|
What You Need to Get the Most Out of the Internet
To grip the web firmly, you must establishing a website that:
1) Presents your business with impact
2) Satisfies basic visitor expectations, and
3) Encourages interaction with you and your business.
Note that we did not say “interact with your website.”
A website is, after all, a means to an end – and that end
is involvement.
Involvement is the opportunity to establish business relationships
with customers, suppliers and potential partners with complementary
skills.
Seeing your website in this light is key to using it effectively
as a business tool. Many small business owners become overwhelmed
with what they don’t know about technology when planning or
redesigning their website. The Internet phenomenon was so frenzied
for so long that they grew accustomed to “letting the experts
guide me.” Unfortunately, many of the experts just aren’t
experts.
We have all seen where the frenzy has lead -- hucksters selling
websites that are barely a business card encouraging the visitor
to contact the business in the “real” world… and
on the other to a garish over-produced website that showcases bells
and whistles but does nothing to invite or create interaction. You’ve
seen them, the “empty carnival” websites where you drop
them a note amid the flashing lights or bright colors or “high-concept”…and
maybe get a response three weeks later. Or not. All this hype makes
it a little difficult to find the honest, talented people you need
to design your website.
Gripping the web firmly means believing that the web works for
you, not that you must invest to serve it.
If your website designer or technology consultant believes differently,
fire them. You are an expert in what matters – your business,
your customers, your products and services, how to engage and satisfy
customers, to generate repeat-business, and to navigate the industry.
Any new web technique, tech feature, plug-in, or tool that doesn’t
further one of your basic business goals should be ignored. Trust
your instincts!
We will explore how to engineer and maintain solid links between
your “website operation” and your non-web-based business
operations, but for now we want to focus on some practicalities
of the website itself.
The web is an “old” place now – not in terms
of years, but in terms of cycles. Many people before you have invested
lots of money in experimentation, learning, failure, experience
and study. As a result, visitors bring certain basic expectations
to your site. Like it or not, your customers, suppliers and partners
have chosen to include the web among their tools for conducting
their business. They expect you to provide at least the basics if
they are going to consider you a credible resource for satisfying
their needs.
If you frustrate them when they try to learn about you online,
they may draw some conclusions about your business attitude in general,
and seek out someone else. The time is fading when you could blame
this on your nephew who built your website, or the designer, or
the tech consultant. Remember, the web works for you. That’s
you out there…get the basics right.
So, start gripping the web and creating a productive website by
turning off the computer.
That’s right. You need to sketch out a plan. To make sure
that the “bones” of the website are fundamentals of
your business, not some tech trick. I encourage you to turn away
from the bright, shiny distractions of the web and think through
what you are willing to invest your money in – cultivating
new prospects? Better serving existing customers? Inviting contact
by new customers? Offloading phone call inquiries? Scheduling? Or
just providing basic contact information? Highlighting the retail
store and encouraging visits? Educating prospects?
Ground your planning in either activities you perform well in building
your business so far, or what you need to do better to overcome
some of your blind spots and deficits in growing it. Whether you
are “goosing” growth along the current path, or using
the web’s cost-effectiveness and speed to compensate for underperforming
areas of your business plan, techniques and website features exist
to focus your site along those lines. Remember, the web is an old
place…there are lots of techniques and features at your disposal.
Sketching the plan is much deeper than this, but need not be elaborate
or torturous. Let us know if you would like a future column to dig
a little more deeply into the plan. We’d like to invite you
to become involved (wink, wink).
Once you have arrived at your initial plan, then you select a resource
to assist you. Do a little research, or ask those businesses whose
sites you visit often who helped them. Get a short list of three
and then interview them. Look at their work in light of the plan
you just created for your business. Look for alignment between the
kind of work they do and what you’re willing to invest in.
Above all else, get the chemistry of the working relationship right.
If they talk down to you, walk away. If they treat you as a provider
of raw material for them to win design awards, walk away. If they
try to own your website or try to wrap you into a long-term hosting
contract, walk away. If they hand you a lengthy contract, walk away.
A simple work for hire agreement is all you’ll ever need to
engage the services of a talented and reputable web designer.
Use your plan to structure the conversation. If they cannot speak
to the issues in your plan, walk away. What you are looking for
is a partner who can bring specialized knowledge of the web environment
to supplement and strengthen your plan, not overturn it. The web
works for you. Don’t lose your grip when conversing with “web
experts.” You’re the expert. It’s your checkbook.
You own purpose and priority; you’re interviewing them to
own the implementation.
While your chosen resource will help you in making sure the basics
of your website are solid, here is a short list of specific things
that we believe characterize a useful, purposeful, well grounded
website:
· Construct your pages according to visitor needs rather
than your wants – visitors usually have a priority in visiting
your site
· Invite visitors to do something with the information you
provide – contact you, come into the store, invite a bid,
access related information via a highly relevant link – take
some action
· Use headings and subheadings generously to break text into
smaller blocks for easy, quick scanning
· Offer a site search feature to help people find information
quickly
· Feature your contact information prominently at the same
place on every page
· Show all major navigation links on every page. The left
column or the top are often the best places
· Make it easy for users to tell friends and co-workers about
your site. Offer a "tell a friend" box so they can simply
enter email addresses and click a button to recommend your site
to a friend
· Include a Site Map to give users a quick glance at the
entire site
· Include visual elements (pictures, graphics) that are relevant
to the point, not just as empty visual eye-candy
Talk to us. Let us know what aspects of this vast topic are helpful
to you and which would be worth spending some more time. Drop us
a line and let us know.
ABOUT GROWINGCO, INC.
GrowingCo, Inc. is an advisory firm -- a trusted provider and facilitator
of peer-driven intelligence, insight and interaction.
Study, forum participants and sponsors use GrowingCo data, forums,
surveys and white papers to benchmark against peers and competitors,
evaluate demand drivers and understand individual customer requirements.
CONTACT
Ben Bradley
Managing Director
GrowingCo, Inc.
ben @ growingco.com
Direct: 630-221-9844
|
