Today websites are an integral part of a business. They are effectively your ‘shopfront’, your point of sale and one of the best means to influence stakeholders. So it’s advisable to do some planning before you commission a designer to create a new or updated site in order to optimise the end result.
Many businesses think they have a clear vision for their website only to come unstuck when they are asked to properly brief a design agency. (See our blog, How to brief a digital agency). Often this is because the business lacks a comprehensive marketing plan.
Understandably many businesses concentrate on their own core business and marketing often falls by the wayside. Without a central marketing plan you risk having disparate perspectives on your marketing strategy within the business.
It seems logical then that the first thing you need to do is understand your marketing goals and how the website can help to deliver on those goals. This may seem obvious but it’s easier said than done.
Here’s an overview of what you should ideally resolve BEFORE you brief an agency and should form the basis of your brief.
Marketing planning run down
There are lots of resources to help you with marketing planning. However, you may find this quick checklist helpful to ensure you’ve considered the essentials in relation to website projects.
1. Top down summary
Imagine you are telling someone from another industry what your business is about. As you don’t have a lot of time, you have to be concise. What would you say? Cover what you do, why, for whom and something about your industry and competitors. What are your business goals? Create a summary from these answers.
2. The challenge
List your products and services with a brief description covering goals for each.
3. Snapshot of your company
Company Analysis:
- Long and short term goals
- SWOT – Strengths, Weaknesses Opportunities and Threats
- Past, present, future
- Market maturity – how mature is your market? What is your position within that market?
Customer Analysis:
- Potential customers – what is your customer base?
- Demographics – who are your customers?
- USP – What is your unique selling proposition? What is it about your offering that provides value to customer?
Competitor Analysis:
- Who are your competitors – what do they have that you don’t? What do you have that they don’t?
- Where do you play vs the competition?
- What factors affect your business from outside?
Technological environment:
- Economic
- Political or legal
Market segmentation:
- What segments make up the market for your goods or services?
- What are the characteristics and drivers of each?
The better the brief you provide a webdesign agency, the better the outcome for your business.
Fatpublisher provides a range of website design services to our clients. If you are interested in finding out about our web design services, please contact us.
]]>