Small business owners want to reach
as many customers as possible with as little investment as possible. Many try
traditional advertising and that method is still tried and true. Many are
trying the internet but this new marketing tool has some new rules to play by
that are easily overlooked.
The first step many owners take is
to build a website. Often, they do this
with little thought except to get their name out there on a page. These attempts often prove to be unsuccessful
because there was little to no planning put into them. Just as any start up
business, planning has to go into the development and purpose of the website.
Janet Attard, owner of the company
Business KnowHow has put together a preplanning checklist for developing a
website for small business owners. The
checklist is at www.businessknowhow.com. While the questions it asks are simple, in my
working with clients, I have found sometimes the simplest thoughts are often
overlooked in planning. It asks like: 1)
what do you expect to accomplish, 2) who will use it, 3) who will do the
updates and many more.
Your website needs goals so its
success can be measured against them. Some typical goals for a website are: 1)
to sell product to consumers or other businesses, 2) generate revenue in other
ways for your business like content subscriptions if you are a writer, 3)
develop new markets for your products, and 4) provide new ways for your
existing customers to reach you.
The website needs to be built with
an audience in mind. This audience is the customers of your business – the
people who currently buy your product or new customers you hope to reach with
the website. The audience will determine the website’s look and feel regarding
how the content is written, the colors used and even font size.
The website you are building should
not be a duplicate of competitors. You
want to make sure you investigate your competitor’s websites to see what works,
what does not work, how they bring customers into their website and more. You can learn from their mistakes to make
your website more useful to your customers.
Some features making a website
easier to operate are aimed at the owner and the customer. For the owner, it is having the ability to easily update the
content, and being able to do marketing through captured emails are just some
examples. For customers, it is ecommerce-shopping
carts, online payment options, being able to learn about the products, easy
shipping, pictures of the products are also examples.
A big item is making sure you stay
in budget. There are companies that offer free website building and others do
it for a fee - investigate them both to make sure you get what you want and at
a reasonable price. Others offer free development but then charge you hosting
fees.
Another resource for website
planning is with Aurora Marketing. They have put together a whitepaper client
questionnaire at www.aurora-marketing.net
that is pretty thought provoking if you are just getting started or wanting to
revamp your site. Some other sights to consider are www.skyrme.com/tools;webplan.html
and www.smashingmagazine.com.
So continually evaluate your
industry to make sure your idea is not already taken and you can stay on top of
new trends. If you have questions or
would like to set up an appointment to talk to Richard Proffer, area University
of Missouri Extension business development specialist, feel free to email him
at profferrd@missouri.edu or call
him at 573-243-3581. He is located in
Jackson, MO.
