Calgary Web Designer Jenn Armour | Info Architecture + User Centric Web Design + Online Marketing + Social Media + Ideas

Is your web site doing what you thought it would?

// December 9th, 2009 // Strategy

Marketing your business online can be a tricky process. Small and medium sized businesses are learning that simply having a web site isn’t going to cut it. An insightful question to ponder is “why do we have a website?” or “why would we need to use social media?”.

It is important to know what you want your web site to do. What are the primary objectives of your corporate web site. Answer’s to these questions become part of your online marketing strategy.

Basically the success of your online marketing efforts can be determined by its return on investment. What is your website doing for your business? Are the right people, searching for your product or service finding your business EASILY? Further, are they taking action once your site is found? Exactly what are those actions and are you tracking them.

Search marketing is an area that has become increasingly important to businesses who want to tap into their online markets. There are many miss-conceptions about what SEO involves. If your business isn’t doing SEO and SEM you are truly missing the whole point of having a website. Unless of course online visibility is not one of your objectives.

Many of my clients are simply unaware of what search marketing is. There seems to be a belief that you hire someone to build you a site and that magically visitors show up. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

SEO/SEM is not a science but an art that entails many factors. Factors that change often. It is the process by which your web site’s pages, ad’s, banner, online company is placed in front of the people that you are targeting. It does not happen without strategic ongoing maintenance and work. Of which all begins with research and an online marketing plan.

Here are some pieces in the puzzle which i use to help build out your unique online marketing strategy.

Needs Assessment

Any good strategy has to begin with clearly defined set of problems or needs. Many times it is difficult to uncover what is needed and therefore the solution based on a vague idea is doomed to be un-successful. The best way to facilitate this process is through detailed Q and A.

Creative Brief

The creative brief is a summary of the Q and A. It outlines a brief description of the project, the objectives, audience, and assumptions for the project and details the creative concept.

This document serves as a foundation for the strategy and process of any project.

Strategy

In coordination with your company, a strategy that effectively meets the needs that were previously uncovered. This would include such things like: web mission statement, competitive overview, search engine strategies, user profiles, use case scenario’s, business goals and proposed methods of implementation.

Information Architecture and Content Structure

IA will include things like wireframes, site maps, content analysis, and task analysis. The purpose of strategically developing or re-developing the structure of any project is simple: It helps provide a map of how you will present your story to your targeted audience. Underneath this structure are assumptions or research about your users and how they behave. In order to attract and retain users this is a highly important step.

Technical Specifications

In order to meet the technical requirements of a project there needs to be a plan regarding which tools will be used to implement functionality. Here are some examples:

• Content Management Platforms (Open Source or Proprietary)
• E-Commerce Tools
• Online Community Tools (Social Networking, Business Blogs)
• Search Engine Specifications
• Hosting Solutions
• Domain Management

Search Engine Marketing Specifications

• Target Market research
• Searching statistics
• Keyword research and recommendations
• Existing web site analysis
• Organic Ranking Assesments
• Pay Per Click – Google, Yahoo, Miva
• Google Analytic and Web Position

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Write to me if you aren't in love with your current web site, if you have a question, request or if you just want to say hi that is good too.

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