For the small business owner the temptation to relaunch your business’ website and start building your business’ online marketing strategy can be overwhelming. You’ve kept a vigilant eye on your competitors and keep reading just how important, and potentially lucrative a successful website may be. Hell! The recession’s over and you’re expecting that phone to start ringing!
If you’re like me, patience isn’t a virtue that has been bestowed on yourself. It’s all too easy to simply allocate £xxxx from the company coffers to rewrite your website and turn that phone or inbox into a lead generating machine.
Well… if only it was that easy. What’s standing in your way? Pretty much every other business in your industry thinking along the exact same lines.
So, if you’re sat at your desk looking at your 5 year old business website dreaming of riches, make sure you consider the following 5 thoughts;
1.) Design With Words Not Numbers
99 out of 100 business owners who have made the decision to outsource the rebuild of their website will speak to a designer first. They’ll probably talk to friends who ‘know somebody who builds websites‘ or go back to the business which built their last site thinking ‘yeah, they did an alright job‘. Now, I’ve worked alongside some fantastic designers over the years who can design better websites with their eyes closed than I could ever dream of (unless of course you’re looking at this current site thinking ‘Wow! The colours… the colours‘… if that’s the case, lets talk!).
No disrespect to any designer, but creativity is their strong point, not necessarily the end user’s requirements, or your business needs. Similarly, I wouldn’t recommend speaking with a marketing consultant about corporate colour schemes or branding, we all have our own place in the process.
Before picking up the phone to speak with a designer, make sure you have a strong idea of the content and structure you want to provide your designer as the redesign takes place. They’ll thank you for it, and so will your business prospects. Making sure you have a firm, but flexible, content strategy will not only ensure that your site will cater for your end-user’s needs, but also build the framework for an effective Search Engine Optimisation process.
2.) Think Content… Think Content Management System
Knowing exactly how you want to present information to your site visitors, you now have to make sure you can manage your website. There are so many fantastic CMS (Content Management System) platforms available to develop the framework of your site around. Make sure you have a firm understanding of that which is on offer from your web design team. It’s all well and good seeing your new website launched, but if the updating of your site requires a degree, or involves the downloading of a 500 page manual, you may experience problems shortly down the road.
Many design teams utilise freeware CMS, including the likes of Joomla and WordPress, as it cuts down the level of time needed to build the site, rather than design the site. It also helps to keep your own development costs down too.
Flexibility is a key ingredient for any site rebuild. Make sure that the system your design team are employing is simple to navigate and understand, but more importantly easy to update and administer as and when new software developments are introduced.
3.) Remember…. New Site Visitors Don’t Grow on Trees
There’s nothing better than seeing your all new website launched… open to the world… and ready to help develop your business into a new-generation web-savvy empire. Now, this is where your average business owner sees despondency creep in… A new website does NOT equal a new stream of visitors. As part of the overall design process, optimisation techniques have to be adopted at an early stage to ensure a smooth site launch. Without a clear development structure issues can develop quickly, particularly if you’re switching to a new platform using a new URL structure. The last thing you want to see happen is your new site fail due to an incorrect ‘handover’ between the existing and new sites. Make sure you speak to a qualified consultant, or at least ensure your outsourced design team are aware of the possible implications.
To kickstart the marketing of your new site, look to Google’s Adwords advertising package to drive new visitors to your site. Running a controlled, optimised, Adwords campaign will give you the confidence, or outline possible failings, on a pre-approved budget. Factor in an element of your re-launch budget to be set aside for Adwords advertising. Adwords, whilst offering a tremendously quick route to market, is one of the most competitive fields of advertising. You’re up against your competitors and larger businesses running longtail campaigns, so again, if time isn’t of the essence, speak to a Google Adwords Qualified Professional and see how they can devise a cost-effective plan for your business.
4.) Set the Foundations For Your Online Marketing Strategy
I’m not talking a 50 page document here. You simply have to set out your overall business objectives and understand how your new website could impact your overall business. One of the many great aspects of digital media, compared with traditional aspects, is that the information you require is out there. Through a mixture of keyword analysis and website analytics you can gauge the overall budget and get a flavour for possible ROI to deliver the online results your business requires. Areas such as site visitor rates and page impressions will be hazy until your new site is live, but you have the opportunity to forecast now, rather than later, to ensure a best fit for your online marketing campaign(s).
Make sure your site design team implement easy access to analytics. In fact, ensure they use at least Google Analytics which can be integrated into your Adwords campaigns to ensure complete analysis of your paid search marketing expenditure.
5.) Futureproof Your Online Business
Technology comes and technology goes… the site development which cost £10k 5 years ago is more than likely the equivalent to a freeware offering you can download today. Just like the evolution from vinyl, to cassette, to CD to MP3, online technology evolves… but at a far greater rate than any other business technology. With this in mind, ensure that your new website allows you to clearly export any and all content and data collection from your current site. The key element to a B2B, or Retail website, is the ability to collect data (with the permission of the end user!) for email marketing or direct marketing purposes. The ability to export this data for future developments is critical. The last thing you could wish for is to start from scratch with any online venture… or spend your hours copying and pasting data for the next redevelopment of your website.
The launch of a brand new website at first can be a little intimidating for the new venture, or the seasoned business owner. You want to make sure that all the boxes are checked, but at the same time you want your website to begin earning your business money.
Before beginning conversations with designers, marketing agencies or developers ensure that you have the clear goals and objectives you want from your website in mind and set out for your potential development team. Start with the end goal and work backwards. Even the simplest of lead opportunities such as lead generation forms or contact pages can be overlooked and introduced as an after thought. These are the areas which are critical to you, but not the most exciting to your designers.
Lead the rebuild of your website knowing exactly WHAT you want to achieve, the RESOURCES available and the DIRECTION you want your business to head.
..I'm the one on the left.
About The Author;
Ian’s career within the Search Marketing industry spans longer than Google’s! Since 1996 Ian Rhodes has worked with a wide range of UK and International businesses developing strategic online marketing campaigns that deliver winning results.
Prior to his consulting career, Ian worked for one of the UK’s first online retail businesses delivering cost-effective online campaigns centred around SEO and Affiliate Marketing. His success led to him being recruited as the European Marketing Director for the world’s largest online travel company. In 2004 he practiced what he preached setting up, from scratch, his own highly successful online retail business turning over £2mill in the first 4 years of trading…purely through a mixture of SEO and Paid Search Advertising.
If you’re looking to build your online revenue or lead generation techniques simply click Contact Ian and see how you can work together to start building your online business today.
