I think we’re finally to the point where almost all business owners know that the internet is pretty important and that they should have a web presence. For some, this is where it stops – they know they need it and that’s it.  Like most marketing (yes, your website is marketing for your business), it’s important to have a strategy in place to help you with defining your goals. Without this, your website will not be as effective as it could be. Strategy Comes First You’ve gotten to the, “you know you need a website” point and you’re ready to take steps to make it happen. Before you look into doing that yourself or hiring a professional to do it for you, it’s important to fully understand who the website is for. It may seem like you’ll be building the website for your company but that’s not exactly the case. Your company will certainly benefit from the website. It may improve your company’s image. It may help you sell more products or services. However, the site itself is for your customers or clients and don’t ever forget that.  So the first step, is to ask yourself the following questions: Who is your target market? (note: you may actually have more than one) Who is your ideal customer or client? (note: you may actually have more than one ideal customer too) I differentiate between the overall target market(s) and the ideal customer(s) (sometimes called the buyer persona). Plenty of businesses assume that their product or service can be beneficial to everyone. While that’s a nice idea, and it might even be true in some way, it’s not feasible to market to everyone. You need strategy to target your audience. Your target market may be more broad. For example: 20 to 40 year olds with disposable income who like outdoor activities. Your ideal customer is much more specific. For example: a 30 year old male who works in the tech industry, who lives in the Pacific Northwest, who enjoys hiking and camping, who is concerned about the environment and sustainability, who would not think $50 is too much to pay for your product if it solves a need for them, etc. Don’t be afraid of being too specific during this process. It may seem like by narrowing your customers down like this you might lose business, but it’s important to understand the strategy going on here. You absolutely do want to narrow in on that perfect customer because if you tailor your marketing (and website) to speak to them, what they like to do, what their concerns are, and so on, you’re more likely to not only gain their attention, but also their business. While this process can get quite involved, this article isn’t meant as a tutorial but simply to make you aware of the importance of your target market and ideal customer. There’s plenty of resources on the web to help you through the process. Additionally, many marketing and design agencies can walk you through this process before starting on your website.  The Number 1 Goal of Your Website… Once you have both your target market and ideal customer thoroughly defined, you’ve laid the groundwork to also define your first website goal: to connect with your target market.  This is an important first goal because everything about your website needs to be crafted with this information in mind. You should be able to answer the following basic questions to ensure your number 1 goal is met: Why should your target market/ideal customer care about your company? What are the top problems your target market/ideal customer faces and how does your company offer a solution to those problems? What language and imagery can be used to connect with your target market/ideal customer? (think: what do they like, what do they want to see/hear and how does that relate to your business/service) Remember: Everything about your website must always keep the target market/ideal customer in mind.  If you are having trouble answering those, it might be wise to invest in the services of a professional marketing person or design agency (agencies often have a marketing aspect, so they can help you with that and the actual website development). If you have the time to research, the internet is filled with information, and I never discourage anyone from learning.  Also, try not to personalize this process too much. By that I mean, always be looking at your website and what goes on it from your customer’s perspective. When you start to get into your own personal preferences, likes, and dislikes, you can quickly spiral off into creating your website just for you, and not your customers. The Rest of the Goals … I’m sure you were expecting a nice, tidy list here. However, there isn’t a set number of goals. What is important, is to work through the same type of strategy and process as on the first goal to come up with the rest of your goals.  For instance, I’m sure almost every business out there has, “make more sales/do more business” as a goal. The problem with a broad, generic goal like this is really that it’s too broad and generic. There’s no strategy behind it at all. How will you make more sales? Most importantly, how will your website help you to make more sales?  I’ve worked with a lot of businesses that were hung up on this one question. They knew they wanted more business, but didn’t know how to make it happen. It’s often a difficult question to find an answer to, especially when you’re unsure how your website is going to do this for you. The real truth of the matter is that your website may be central in your success, but there are other services involved as well, and they will vary based on your business and how you define your other goals.  Let’s continue to use our generic example goal of, “make more sales/do more business”. Two basic questions that may help you define that better could be: How can I drive targeted (targeted = traffic from people in your target market) traffic to the website? What content can drive my target market at every stage in the buying cycle (or purchase funnel)?  Here is where those other services come into play big time. Simply having a website does not mean people are going to flock to it and you’ll increase your business. Even if that website was created strategically, with your customers in mind, if they can’t find it, it’s not a very effective marketing tool for you. Those other services may include: Search engine optimization Online advertising Pay per click advertising Content marketing (creating content specifically for your audience in every stage of the buying cycle) Social media campaigns Grassroots marketing such as contests and giveaways In person networking such as conventions and local networking groups Print advertising While I agree 100% that having a well-designed, modern, website that presents your brand to your target market effectively is very important, saying that a website alone will solve every goal for you is misleading simply because you need additional marketing services to ensure people get to that strategically created website.  The Wrap Up … Again, this article isn’t meant as a tutorial, but rather a simple guide that will: get you thinking the right way (strategy, specifics, definitions, etc.). make you aware that everything hinges off of you taking the time to define and understand your potential customers first. illustrate how important supporting marketing services are to your overall website success and attainment of other goals. Hopefully, this will enable you to at least take that first step in ensuring that your website will be an effective marketing tool for you.  Original article appears on: http://www.jvmediadesign.com/blog/design/strategy-and-goals-for-your-website-project/ ...read more

Speculation (or "spec") work is often standard fare in the world of advertising. An agency could be expected to create elaborate concept designs to present to a potential client. That client would then make their decision based on which concept they liked the best. However, the agency is usually bidding for a substantial or long term commitment from a client, an in essence, are not giving away a whole campaign by putting together a few art boards to show in a meeting.However, in the field of graphic and web design, the standards are different.Years ago, professional designers came to realize how doing work in this manner devaluated and compromised the quality of the work. Often times an unscrupulous company would take a design submitted and have another designer work on it who placed a lower bid on the job. Another problem came simply from companies expecting initial work to be done up-front, for free, and without any contractual agreement.For print and web design, the best work can be obtained through collaboration and thoroughly exploring a client's needs and objectives. This simply can not be accomplished though an RPF that asks for a general concept. For companies looking to take this route, I would highly recommend purchasing a pre-made template. But for professional design, working with a single designer or company to achieve a customized, branded appearance is a far superior approach.A professional designer should be able to produce a Creative Brief, in lieu of concept designs, that explains in detail how an end result will be achieved. Also, it is not out of the ordinary to request samples of previous projects by the designer to get a feel for their work.Design standards such as those set forth by the American Institute of Graphic Arts (http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm?ContentAlias=policy_on_practice), should be followed to not only uphold the integrity of the field of design, but also to educate the potential client as to why "spec" work is detrimental.When a client asks for original work to be produced for free and without a contract, it demonstrates not only a lack of understanding, but also a lack of respect. A great analogy would be, "Would you ask three plumbers all to fix a problem in your house and say you'll hire the one whose work you liked the best?" A professional designer is highly trained and skilled in their field, and should be paid accordingly for any actual design work provided. Through a well written creative brief and a strong portfolio, a potential client should have enough information to choose the right candidate for the job. Sherry Holub received her degree in art from UCLA. She is now the Creative Director at JV Media Design. http://www.jvmediadesign.com ...read more

By now, most people have heard about social media. I seem to see three different kinds of people: those who are very active in it and regularly sing its praises, those who have maybe set up a few profiles and have gingerly dipped their toe into the world and those who haven't yet taken the plunge due to confusion or even a bit of fear.One thing that appears common among most of them is the concern that there is just not enough time to keep up with all of it. There are so many items already on our daily to-do lists that social media can seem like a real time-suck.By its very nature, social media can be time-consuming in the beginning. You need to get familiar with the platforms and tools and how they work, not to mention the time necessary to truly "build relationships." Add to this its seductive qualities of being both incredibly fun and a great way to procrastinate. How do you take advantage of these tools to benefit your business without wasting all your time?The key is to be selective. Here's what to do: Pick a couple of networks--for me it is Twitter and Facebook--and concentrate on those. It's impossible to be everywhere and not only that--you don't need to be everywhere, which should come as some relief.Now because social media is part of what I do in my business, I try many of the new tools that come along, checking them out to see how they work and how they could benefit me or my clients. I don't explore most social networks in depth unless they suddenly gain a good amount of chatter around them. I like to keep track of those occurrences along with a whole host of information through RSS feeds, Google Alerts and Twitter.But even I have to have limits! While tempting, I do not have Twitter open all day in a desktop application. I check in a few times and treat it as a break from doing other work. For the others networks I experiment and try to have set goals. The key is to avoid participating in low-priority topics and conversations, just as you would in your lives offline.Are You Benefiting?There are certain questions you want to ask yourself when participating in social media:* Is this helping establish a good reputation or improve it?* Are the sites I am spending time on related to my niche? Does my target market hang out there?* Is this increasing awareness of my brand?* Am I learning new things which will result in enriching my business?* Am I building beneficial relationships?* Am I seeing traffic to my website or blog as a result of my participation?It is also important to remember that certain activities, such as chatting with someone on Twitter, do not always give you an immediate benefit. However, it is the relationship you are building which can pay off in the future.How Do I Know Which Tools are Right for Me?You will naturally find yourself spending more time on the social media sites which interest you the most. But here are some questions to consider:* What are people doing there? Are they looking for jobs, discussing video games, setting up joint ventures? Is that focus important to you? Do you enjoy spending time there?* Who are the people there? Business owners, employees, aspiring entrepreneurs? Are they people you can learn from?* What is the conversation about? Are you getting value from the conversation? Are the discussions applicable to what you do?How to Set Limits* First and foremost, stop feeling guilty.* Set a timer. I know this sounds funny, but for some people this works really well. If you find yourself regularly getting sucked in, tell yourself you will only spend X amount of minutes on Facebook or Twitter or whichever site you are using. Stick to it!* Have a plan. It may sound strange to plan out a "social" activity. But you should decide how social media is going to fit into your overall marketing or business picture. Making a few comments on Facebook and your favorite blogs should only take a few minutes. Drop in on Twitter, listen, share a link and respond to others. Make sure to give more than you take.It's Not for EveryoneIf you aren't seeing social media activities as being valuable because you are too busy, then maybe--surprise!--it's not for you. Maybe you already have plenty of clients, and your business is happily growing. Don't waste your time. Social Media is just one of many things you can spend your time on, and unless you see a good return on your time spent you probably are better off doing something else. People can and will carve out the time for social media IF they find a reason to. If you think your business will benefit from understanding how to use these new tools of client communication, networking and marketing, it might be a good idea to get your feet wet. But ultimately it will be up to you to decide what is best. About the Author Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches solopreneurs and small business owners how to use online marketing and social media to communicate effectively and authentically and attract more business. For FREE tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visithttp://CommunicateValue.com ...read more