Web Strategy
You've decided on an Internet venture, where do you go from here?...
Because web technology and web users are always moving forward and looking for more services etc, the first thing we will do is to help you develop an 'Internet Strategy' which will take a short, medium and long term view of the web project.
Our approach is both practical and friendly, our first meeting will last around two hours in which we will talk generally about your business to gain an understanding of how your company operates and the services and or products that you offer. An essential part of these initial discussions is to get a clear view of your target markets and how the web can be used to promote your business.
After this meeting inevitability there will be many more questions than answers! We will ask you to consider our discussions, undertake some research on the web, possibly have chats with some of your favoured customers and build up some ideas for our next meeting at which we will start to discuss a web strategy proper. This meeting should include those members of staff who may be directly involved in implementing or running the web site. Please allow around four hours for this meeting.
From this meeting we should have a working web strategy on which we can build. You should be aware that producing either an information based site or an e-commerce site is rather like a journey, you will make changes to the itinerary and take diversions as you become aware of the possibilities of the software etc. It is always wise to be flexible in the early stages.
A major part of producing a web site is keeping it up to date and relevant, especially if e-commerce is involved, part of the meeting will focus on the resources that may be needed to undertake take this part of the project.
Having a website is all well and good but as with any business proposition you have to let your customers know you are on the Internet. Web marketing is a major and essential part of building a complete Internet Strategy and also has budgetary implications. Smart Decision will share our experiences with you and build this aspect of the total project into the over all plan.
We recommend mind mapping as an efficient method for building up a web strategy - an effective tool for this can be found at www.mindjet.com. Also you can download an example mind map as either a PDF or in the Mindjet mind map format.