build relationships online

These examples are business or marketing objectives, they will influence the design/layout of a website and need to be considered before the design process begins. A website may need to fulfil multiple objectives. For instance; a company may build an online presence purely to convert customers to buying online, which should decrease traditional marketing costs, whilst building relationships online.