Subscribe

Enter your email address to receive our monthly newsletter.

The Burning Question

Are on-line surveys a waste of time?

View Results


Blog posts

There’s no catch – a free trial of Loyalty Generator We send out 100,000s of e-Newsletters on behalf of brokers... Read more... On-line surveys provide evidence of TCF and a whole lot more You instinctively know that you are doing a good job... Read more... Fill your protection gaps here It doesn’t need a Which? survey to tell you that... Read more... Top quality marketing – all done for you Loyalty Generator is a regular e-newsletter sent to your clients... Read more... Click to see all posts...

Four Steps to a Great Website

If you were planning to open a new office you’d plan it properly and take a lot of care and attention in every aspect. After you moved in you’d maintain it so that it was always fit for purpose. You should treat your website in exactly the same way.

There are four distinct steps in producing a new website:

  • Planning
  • Build
  • Content
  • Project Management

Planning

If you don’t spend adequate time on planning, your website will suffer and you will, more than likely, end up spending more than you needed to.

Good planning:

  • Should identify the objectives you have for your site
  • Should produce a schematic layout to be used to brief web designers

You should aim for the output of the planning process to produce a report that you can use as a reference document for potential web builders

Build

Time spent in planning your website means you can make a decision on who builds it based on your requirements rather than simply by comparing competing designer website portfolios.

When selecting a web designer you should:

  • Approach at least three for quotations
  • Give consideration to their experience & track record
  • Audit the quality of their work
  • Obtain references from other clients who have used them

Content

Poor content is like putting substandard furniture in your new office – it will reduce the impact of your website.

On the Internet:

  • Less is more – content needs to be concise without losing key messages
  • Clarity is critical – there is no room for waffle, just information that is important
  • Demonstrate don’t tell – on-line, people look for evidence behind your claims

You should seriously consider using a professional copy writing firm that has plenty of experience of writing for the Web.

Project Management

Someone needs to be in charge and it shouldn’t be your web designer. Nearly all websites fall behind schedule because no one is taking overall responsibility.

The building of your online website needs an off-line construction manager, preferably from your business. The project manager will need access to all the decision makers within your business so that feedback can easy flow between the business and the web designer.

This article originally appeared in our November 2011 Loyalty Generator e-newsletter.