If you’re approaching a website design or redesign project for your business or organisation, the first thing you need is a strategy. Having a strategy will bring clarity in establishing clear objectives for the project before jumping into the design and development of the new site. In this article you will learn how to create a strategy for your website in four simple steps.
4 essential factors
Consider these four factors to establish a strategy:
- Determine Goal
What is the purpose of the (re)design and what is the measurable outcome? - Define Brand
What is the message and Unique Value Proposition? - Define Target Audience
Who is the defined target audience? How do you want them to perceive you? Create an avatar for each persona to help define their characteristics. - Analyse Competition
Who are the top-ranked competitors and how do you distinguish yourself from them?
1. Determine Goal
If you are going in for a redesign, there may be several reasons why you decide to redesign your website. It may be outdated or you may need to improve your conversions. Focus on these five goals:
Set yourself apart from your competitors
- Distinguish yourself from your competitors by honing your Unique Value Proposition (UVP).
- Tell your main target audience persona the problem you’re addressing and how your solution is better than the alternatives.
Be authentic
- The site should reflect who you are.
Think about your search engine ranking
- If you’re redesigning, it’s vital that you retain your search engine ranking position so that you don’t lose visitors.
- If you’re just starting out, think about how you’re going to be noticed by the search engines.
- Don’t just launch the site and forget it, hoping people will magically arrive on your doorstep. Creating the site is 10% of the job. Promoting the site is the other 90%.
Increase leads and conversions
- Boost your marketing content to increase conversions (e.g. create a content marketing plan, then start blogging regularly).
- Make the navigation clear, simple, and unfussy, so that your target audience can find what they need quickly and easily.
- Focus on content that shows you as an industry thought leader, so you can boost web traffic, user engagement, and search engine ranking.
- To increase leads and conversions, incorporate a clear call-to-action, e.g. to encourage visitors to sign up for a free trial or download.
Make the site responsive
- Recognise that a growing portion of your target audience will be using smartphones and tablets.
- As part of your effort to increase leads, ensure your site is fully mobile responsive and offers a desirable (rather than acceptable) user experience.
- Use technology to tailor content to fit smaller screens without having to change the content itself.
2. Define Brand
What is your brand’s mission? Our mission is to help small and medium business and organisations by creating and implementing digital strategies and solutions, so they can become more successful.
We may be being optimistic, but we reckon we can make the world a better place in our own small way. We work hard to keep our customers happy by providing them with the digital strategies and solutions they need to take their business or organisation to the next level. Keeping our customers happy keeps us happy: it’s a win-win situation.
- You need a website that reflects your personality and values.
- Work out your business or organisation personality and values.
- Write a corresponding Unique Value Proposition.
3. Define Target Audience
You may be familiar with the concept of a buyer persona (a character that represents your target audience). It’s something that considers the user’s goals/desires, as well as the limitations that guide purchasing decisions.
- Create a design persona that represents your brand.
- It should mirror how you want others to see you.
- Remember: an appealing website that evokes emotion makes a lasting impression. It’ll stand out from the competition and be remembered when your visitors return.
Focus on these three areas to define your web persona:
- Traits
- What makes your brand unique?
- Create a list of traits that best describe your brand.
- Voice
- The tone of voice should reflect your personality traits.
- This should be consistent in your copy and messages, including on social networks.
- Visual
- What character or image embodies your personality traits?
- A visual representation could potentially personalise our brand, so your audience could relate better to it.
4. Analyse Competition
- Understand what the competition is doing to help you finalise your plan.
- Look at what is and isn’t working in terms of making emotional connections and for search engine rankings.
Once you’ve established your strategy, you’re ready to move on to the next stage of planning your website project. If you’re in need of a little assistance, take a look at our FREE 10 Step Website Planning Guide to help you with your goals.
Edward Solomon has over 30 years’ experience in project management, technical education, computer networking, web design and development and is a Digital Business Consultant for PENNInk Productions Ltd.
