WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT
You can have the most beautiful website in the world, but if you are not saying the right things to the right people, it will not work.
Identify your target audiences
The first step in designing a successful website is to identify your key target audiences. The questions you must answer are:
- Who are your online stakeholders?
- What tasks do they want to achieve online?
Typically, many companies want to satisfy the following stakeholder groups:
- Staff
- Business partners
- Potential customers (segmented)
- Existing customers (segmented)
- Media
- etc
Add value to your target audiences
Once the key stakeholder groups have been identified, a 'stakeholder/requirements' matrix will help you to develop added value online services to meet the needs of these individual groups.
For example, to satisfy the needs of the media, adding a news resource/library of press releases and photos will allow them to browse and download news items, case studies etc from your site.
To satisfy the needs of potential customers, general background information on your company, an overview of your services, your unique selling proposition (USP) and pricing will allow them to understand your offering and hopefully encourage them to become a customer.
Integrate the web into your marketing mix
The Internet is another communications tool in your marketing toolkit... you should try and integrate your web presence into your marketing mix and use traditional marketing methods to generate traffic to your website.
At the most basic level, make sure you promote your web address on any: Adverts PR Direct mail Business stationery etc.
You should also think about how your online and offline communications tools relate to each other and your marketing strategy in general. For example, you could allow users to request or download printed materials online, you could provide direct response pages for advertising campaigns, you can survey and conduct marketing research online...
The level of integration of your online services is only restricted by your imagination and willingness to implement e-business processes!
Site planning and design
Once you have identified your online audiences and their information needs, a site map can be produced. From this site map, the navigational structure of the site can be defined and a suitable graphical design produced.
We are able to deliver a clean, simple and professional design for minimal cost as part of the build process or to undertake a full creative briefing process to supply numerous initial design options (supplied as artists sketches or online prototypes). Whatever your design budget, we have a solution to meet your needs.
Further Information
To find out more about our website planning and design services, e-mail websites@mqm.co.uk.