·
Increase sales revenue
·
Increase the visibility of the enterprise
·
Advertise products and services
·
Aid in brand development
·
Provide customer service
·
Generate sales leads
·
Retain and grow customers
·
Build an online community
·
Provide cost savings, especially in promotion
and customer service
Just creating a website is not
good enough. In order for your time and hard work of creating the website to
pay off, the website must be effective and well maintained. There are seven
steps that are essential to the establishment of an effective website. The
first step is to establish site objectives. In general, website objectives are
based on the AIDA hierarchy: attention, interest, desire, and action. The AIDA
concept states that objectives should make potential customers aware of the
product and service offerings of the business. Objectives should also convey
detailed knowledge about product use and develop intent to purchase (Roberts & Zahay, 2013) . The AIDA concept
helps businesses create specific and strategic objectives.
The second step in creating an
effective website is to identify and describe the target market. This step in
the web development process focuses on the needs, attitudes, and shopping
behaviors of target marketing segments. There are three important questions
that marketers will ask themselves during this step of the web development
process (Roberts & Zahay, 2013) :
1. Who
is the target?
2. How
do you get information about them?
3.
What would they like?
These questions are important to
answer in order to create an effective website. It is crucial that marketers know
who their target market is, how to receive information about them, and
understand what they like. Understanding who the target market is will
determine if the website should be entertainment-oriented or
information-oriented. Marketers can receive information about customers through
questionnaires, online blogs, and other social media. They can then adjust the
website accordingly to better suit the user.
Designing website content is the
third step of establishing an effective website. The recent trend in web design
involves eye catching graphics, strong visual metaphors, and clean, clear fonts
for text. Users do not like to have to look hard for the information they are
seeking. The “golden triangle” is often used during this part of the site
development process. The “golden triangle” is based on studies that noticed users’
eyes first landing in the upper left of the page. It is also based on the fact
that users usually look at only the first few words of headlines. This means
that the upper left corner of the page is where the important headlines and other
significant information should be. For example, if a sale is going on it would
be useful to place the sale information at the top left of the page so that it is
the first thing the user sees. Designing website content guarantees optimum
accessibility of the content of the target market (Roberts & Zahay, 2013) .
The fourth step involves
designing the navigational structure of the site. The navigational structure of
the site must enable visitors to move around the site in a manner that fits
each person’s individual need to simply examine summary information or to drill
deeper into the site in search of complete information about a specified topic (Roberts & Zahay, 2013) . In general, the
navigational structure of the site must be user-friendly and simple. Following
these two guidelines is the key to getting repeat customers (Longwell, 1999).
Deploying and tuning the website is
the fifth step in developing an effective website. This stage is fundamentally
technical. It involves making the site fine-tuned by compressing images to make
them load faster, checking links, and making sure that the site works as quickly
and smoothly as possible (Roberts & Zahay, 2013) . After the site is
running smoothly without errors, it is ready to be uploaded to a host server on
the Internet. Although the host will deal with the technical issues, the business
will need to continually monitor site performance to ensure its running to its greatest
ability.
The second to last step involves
measuring, evaluating, and improving website effectiveness. This step is
controlled by the marketing department. The marketing department must evaluate
the business effectiveness of the site to ensure it is meeting the business’s
objectives. The use of evaluation metrics will provide marketing with
information that will pinpoint areas that need to be improved in order to
increase effectiveness. The use of site evaluation will show which pages are
infrequently used as well as which customers have abandoned shopping carts.
This information helps aid in the adjustment of the site to increase overall
website effectiveness.
The final step of the effective
website development process involves the research of criteria for site
usability. This includes creating value, enhancing navigation and presentation,
and developing trust with the customer by allowing users to interact with the
site and give their feedback. This feedback is extremely important to businesses
because it will ultimately make sure they are on track with what their
customers want and expect from the company.
All in all, I recommend that that every business, no matter how big or
small, creates a website. Over the past few years, more shoppers have turned to
online shopping because it is quicker and more accessible. This is exactly why
it is extremely important for businesses to develop and maintain effective
websites. If a business’s site is not effective, customers will not return. Customers
want to visit sites that are quick and easy since convenience is the main
reason why buyers switch to online shopping.
References
Longwell, F.
(1999). Effective Websites Can Facilitate Worksite Sales. National Underwriter
/ Life & Health Financial Services, 103(49), 27-29.
Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. (2013). Internet Marketing. Mason:
South-Western.
