A Web Site? What For?

A Web Site? What For?

So, you’ve decided to jump on the Internet bandwagon and invested a few months’ profits in launching a new, slick, interactive and professional web site. Who can blame you?

With the number of Internet users increasing everyday and spending more and more time surfing the net, anyone not seriously contemplating exploiting the Internet as a valuable marketing tool is risking being left behind eating his competitors’ dust.

Unfortunately, however, when you couple these encouraging numbers with the fantastic and affordable web-design technology available today, it’s understandable why many people get so excited about the aesthetic aspects of a web site, at the expense of other more strategic issues. Planning for the management of a web site may not be as exciting as getting it ready for the market, but is crucial for ensuring a satisfactory return-on-investment and a rewarding commercial experience.

In other words, the business planning has to come before the design, and not the other way round.

And the first question that any business has to answer is “What do I expect out of my web site?”. It might seem stupid at first. But this step is all too often forgotten. And your answer will determine whether your new web site will be a valuable marketing tool, contributing to your bottom-line or just another expense without any return.

Before delving into the different types of web sites, and subsequently how you will make use of all the opportunities available online, it’s important to understand that a web site is just like any other marketing tool. It is not an end in itself, but rather a means to an end. A web site cannot exist in isolation. It has to form an integral part of your marketing arsenal, contributing towards the achievement of your business objectives.

Now that that’s settled, let’s take a quick look at how your business objectives and market situation will determine what type of web site you require.

In essence, there are three levels at which a web site can be integrated within an existing business.

Level 1 – Presentation

At the most basic level, a web site can be as simple as an online brochure.

Here the objective is for the web site to support your information distribution efforts by providing details about your products or services, and enhance the image of your organisation.

With the design technology available today, it is easy to shun such use of a web site. However, such a model makes a lot of business sense for companies that provide somewhat complicated and high-involvement products and services. Such a web site would allow you to provide, literally, an unlimited amount of product information, data, statistics, testimonials and online demos which would be just too expensive and time-consuming to do through traditional printed material.

Apart from this, users can access the web site 24/7 at their own leisure. In a world where customers are becoming increasingly cash-rich but time-poor this advantage cannot be underestimated.

On top of this, research and experience show that companies that provide potential customers with the information they require, in the format they need, stand a much better chance of winning their business. And if you think about it, this makes perfect sense.

One thing that a customer needs when making an important purchase is information, which would contribute towards minimising the risks associated with any expensive and/or important purchase. If it’s you who is providing this information, this peace of mind, rather than your competitors, the customer will form a very positive image about your business. In essence, you have just given yourself a valuable competitive advantage.

Level 2 – Interaction

At this level, a web site goes beyond the information-distribution role to become a two-way communication tool. This means, that, apart from talking to your potential customers by giving them the information they require, informing them about your latest promotions etc, you also encourage them and provide the right platform to allow these same users to talk back to you.

And what might they have to say? Anything really. From feedback about their in-store experience to after-sales enquiries. Certain tools can also be integrated within the web site that continuously collect data about users’ behaviour online. This data would then be used to inform other marketing decisions such as the introduction of new product variations, timings of promotions, improvement of the online experience, development of marketing campaigns, etc.

At this level a major step has been taken. The customer has been recruited as part of your marketing effort, literally. So you need to have a somewhat open-mind and accept that you might not like everything customers have to say about your business. The important thing is to harness that information and use it to your advantage.

Take the web site www.amazon.com as an example. The more a user interacts with the website, the more information is collected. That information is then used by Amazon to relay targeted product and promotional messages; messages that are not of the generic one-size-fits-all type, but tailored to that user’s preferences and requirements.

Level 3 – Representation

You are now entering the realm of e-commerce, where you will provide complete online transactions. Even here you have to take certain strategic decisions. For example: Which parts of your commercial activities do you want to replace with full online transactions? Do you want to transfer the less profitable customers to the automated environment of the Internet or you want to seek new markets which were previously unreachable due to your physical or geographical limitations?

This is a very important step you would be taking and which will have repercussions on your business model, so it’s important to thread with caution. It is also the level of involvement in Internet marketing and web design that is accompanied by the highest financial investments. However, the experience can be tremendously rewarding.

To mention one advantage, e-commerce allows you to transfer those low-touch transactions (the ones that normally involve the highest sales and administration costs but provide the lowest returns) online, hence freeing up valuable time to concentrate on the more profitable customers. It also allows you to reach that elusive market segment which just doesn’t have the time to shop around inline with the traditional opening hours.

Given the importance and impact of such a step we will discuss the possibilities offered by e-commerce, and its pitfalls, at a later stage.

So, which level is best for me?

Well, this question can really only be answered by you. After all, no one knows and understands your situation and business objectives better than yourself.

The most important thing is to choose the level of involvement which best suites the current market conditions, customers’ preferences and behaviour, competitors’ current and future actions and, of course, the resources available.