Goal setting is a key part of running a successful business - especially when you are thinking about your company's website and the information and features it needs to contain. Primary and secondary website goals really help companies determine what their website should "do" and what it should "say". A pervading rationale among corporations for having their own website is to maintain an image of being "in". They want to keep up with the competition, they want to have a positive reply to customers who ask for their web address, or they just want to be able to say their company has a site. Some businesses see their website simply as an opportunity to reinforce their "brand" or provide "information" for visitors. These are flimsy reasons for building a website in my opinion. They are a waste of company resources. These businesses miss out on a great opportunity to generate leads and sell their products to potential customers. The prospect of getting a return on investment is thrown away or bypassed, because the commercial goals are not clearly defined. A website must be viewed as a capital expenditure, just like the other resources. As such, it must give a return on investment that has a timetable and is measurable. The time, effort and finance required to set up and maintain your website should be recovered through conversion. Without the goals, it's easy to become sidetracked and add features and content for the sake of it. Let's take a moment to review why goal setting is important: 1. Setting goals eliminates the confusion of what to put on your website. In a typical process, the goal is found at the end of a series of sequential steps. However, in creating a website with a specific goal in mind, the typical process is reversed. You build the steps starting from the end going backwards to the start. Having goals enables you to plan the site structure and decide on what content to include. Goals set the criteria for establishing site content based on an objective viewpoint. This eliminates bickering among the executives of a company on what content is significant to the site and what is not relevant. They only need to consider one question: Will our business goals be met if this content is added? 2. Goals can be used as the yardstick of the effectiveness of your site after it is completed and published. Website effectiveness or its lack is determined by the rise and fall of conversion rates. Furthermore, improving a sluggish conversion rate is difficult if you cannot measure it in the first place. You will not be able to identify the improvements you need to introduce and you will not know if you have achieved that return on investment, or ROI, you are after. Primary and Secondary Site Goals Business websites can have many goals. Thus, it is important to classify them by priority in order to give each one its due focus during the web development process. Once this website is completed, the goals mean the results can be compared with the original online business plan. Primary goals are those that produce direct and tangible results. They are the goals that bring in the money and generate a return on investment. Primary goals that are appropriate for small businesses are: * Generating Leads * Selling Products Online * Producing Referrals Secondary goals support the primary ones and produce less tangible benefits, but are important just the same. But, as its description implies, your site should not be centered on the secondary goals. Some secondary goals are: * Building Up Credibility * Sustaining Current Customers * Recruiting Affiliates Goal-setting requires you to be self-centered and think in terms of what your site can do for your company, and not on how it can help other people by purely disseminating information. The information you supply is designed to engage your visitors so you meet your business goals. Although creating awareness of your company is a valid goal, a one-way communication channel does not generally generate sales. A word of caution here: not every product or service shown on a website is fit for purchasing as is. Products that are quite expensive, those that require a more complex selection process or need technical/professional advice during the buying process require interaction between the seller and the buyer. If this is the case, or if you see your product as being unlikely to be sold through credit card payments online, aim for lead generation as your primary goal. These goals should be examined and referred to frequently as the site is being developed. They will be taken into consideration during the development of the critical features such as site structure, marketing messages, calls to action and graphic design. Primary goals will make up for the majority of the site's content sections and secondary goals will probably be single-page based content. Questions that will help you set your site goals * What action do you need your visitors to take? - The answers will help you determine your primary goals. * What are the secondary goals that you want your website to meet? - Examples: provide investor information, list partners * Will existing customers be using your site? - If yes, what will they want to do? How are you going to cater for the needs of prospects and customers on the same site? If you would like help with setting goals for your website, why not do some research into your website visitors needs and have a look at what the competition is doing? These sources of information can be invaluable.
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