A Cheat Sheet to Use When Building a New Website

<p>Lead With Business Objectives!
<br>Unfortunately a lot of website agencies consider technology first and marketing second. They are so focused on using a new gizmo or clever drop down menu that they forget to ask how this helps the business. Start with what the business needs first and force the technology to match it.</p><p>Don't Blindly Mirror Competitors!
<br>The greatest business breakthroughs we have with our customers is when we take something that works in one industry and apply it another. If you only copy your competitors you are always going to be one step behind.</p><p>Search Engines are King!
<br>Some websites are fantastic looking, have good workflow and convert well but are completely invisible to the search engines. Programmers have the strange habit of coding sites that work well from their point of view but leave Google blind.</p><p>A Website is only one step!
<br>A website it is not a whole marketing plan. A standalone website that is not promoted is good as having a very expensive leaflet in a cupboard that no one sees. You have to think about how you are going to get that website seen by customers and what is going to get them to automatically come back. Use data capture tools such as
<br>• Free Reports</p><p>• Automatic evaluations</p><p>• Free Trials</p><p>• Webinars</p><p>• Newsletters</p><p>Your Website is not an Island!
<br>Your website should be integrated into every customer contact and also help every member of your company do their job better. It should;
<br>• Tie in and enhance your direct marketing projects</p><p>• Track offline advertising</p><p>• Automate repetitive customer support / sales tasks</p><p>• Build customer relationships through automated marketing.</p><p>Interact with your customers!
<br>Web 2.0 connects people and opens new ways of communicating with your customers. It is now clear what works well in B2B and what should be left to B2C. By building a community within your customer set you can help recession proof your business.</p><p>Open Up Your Website!
<br>Different types of customers like to be kept updated in different ways. Your website content can be shared using;
<br>• RSS feeds to automatically update people. Example: Show people how use your RSS feed in Outlook to keep up to date</p><p>• Email alerts around specific content types. Example: Specific Job type alerts on a recruitment site.</p><p>• Desktop Widgets: Example: Desktop premium reseller pricing tool.</p><p>Usability!</p><p>Always do some usability testing with target customers. Track where people are falling off your sales funnel, or data collection funnel. Use this to highlight where your website could be made simpler.</p><p>Author - Mark Hammersley<br> smARTebusiness<br> Blog - <a target="_new" href="http://www.browsertobuyer.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.browsertobuyer.com</a><br> Website - <a target="_new" href="http://www.smARTebusiness.co.uk" rel="nofollow">http://www.smARTebusiness.co.uk</a><br> UK Tel - +44(0) 161 408 8393<br> NZ Tel - +64 (0) 211 657 823</p>