Let us guess – first you made a website for your business, and then you started to ask yourself how to promote it? This is a common approach, but is fundamentally wrong, since it places the emphasis on working with the website, and not on working out the marketing. When you build a website in isolation from your business strategy, it is not an independent tool, and it therefore does not align with your business goals. Furthermore, if your company does not already have a strategy, then the website simply cannot solve business problems. It's like buying a bike wheel, and then looking for a suitable car to use it on.
Often, a company’s website is not incorporated into its marketing strategy, but rather functions as a completely separate element. When designing a website, developers often do not consider specifics such as the target audience or the existing demand for a product or service. Any attempts to promote the website result in having to revise and ultimately rework it entirely, as the business owner or marketing person who coordinated the visual elements with the web designer did not actually consider how the user would behave on the website before making a purchase.
The most important function of your website is interacting with clients at every stage of their journey. So, how do you design your website right the first time to achieve this purpose, and not have to redesign it 3 months after launch? Before developing a website, you need to answer the following questions:
What are the specific measurable tasks the new website should solve?
Is there a demand for our products or services online?
Is the demand stable? What are the dynamics of the demand? (Consider its seasonality.)
Who are our consumers?
What is important for our consumers? What problems do we solve for them?
Who are our direct competitors? What are their strengths and weaknesses?
How do clients perceive us now?
How do we want to position ourselves?
What is our pricing policy?
How do we plan to attract clients?
How many clients do we need?
How do we work with clients who visited the website but did not make a purchase?
How do we maintain relationships with customers who have made a purchase?
How do we stimulate the demand for repeat purchases?
How do we plan to increase the life cycle of existing customers and the number of repeat sales?
You should base your website creation and design on the circumstances and real tasks of the business.
1. Study the business and product/service from a marketing perspective. Examine the business model, the stages of the sales funnel, and the product matrix. Chat with employees.
2. Research the market and demand for the product, and find generated and potential demand. Consider your options for working with potential demand.
3. Analyze your competitors to find their weaknesses and growth points. Study your competitors’ behavior in terms of marketing activities and target audience.
4. Study the target audience and segment, and then study the problems and pains of each segment. Work on finding new audiences to expand your reach.
5. Prepare an online marketing strategy. Think about ways to attract and retain customers to they keep returning to your site. Plan on automating everything that lends itself to automation.
6. Structure your website around the customer journey and the demands of the target audience through tailored content. Work on removing audience objections at each stage of the funnel.