Internet Help for Small Business

Planning Your Business Website

Planning is essential for the success of your business website. Methodical planning will ensure that visitors to your website:

* recognise the site’s purpose quickly
* move easily and intuitively through categories and content levels
* feel in control of their experience
* remain on the site until they get what they want.

Rather than have a bunch of ideas buzzing around in your head or scribbled on scraps of paper, draw up a creative brief. This will act as a rudder, allowing you to steer the development process to successful completion. The creative brief should include:

1. Website’s goals (why)
2. Target audience (who)
3. Functional requirements (how)
4. Budget and time limits (when)

Questions to Ask:

The following questions will help in defining a creative brief:
- what are the broad goals of the business?
- how will a website support these goals?
- what is the main message your business wants to convey?
- what are the short-term and long-term goals of the site?
- what’s the competition and do they have websites?
- who is the intended audience?
- what will motivate visitors to use the site?
- what, if any, are the technical constraints?

Depending on your type of business, here are some examples of what to include in the creative brief:

1. Website's goals and objectives:

• to act as additional marketing tool so potential customers can find out about the business and what we offer;
• showcase and regularly update our products with pictures and technical data;
• cut costs of print ads and promotions by inviting readers to visit the website for additional information about our products
• save time answering questions on the phone as visitors can find this information from the website, e.g. business location, operating hours, pricing etc.
• project a more professional image

2. Target audience (say for garden and landscaping service):

• suburban homes, focusing on the woman of the house
• small office blocks
• suburban shopping centers

3. Functional requirements:

• Need to register domain name
• Must decide whether to use in-house staff to design and build the site or outsource
• Find web hosting service

4. Budget and time limits:

• Set a budget based as a percentage of overall marketing budget
• Set a deadline - possibly to coincide with a trade show or seasonal event

Once you’ve completed the creative brief, the next steps are to look at the design and building of the website.

Next ... Designing your business website

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