 Remember the early days of Web site development? When it was cool just to develop a Web site, any Web site, like a cowboy riding into the wild west with nothing but your wits to guide you. The speed at which companies built sites was reminiscent of a gunfight; the Web arrived, someone shouted "draw!" and everyone rushed to build a site more quickly than the other guy.
Well, those gun-slinging days may be over, and that cowboy posse may have moved on; but the Internet frontier remains just as wild, and there is still plenty of unknown territory to stake out. Now building a Web site is a major undertaking, a task demanding the combined efforts of many in an organization. Now an integral element of marketing strategy, Web sites must meet complex interrelated needs, and must do so while providing exceptional human experiences.
Today and the future
Yet another major shift is taking place in business, driven by Internet technology. Though somewhat quieter than the initial information revolution, the shift to the executable Internet, where customers can interact directly with an organization, is happening. Customers are developing higher expectations of the Internet, and the services organizations can provide via the Web. Increasingly, customers expect to be able to visit a Web site and conduct business, to purchase goods, and to obtain customized information. However, a great deal of what is available online currently does not meet visitor expectations. Many people can recall frustrating experiences registering for an event or making a purchase online. Given the high level of resources required to develop these services, it is no longer feasible just to build a Web site; rather, organizations need to develop comprehensive Internet strategies tightly integrated with overall marketing, branding and organizational strategies.
Developing an effective Internet strategy demands much more than just building a Web site. Internet strategy takes time, expert knowledge of an organization's needs, its niche marketplace, its target consumers, and the range of technology available. Having the right expertise is key; without it, an organization risks wasting huge investments in time and money.
An Internet strategy must achieve three correlated goals:
a) The highest on any organization's priority list - a Web site must meet visitor goals. Consumers not only expect up-to-date information, increasingly they expect to be able to interact with the organization, to exchange information, and to conduct business transactions online. They expect the Web site to be easy to find, easy to recognize, and above all, easy to use; if not, the competition is just next door (a single click away). If an organization does not strive to provide the best human experience possible, they risk losing visitors and consequently losing business. In a shift to an information services driven economy there needs to be a renewed focus on "the human experience". A given brand will soon be only as good as the online experience its Web site delivers.
b) Internet strategy must be an integral part of an organization's overall marketing plan. It must drive the organization's brand, and must be effectively marketed across all channels, from brochures and radio ads, to search engines and email messages. Media convergence is becoming a necessity: offline communications must mirror those online and vice versa. Inconsistency only undermines a brand.
c) The technology involved must be well chosen, must meet consumer expectations, and must be robust. The rapid progress of server technology, software development, and the widespread adoption of high-speed Internet access are dramatically changing the Internet and how it is used. Organizations must make informed choices regarding the technology they employ; it is imperative that they choose the right tool for the right job. Technology, when chosen carefully and applied with business needs in mind, can introduce new efficiencies and increase profitability.
Obviously, developing a plan to achieve all of these goals is a daunting task, and most organizations do not possess the expertise to do so. Professional Internet services firms - firms with a sound knowledge of business needs, and an ability to address those needs with technology - begin with the premise that the Web is a tool, and a company's Internet strategy must make the best use of that tool to meet the needs of their target audiences. Organizations should regard their Internet development partners as they do lawyers and accountants - standard service partners every successful organization must engage.
A successful Internet strategy must address a wide range of elements. Professional Internet Services firms ensure these issues are addressed by breaking them down into seven fundamental segments; the building blocks of business-driven Internet strategies.
The Seven Fundamental Internet Strategies
1. Branding
First and foremost, a Web site must clearly communicate an organization's brand; it must work in concert with all of an organizations' communications tools (regardless of medium) to deliver one clear, consistent image. A well-defined identity helps customers identify an organization effortlessly and instills confidence in the marketing messages being delivered, not to mention the organization as a whole.
2. Human experience
Exceptional human experiences set organizations above the competition. To create accessible Web sites that are easily navigable, and that present straightforward tasks, takes careful forethought and accurate knowledge about visitors' abilities and goals, as well as the level of technology via which they are accessing the Internet.
There are two key ways to increase the usability of a site:
a) Create positive redundancy. Provide several different navigation features to appear on every page in the same location, for instance, a left-hand navigation menu, a search function, and a site map. Employ conventional Web design cues, particularly those used by other organizations in the same niche market.
b) Provide positive feedback. Each time a customer interacts with the site, give them a positive message explaining the result of their action, and what their next steps should be.
Providing customers exceptional experiences works positively in two ways. It enables visitors to achieve their goals, thus reinforcing their overall positive perception of an organization. It also allows an organization the opportunity to retain and reengage site visitors. If a Web site is easy to use, visitors are more likely to use it regularly. Simple but effective: regular, happy visitors are generally more open to targeted marketing strategies, helping an organization to drive particular products or services, as necessary.
3. Search engine visibility
Online visibility is a third critical component of a successful Internet strategy. A staggering 85% of Internet traffic comes from the top three engines: Google, MSN, and Yahoo!. To achieve top rankings in search engines requires professional expertise. Search engine algorithms are constantly updated, and search engine spiders are engineered to find Web site structures that fit certain criteria. While this can create difficulties for the uniformed, knowledgeable and diligent, search engine marketers can reap great rewards.
Business-to-business (B2B) organizations know that the value of a obtaining new customer is typically very high. And once an affiliation has been forged the lifetime value of that single business relationship can be in the hundreds, thousands, or even millions, of dollars. That makes search engine placement a particularly critical part of many B2B marketing managers' overall plans. Regardless of where prospects are in the buying cycle, chances are that searching is part of their daily information collection routine. Prospects may be researching:
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Features and Benefits
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Usage practices
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Reliability issues
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Costs
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Substitutability for other products or services
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Manufacturer reputation and customer support
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Testimonials or case studies
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Supplier/distributor locations
A well-crafted marketing plan, which includes both paid placements and organic (non-paid) search strategies, is an organizations' best approach to ensure that potential customers seeking this type of information find the site. While sometimes difficult to assess, knowing the success of organic search engine results versus paid placements provides valuable information when allocating marketing funds.
Corollary to developing solid search engine strategy is developing good follow-through. The landing page that visitors first view on your Web site must be exceptional; first impressions count, and an excellent first impression reinforced by relevant content and an immediate call to action is the best strategy an organization has to engage and retain potential customers.
4. Web Content Management
Straightforward in theory, the constant need for timely and relevant Web content can be difficult to put into practice. Customers expect a Web site to be absolutely up-to-date and absolutely accurate, but the process of developing and publishing content, particularly when whole departments are responsible for different sections of a site, can be difficult to manage. A Web content management system (Web CMS) must be utilized and the system should provide for workflow management, content scheduling, versioning, navigation and Web page management, search engine friendly pages, content editing via a rich text editor, among other technical features and requirements.
Related to the need for a Web content management process is a Web site specific marketing plan. The two are complementary as both must be developed in conjunction with the site, and both must be continued throughout the lifetime of the site. Workflow planning for Web content management, and targeted Web site marketing are key elements of Internet strategy development.
5. Web statistics analysis
Just as Web content management and Web site marketing strategies must be on-going processes, so must statistical reporting on Web site traffic and activities. Accurate statistics provide valuable information an organization can use to evaluate - and to evolve - search engine and other marketing strategies. It is important to invest in an accurate reporting tool (such as Lyris' ClickTracks); most freeware applications do not provide the quality of information necessary to inform Internet strategy development. Web analytics can facilitate either moving an Internet strategy forward or adjusting it, as required.
6. Reliable Web hosting
Simply stated, 100% reliable Web hosting is imperative. Customers demand the sites and services they use be available, and reliable, not to mention secure. Today server technology can easily provide round-the-clock reliability.
When looking for Web-hosting services, organizations should invest in more than just hosting, by considering full, value-added packages, which include data protection, application hosting, the provision of Web statistics, low cost per site updates, and, of course, a high level of customer service.
Organizations should also consider the ROI to be gained by outsourcing the site hosting compared to hosting in-house. If an organization is not in the business of hosting Web sites, then they should look for a knowledgeable and professional vendor with good experience, and a good history of customer service. A good vendor will have expert knowledge of hardware, software, and security technology, and will be constantly upgrading their services.
7. Forward thinking
Human interaction design - creating positive human experiences - is becoming more and more integral to professional Internet strategy development. For most businesses, a straightforward static brochure site is insufficient. The era of the executable Internet is here; customers expect to interact with organizations, to conduct business, and to achieve their goals online, any time.
Developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to support these consumer expectations is now a key business strategy. RIAs will only be successful if they work in concert with mainstream technology being implemented across the globe. Expert knowledge of industry standards is therefore fundamental to developing RIAs; Microsoft .NET, JAVA and Adobe Coldfusion are the primary development platforms for most Web 2.0 applications and they provide the ability to easily interface with Web services and other technology investments that many businesses already employ. While XHTML will continue to be the basic construction tool of the Internet (it is good for data presentation, page formatting, and search engines rely on text strings), Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight are a couple of the additional tools that are being increasingly used to create rich Internet experiences. These technologies allow for data sharing beyond basic desktop browsers to a wide range of devices and media.
As mobile computing becomes a working reality and the move to transparent data infrastructures becomes increasingly consumer-driven, an organization's data must meet these challenges with expert knowledge of the marketplace and changing technology, not to mention the relationship between the two. Internal business processes, marketing strategies and Internet application development are merging more closely all the time. Those organizations that push the Internet to deliver superior business value, that push the level of services available within their market niche, and that constantly move forward in the search for new opportunities, will succeed. Customers are savvy, and many are willing to pay higher costs for higher quality of service.
Conclusion
In a constant state of flux, the Internet is once again witness to a fundamental shift, which is changing the nature of business transactions. Customers are increasingly expecting - demanding - to be able to conduct transactions, from shopping, to banking, to researching, to making travel arrangements, online, via RIAs. For an organization to succeed on the executable Internet, the development of a strategic Internet business plan is a must. A robust Internet development strategy must:
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Reflect an organization's brand strategy,
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Provide positive human experiences,
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Have good online visibility,
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Be updated regularly and consistently,
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Be supported by integrated marketing,
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Be continually informed (and improved) by statistical analysis,
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Be reliably hosted, and
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Absolutely - make creative use of the best technology that is available and relevant to a given market place.
A long and daunting list of musts, all of which are fundamental to successful business development. So while nearly any cowboy can rope together a Web site, for success in the era of the executable Internet, an organization should regard their professional Internet services firm as they would their accountant. Without expert knowledge, success is not possible in such a dynamic environment.
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