Effective online presence
An effective online presence requires you to convince visitors or customers to respond in a way that meets your company’s objectives. Even though the Internet is used by millions of people around the world, having your company’s own website will not automatically result in a multitude of qualified business leads. You need to think about two important and interdependent issues:
- What is the purpose of your website?
- What can your website do for visitors and customers – the ‘what’s in it for me?’ syndrome.
The purpose of your website
At the moment you may:
- have an established website
- be in the process of re-evaluating the usefulness of your current website
- be determining whether to build a website
In making any of these decisions, you should be motivated by a defined business purpose. The range of purposes behind the establishment of an online presence may include:
- Making information available to attract and inform possible customers or business partners about your business, its activities, and products and services.
- An online catalogue displaying products and services for sale to interested customers.
- A mechanism for customers to order, assess and purchase products and services electronically.
- A facility where invoices and order records are made available to customers and suppliers electronically. This would reduce costs, the need to respond to queries, and improve data accuracy.
- A marketing tool to position your company in an industry or sector.
In the early days of building your online presence it is important to draw on the resources around you, listen to other peoples’ experiences and the issues they have addressed in aligning their website and business. At this stage consider:
- Making choices based on your available resources and business requirements.
- Adopting a long-term perspective – small incremental steps are better than an immediate huge leap of (untested) faith.
- Look for input from supporters of your business – speak to family, friends, customers and suppliers.
- Plan effectively – get sound advice from people external to your business.
Your target audience
The defined purpose must be closely aligned with the requirements of your target audience. You should ensure you have clearly defined:
- Who is your target audience? Who you want to attract?
- What benefits visitors or customers will derive from your website?
- What information is appropriate to your visitors' requirements?
It is important that you don't get caught up in the statistics game. It is the quality of the visitors (that match your target audience) rather than the number, which should be your key concern.
Take a moment to place yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Think of the types of questions that will be important to them. Here are examples of what they might need answered:
- What do you do?
- What products or services do you offer?
- What is your unique point of differentiation?
- Who you are? (so that they can manage their own business risks)
You cannot address the needs of your target audience in isolation of what your competitors (national and international) are offering. In conducting your research and in defining audience needs you should also evaluate:
- What does your competitors' websites offer?
- What can you do better?
|