Despite dwindling budgets, virtually all companies today are finding that they require an online presence. A good Website can expand your customer base or market beyond regional borders. With the right Website, companies can capture and promote valuable strategic partnerships and sponsors, communicate with other field offices, create a flow of online purchases, and get their product or service out to millions of individuals who would otherwise not be exposed to their company.
Websites can be a fairly simple process to complete – if you stick with a plan that is aligned with your business needs. Unlike print media, the value of a Website is that its form can be changed to reflect a changing set of functional needs. Print material is static and unchanging; Websites are fluid, flexible, and interactive. If you plan your site well and utilize the right Web Developer, you can have the flexible, effective online marketing vehicle you need.
STEP ONE: PLAN
A good, solid Website plan creates a good, solid Website. Knowing how to manage this process is the key to getting the results that you deserve. The trick of getting the most out of your Web dollars is planning.
You need to know how to prepare for your present and future requirements. The following are some of the planning
considerations. Planning will help you get the results you want:
- URL - Make sure that you reserve as many versions of possible site names right away. Many times site address names can drive the design and concept portions of the site development, and not getting the name you want can change your view on that direction to go in. A good, cost-effective source is godaddy.com.
- Content - Know what you want to say. Be consistent with other collateral and marketing copy. Also – stay current on your site. Make sure that you make room in the budget for Content Management Systems (CMS) in place to keep up to date.
- Visuals - The site should reflect your brand. Plan to have a consistent look using good quality images that are aligned with your other materials. The idea is to enhance and reaffirm your branding materials, not create new ones with the Web.
- E-commerce - Decide in advance if you are going to be selling anything online. Make sure that you have the right online forms and a merchant account that will accept online transactions. Your Web hosting company should provide the features and services you need to create the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and merchant accounts you need. PayPal accounts can also be used as merchant accounts to accept all types of payment.
- Site Map - Make sure that you are clear on what pages or areas you want on your site. This will affect your buttons and navigation tools for the site. Nothing is worse that a site you get lost in. Be very clear on your organizational structure for your site.
- Capturing - You should consider having a registration page, opt-in, free download, or other means of capturing your online viewership. Data is king. Make sure you capture at least the first name and email address (and opt-in permission) of your guests. Services such as Constant Contact and iContact are excellent tools for these purposes.
- eMarketing - How will you drive traffic to your site? Don’t forget to consider the marketing tactics necessary to drive traffic to your site, including: search engine optimization, key words, search engine placement, affiliate programs, RSS feeds, blogs, and the inclusion of your new Web address on all existing collateral.
- Future Uses - Plan out what other uses you may have for your site in the months and years to come. Events, calendars, promotionals, interactive areas, polls, on-site search features, and online classrooms should all be considered as possibilities as your Web presence grows.
Once a company has decided to spend money on a Website, the key is finding a Web Developer that meets their needs. Unfortunately, the answer for many companies is to hire the least expensive person and hope for the best. This will always be evident in the results. Yes, any Web presence is better than none at all. But just be realistic enough to know that, like any other makeshift or desktop-published collateral, you are fulfilling a short-term need and not creating a final product that is aligned with your business and marketing goals. When choosing a Website Developer, you need to make sure that you find someone that meets all a crucial set of requirements:
- Credentials - Make sure that they have the credentials and experience you can count on. They should be able to prove their ability to program and design in a variety of platforms and programs. Ask for a list of representative sites that they’ve done and for their Website address, as well as referrals.
- Relationship - You will be developing a long-term relationship with your Developer, so make sure that you feel that you can work with this person and that there are no potential personality conflicts.
- Consultant - Make sure that they have a business-like “consultant” demeanor and speak plain English about technology. They will be working for YOU, so don’t hire someone that talks down to you or makes you feel stupid about your technological experience or decisions.
- Expense - Make sure that this consultant will give you their prices and timelines up front. Don’t ever choose to work with a tech consultant that charges by the hour for Websites with no end in site. Flat fee billing reflects experience and confidence and will give you the budgetary and emotional peace of mind that you need for this type of project. If there will be a lot of planning as part of their consulting, thereby making it difficult to see what the final costs will be, hire them to consult with you in the planning stages, and when there is a final scope document they’ll be able to set a cost that you all agree to as complete with no future confusions or scope creep.
- Hosting - Ask them about their hosting relationship. They should be able to give you a fair idea of cost and process for utilizing a particular hosting vendor. Ask for the recommendations for hosting companies and check them out. Hosting should offer 24-7 access to your files, live tech support, and offer a wide range of features and add-ons. What good is a site that is down all the time and you can’t reach the tech? Hosting fees should be paid directly to the hosting vendor. All web-related expenses be paid directly by you, and therefore all assets will be controlled by you. A solid, inexpensive option for site hosting is a shared server. National providers, such as GoDaddy, offer shared hosting packages with a wide range of features and add-ons that are less than $60 a year. This is an acceptable option at the start of your Website design process, but make sure that you are comfortable with your hosting company. Also, you can always move to a dedicated server as your site grows and requires more space.
- Proposal - Get the proposal in writing. It can be very short – even in the form of a memo – but it should outline the key timeline and expense requirements to meet your present needs logically and clearly. Make sure that the entire scope is outlined in the proposal. You should have conceptual agreement as to the scope of work and timeline involved. As best as possible, you want to avoid changes and scope creep for elements not considered in the earlier discussions. Make sure that there is also a set means of ordering changes to the contract and scope as changes do happen in a creative process.
- Contract - If you choose to go with a particular Website Developer, get a contract in writing outlining the specifics of your project and how they are expecting to be paid. Discuss expenses and what their fee will and will not cover. For example, hosting fees are usually separate from Website Development fees. Fees are usually paid either half up front (upon signing the contract) and the other half within a period of time (anywhere from 30-60 days), or on an ongoing hourly contract basis. If you have the whole budget available at once, it is good to ask if they would discount the price (usually by around 10%) if you were to pay the entire fee upfront.
Meet with your Website Developer as soon as you contract them and start the initial design phase. In this developmental stage of the Website, you will be working with the Website Developer to pull together the look of your Website. Supply them with all of the images, content, current collateral, and any other materials that the Developer will need to create the look you are trying to achieve. If you have some favorite sites, give them the addresses so that they can see what you like.
In about 7-10 days, the Website Developer should come back to you with preliminary designs for you to approve. Often developers make the error or providing design samples using print-driven graphic programs. This results in a final design that can be vastly different from the original design concepts presented. A developer should know this challenge when dealing with Website design. Print rarely looks like online in both color and layout. Ask to see the design samples in PowerPoint and view the samples on your computer to get the best possible sense of the design.
Lastly, remember to keep in mind that the design must also reflect all other branded collateral materials you will be using in conjunction with the Website in your outreach and marketing efforts.
STEP FOUR: SITE MAP
The Website Designer will be returning a site map for your review. This will look like a big flow chart and is a graphic representation of all your discussions, plans and notes to date regarding content and various means of site navigation. The map should be easy to follow. They are many new and cost effective ways of adding interactive buttons and toolbars to assist your viewer in finding exactly what they want tin the site. Remember, the point of the site is ease of use for the viewer to understand and utilize your message – not get lost and leave. Site maps are worked on from the beginning and will take up to 5 days to complete.
Site maps are also a key element in achieving the best possible results when optimizing the site for Google and other major search engines.
STEP FIVE: TEMPSITE REVIEW
Once the architecture, content, design, and images are in place, you should be ready to see the site live on a temporary Web address supplied by the developer. This allows you to play with the content, navigation, interactive elements, forms, etc. and “break” the site. Get the bugs out. Find errors.
The tempsite is begun after the architecture and final content are received and approved and will take approximately 30 days to program and complete. Changes and tweaking to the site will also need to be done and depends on the amount of changes that are undertaken. Make sure that everything works that way that you want it to.
During this phase, you can also take a look at your site optimization plan and make sure that people will be able to find you. Also, if you don’t already have a blast e-mail list set up with your constituents and contacts, do so right away. Get your Web marketing in order. When you “go live” you will want to tell everyone you know.
STEP SIX: GO LIVE
“Going live” is when the site is moved to the permanent server and you can publicize your site to the world.
It is essential to get a full copy of ALL work done and access to your site at every level PRIOR to signing the final site launch approval and paying the Web Developer’s final fee. Information must include:
- URL registration information
- DNS settings
- IP addresses
- All hosting access codes, user names, “secret words,” PIN numbers
- FTP addresses and passcodes
- MySQL database access
- SSL keys
- Merchant account access codes, user names, “secret words,” PIN numbers
- License keys to CMS software solutions
- CD of all code and images.
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Developing a Website can be a time consuming process, but it is a lot of fun when you feel involved in the process and prepared to meet the challenges as they arise. Plan well. Find the right Website Developer. No matter how big or how small the site, a good site that is well designed, functional and easy to navigate will always show you and your company in the best possible light amongst today’s crowded Internet market.
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