An article from the AIGA that applies to Technology as well. Give it a read.
Strategical, then Tactical.
Before design comes people, products and plans. Design is important and design can provide a methodology for communicating vision and insight, but before Design or Technology kick in, there must be strategy.
I've been emphasizing this with a number of prospects recently. They're people that know their website is important to their business and know it needs to do more, but they're jumping to design or technology tactics. "If I could just update these parts more easily and add this function." Or, "If I could just get more hits on the site."
Having worked with websites and online marketing for over a decade, I can tell you, that's the easy stuff. Where the challenge, and real effort lies, is taking a step back and looking at strategy:
Who's your ideal customer?
What are you selling them?
What value are you providing?
How do you communicate to them?
How do you effectively engage them and convert them into a lead?
A strategy that fully incorporates online marketing must come first. Only when that has been properly defined can we start to figure out what your website should look like and offer.
Once we know what you're saying or selling, we can determine how big a site you need.
Once we know how and to whom you're saying it, we can determine what the design should look like.
Once we know who your ideal customer is, we can determine where they find value and offer that to encourage them to purchase from, or contact, you.
A pretty website that's optimized for search can get you 1000s of hits. But they might only translate to 1 lead. A site that is focused and designed with a specific type of customer in mind might not rank high on Google for broad searches or have mass appeal, but its 100 hits might net you 20 leads.
Your website is your 24/7/everywhere employee. It's there to do a job for your business. Maybe you like to hire employees that have no experience in your industry and are just a pretty face to do sales for you. I'd bet that an employee who knows your business inside and out and knows how to connect with your ideal customers is a much better investment, though. And I'd bet that the most successful employees rely on a firm marketing strategy that you've defined.
