In the modern age, it’s more important than ever to have a website. But just because you have one doesn’t mean that people will visit or buy from it. That is why digital marketing has become such an integral part of the world we live in today.
This article discusses 7 questions every business should ask themselves before creating their next website, and how these will help them fit into this new world without sacrificing what they do best.
1. What do you hope to get from your website?
This is the most important question. What is the main objective you need to achieve with your new website? It might be to generate more leads, or sell more products.
What are your goals? Do you want people to sign up for membership on a blog or newsletter? Is it important for them to contact your company through the website? What about finding out how much they can spend towards an order online before contacting sales support? The answer will help determine what type of CMS framework is best suited for you and the features that should come with it.
2. Who are your customers?
Who will be the primary users of your website. Is it for children? Adults? Young Professionals?
The first step to building a website is figuring out who will be using the site. What age group are they in, what gender identity do they have, and most importantly- what social media networks would best reach them.
If you understand your customers and where they spend the most of their time online you can build a website that delivers a more relevant experience to your prospecting customers.
3. How do they access the internet?
When building a new website, you should be sure that your site is optimised for mobile phones. Users may become frustrated and leave your page if they are unable to download the content on their phone.
If you are targeting people using a mobile data connection like 3G, make sure that your site loads quickly and does not get bogged down by heavy images or video content. If your website is too complicated or takes a long time to load, it will be frustrating for users.
4. Should you customise their experience?
If your audience is mostly Western, it may make sense to build an English language website. If you’re more of a global company or are targeting international audiences, then it’s worth considering other languages and their corresponding alphabets as well in order to reach the largest possible audience with one site.
5. How often do people visit your website?
Its important that your content be dynamic and updated frequently enough so that visitors can find fresh information about topics they care most about while also maintaining some semblance of consistency from page to page. A blog post should probably be published at least once every week but frequency could vary depending on how often you have new things to share with readership categories like infographics or podcasts might warrant updates more often than say a static page about your company’s history.
6. What questions are they asking Google?
Are they looking for a product, service or solution? If so, what are they trying to do and how can you help them with that? What information is needed to fulfil their need from your company and why should someone trust you over the competition? How will this purchase benefit them in the long-term? Who else has had success with these products/services or solved similar problems before? Where did they find out about it (what search terms were used)? Is there something unique about your website content that sets you apart from others?”
7. How big is your budget?
Your budget will determine the type of website you can create.
If you are on a tight budget, then think about what your business needs most from its site and design accordingly – for example, if SEO is important to you, prioritise that in the content strategy phase. If it’s not an option but mobile optimisation is high on your list of priorities, make sure this becomes part of the design phase.
Prioritising during each stage means less chance for errors to crop up later down the line as work moves towards completion which could result in costly backtracking and time wasting mistakes due to too many cooks stirring with no clear idea of where they are headed.
It has never been easier to get your digital marketing projects started. Schedule a free digital consultation today and let us help you maximise your Return On Ad Spend. Our digital marketing consultants will work with you to understand your project and utilise their expertise to improve conversion rates.
