E-NEWS VOL1 ISSUE 3

Is Your 2007 Budget for Spending Money or for Making Money?

Here we are again, nearing the end of the year and getting ready to forecast the 2007 budget. In preparing for 2007, we are planning our growth, charting our spending, creating goals, and outlining agendas. As you plan your 2007, what are your goals for your web site? Hopefully, you don’t plan on asking nineteen different companies to bid for yet another redesign, and I also hope that your goals include more than simply updating your website’s content. Although, you may have placed significant emphasis on your printed material in 2006, I encourage to open yourself up to the possibility that 2007 could be the year that you build the most powerful and revenue-generating web site your company has ever had.

As you plan your 2007 budget, I urge you to think of you website as an asset for your business. Ask yourself, “How can my website make me money?” Let it become the sixth man off the bench that closes the deal or generates a lead, which turns into your biggest client of the year.

In order for your website to truly become an asset, you must have a plan. First, think about the ultimate goal you want your web site to achieve. That goal could be to generate eighty quality leads a month, improve business processes by having an on-line support knowledgebase, or perhaps you desire to have twenty percent of business revenue generated from on-line sales. Now that you have your goals, begin to list all the elements or “modules” your web site needs in order to make your goals a reality. For example, your website could contain more robust content, phone conversations with previous clients to see what they like/dislike, staff members to handle on-line orders, e-newsletters to create loyal customers, blogging to create an on-line community, and so on. As you brainstorm your website’s function, write down as many things as you can think of that would help you improve your web site, for it is better to write things down and cross them off later as opposed to not writing them down at all.

After you have outlined your website’s goals and needs, it is time to move onto the next planning phase. In order to effectively meet your website’s needs, this phase requires the use of a web designer and strategist. It is here that you will begin to discuss, among other things, the design of the site, site navigation, your target audience, and what does that target audience need and desire from your website.

Lastly, create milestones throughout the year. Don’t just design and build your web site and call it quits. Put milestones in place for your post-launch that plan for what you will do to ensure that your web site is working for your business. Try putting together a ninety-day plan, which will layout the measurables and goals of the first ninety days of the web site, and then regroup on that ninety-first day and ask yourself what you have learned and what you need to do to make the second ninety days better than the first.

Merry Christmas and a Healthy 2007,
Gary Galvin