Do you have marketing objectives for your Web site? With objectives to help overcome your main online challenges you can work smarter, not harder.Think of your Web site objective as
"big picture". It is basis for a marketing plan and, in general terms, answers questions:
"How can I use site to overcome my business's main Internet related challenge?" and/or "What is purpose of my site?" When setting marketing objectives, keep your site's business model and customers' decision-making stages in mind.
Business Models
The business model defines how your Web site fits into your business - how it will help your company grow. Direct revenue is a popular Web site business model, but it is not only one. Some business models include:
- Direct Revenue / e-Commerce
Some of most known Web site objectives relate to e-commerce or other types of direct revenue from site. That is, objective is to establish a direct source of revenue from orders or advertising space.
- Build Brand Image
A long-term marketing objective for your site could be to improve sales by building an image for your product, brand, and/or company. Increasingly, this is an explicit goal for large companies with ample budgets.
Small-budget companies can follow suit on a more affordable scale by building an image during natural course of marketing. You can do this by consistently presenting similar design elements and "personality" at each point of contact with world - whether that contact be virtual or physical.
- Enhance Customer Service
Your site can increase revenue indirectly by improving customer service. When customers are more satisfied, they tend to spread word about your products as well as buy more often themselves.
Customers often do product research on a Web site then later place orders via catalogue, telephone, sales representatives, a physical retail store, mail, and/or fax. In all of these cases, a Web site indirectly contributes to building business.
- Lower Operating Costs
A Web site can help your business by lowering costs. Automated customer service functions - Web-based FAQ, order status reports, product specifications, etc. - can lower number of customer service calls, reducing customer service labor costs.
A Web presence can also lower operating costs by streamlining communication with your business partners. Business-to-business companies can create secure Web space to communicate and collaborate with customers.
It is even possible to have individual, private sites for major clients. A central "meeting place" that archives communications and other customer-specific information can cut down on administrative costs related to "phone tag", inquiries, and/or need to consciously keep all players "in loop".
