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Building a web strategy for small business

In the 20th century we had Yellow pages, newspapers, magazines and local media to advertise in - they’re still effective methods but expensive. Welcome to the 21st century where the presence of the internet has changed all that. Nowadays you can not only advertise on the web, but also sell your goods/services and build new relationships with your customers as well, plus it doesn’t have to cost the earth like traditional forms of advertising.

More and more people are now turning to the internet to find good and services and, depending where you read, up to 80% of the UK population now has access to the internet - that’s an awful lot of potential customers you could be missing out on. Add to that billions of users worldwide and you have a huge potential audiance.

Assessing your business needs

Not everyone needs an all singing all dancing web site, often just a simple 3-page site that informs people of what you do and how to contact you is enough - an example of this would be a site for local tradesman such as plumber. On the other hand a larger business might want a bigger site to showcase it’s products, provide customer support information, or have the ability to take online orders.

Task 1: Make a list of what you want your site to achieve, ie it’s objectives

Assessing your sites visitors needs

Often overlooked, the needs of your site visitors are the single most important thing on any web site. Are you giving them the right information to let the user make an informed choice? Is your text copy jargon free and easy to read? Is there a point of contact for enquiries? You already know the needs of your customers and their questions when you do business with them, it’s providing this sort of information that can often make or break the success of a site.

Task 2: Make a list of things that you know are important to your customers

Assessing the content needs for your site

Using your objectives and customer needs you noted you should now be in a position to make a list of the types of information to have on your site. You’ll probably have one or more items from this list…

• Provide information on products/services
• Provide methods of contact, ie email, telephone number and an address
• Provide background information on the business
• Provide support documents for reading or download
• Have the ability to post news updates and articles
• Have the ability to sell goods or services online
• Collect newsletter subscriptions for email marketing

Task 3: Gather all related content information for your site (text copy, images and so on)

Getting a web site created

Well that’s what I’m here for. Once you have a good idea of what you want I’m the person who can put it all together for you. If you have made up your lists and gathered together your site content (as in Tasks 1-3) you can now look to getting a web site built. Your information will give me a good overview of what you’re looking for and work out a cost for the project. Of course I can always offer my expert advice on the best way to go about things if you’re stuck or unsure.

Marketing and promotion

Once your site is live you’ll need visitors. Marketing a site is a subject in it’s own right but there are some easy steps you can start with…

• Put your domain name on stationary, brochures, and other forms of advertising
• Send newsletters to your subscribers (if you have a newsletter facility on your site!)
• Add your site to free web directories
• Look at online advertising opportunities