Web Site Strategy - CKO Designs

Web Site Strategy

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT This document is a companion to the book Web Design for ROI: Turning Browsers into Buyers and Prospects into Leads by Lance Loveday and Sandra Niehaus. It is designed to provide one example of a fleshed-out web site strategy document. The company used in this example is a manufacturer of water-saving irrigation equipment who sells its products to distributors, irrigation installation companies, and directly to homeowners. Of course, this is only one possible web site strategy document. In our experience each company has unique requirements and goals that necessitate some level of customization, so do not hesitate to include factors important to your particular organization, or leave out anything irrelevant. INTRODUCTION Why have a web site strategy document? A web site strategy spells out the game plan for your site much the same way that a business plan sets forth key information about an organization’s products, services, and strategic direction. But while a business plan focuses on the big idea behind a company and its market positioning, a web site strategy spells out how the site contributes to the larger business goals, and includes elements unique to the online space. Ideally, a business plan and a site strategy dovetail perfectly so it’s clear how the site supports the broader goals of the business plan. This strategy document includes: • • • • • •

Web Site Objectives Audiences Competitive Assessment Traffic sources Strategies Metrics

Confidential - for ExampleCo only

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WEB SITE OBJECTIVES 1. Increase sales by 50% during the next fiscal year. 2. Make it easy for visitors to understand who ExampleCo is and explore ExampleCo’s services and information. 3. Communicate key messages to target audiences. 4. Demonstrate the quality and ease-of-use of ExampleCo’s services. 5. Promote ExampleCo as an industry leader - a professional, quality company with cutting edge technology. 6. Support the ExampleCo brand identity.

TARGET AUDIENCES Primary Audience • Potential Customers (see Primary Audience Profile, below) Secondary Audiences • Current Customers • Potential Investors • Potential Partners • Current Partners • Analysts / Press • Potential Employees

PRIMARY AUDIENCE(S) PROFILE Primary Audience Profile Currently, ExampleCo’s primary audience is comprised of 5 major groups with varying characteristics. These groups are listed here in order of priority: 1. Property Managers/REIT This audience group is made up of companies who manage various types of incomeproducing residential or commercial real estate that either currently has landscaping or has plans for future landscaping. The target individuals within this group are the decision makers and decision influencers regarding landscaping, water use, budgeting, grounds maintenance and liability issues. 2. Builders & Developers This audience group is made up of companies who invest in, develop or remodel residential and commercial land and real estate. The target individuals within this group are the decision makers and decision influencers regarding landscaping, water use, budgeting, and liability issues. 3. Homeowners This audience group is made up of affluent homeowners who fall into one of two subgroups – new homeowners who are planning to install new landscaping, and existing homeowners whose homes have a yard of 1/4 acre or more in size, already have landscaping with auto irrigation, are charged for their water usage and spend $100 or


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more per month on water. Both groups place importance on water savings, price, and convenience. 4. Water Providers This audience group is made up of public and private water utility companies. The target individuals within this group are the decision makers in regards to policy and customer outreach programs. 5. Landscape Professionals This audience group is made up of companies and individuals who provide landscape design, specification, installation, remodel and maintenance services. They may contract directly with homeowners, property managers, builders, or developers. The target individuals within this group are the decision makers.

SECONDARY AUDIENCE(S) PROFILES Current Customers Profile This audience is composed of the same 5 groups identified in the Primary Audience profile who have already become customers of ExampleCo. These audience members are interested in easy access to their management area and clear access to Customer Service, product owner manuals, and other customer resources. Potential Investors Profile This audience is made up of investment firms and individual investors interested in financially supporting a cutting-edge company during its growth phase, for a potentially substantial financial return. These audience members want to quickly ascertain whether an investment opportunity is available, whether the company is financially viable, who the leadership is, what the prospects for the technology are, and how to contact the company for further information. The target individuals within this group are the decision makers. Potential Partners Profile This audience is made up of companies who may be interested in partnering with ExampleCo for mutual promotional or financial benefit. These audience members wish to know whether partnership opportunities are available, who else has partnered with ExampleCo, and how to contact the company for further information. Current Partners Profile This audience is made up of current partner companies. These audience members wish to know whether their partnership with ExampleCo is represented correctly on the web site. Analysts / Press Profile This audience is made up of industry and business analysts, reporters, bloggers, and other media correspondents. These audience members wish to know what the company has accomplished lately, where in the media the company has been featured previously, where to find company background information, a press kit, and how to contact the company for further information. Potential Employees Profile This audience is composed of individuals interested in working for ExampleCo. These audience members wish to know whether there are any job openings, what positions are available and what duties and qualifications are required, and how to apply for an open position.


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AUDIENCE QUESTIONS In addition to receiving a positive impression of ExampleCo overall, if members of each target audience can get answers to their questions quickly and easily they are more likely to convert to customers. The majority of questions will be shared by all target audiences, but each audience should be specifically considered and addressed when formulating the style and content of the response(s). For ALL Primary Audiences GENERAL QUESTIONS o What does ExampleCo do? o Why should I care about what they do? o How can ExampleCo benefit me? QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PRODUCTS / SERVICE o Does ExampleCo offer any specific products or services that might interest me? o Why do I need these products / services? o How do the products & services work, exactly? o What part(s) of my job / current effort do the products or services take over for me? o How do the services make my job / life easier? o How does using ExampleCo compare with what I’m doing now, and with competitors’ offerings? o Can I retrofit an existing irrigation system? o Are the services hard to learn how to use, initially? o What are some typical results for my type of situation (water, money, and time savings)? o Do you offer services for my type of property, in my area? o How much does the product / service cost? How does this cost compare to other companies? o How is the service maintained and updated? QUESTIONS ABOUT THE SERVICE MANAGEMENT INTERFACE o What does the management interface I’ll be using look like? o Can I customize the management interface? o Can I try a sample interface? o Do you provide any training in the management interface use? o Will I receive software updates as they are released? o How secure is the management system? QUESTIONS ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE o Is it easy to get going with this service? o What sort of signup terms / requirements do you have? o How private and secure is my credit card and other information I give you? o If I (or one of my employees) have a problem with the service how do we get help? o Can I talk to a live person if I have a pre-sales or service support question? QUESTIONS ABOUT EXAMPLECO’S CREDIBILITY o Who are ExampleCo’s current customers? Are there any who are similar to me? o What do current customers say about the product / service? o Has ExampleCo been featured in any news articles? o Has ExampleCo received any industry awards or other recognition I would recognize? QUESTIONS ABOUT NEXT STEPS – WHAT TO DO NEXT o What is my incentive to contact you? o How do I get more information? o Can I talk to a live person? o How do I get started right away? o Do you have any summary printable material I could show my spouse / boss / colleagues?


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Audience: Property Managers o Will the service be easy enough for my employees to use? o Will you be at XYZ tradeshow / industry event so I can talk with you in person? o Do you offer any partnership opportunities for my type of business? Audience: Builders / Developers o Will the service be easy enough for my employees to use? o Can I retrofit an existing irrigation system? o Will you be at XYZ tradeshow / industry event so I can talk with you in person? o Do you offer any partnership opportunities for my type of business? Audience: Landscape Professionals o Will the service be easy enough for my employees to use? o For what size installation is this product / service appropriate? o Can I retrofit an existing irrigation system? o Do you offer installation training for your product? And if so, what are the benefits? o How do you deal with installer territory issues? o Will you be at XYZ tradeshow / industry event so I can talk with you in person? o Do you offer any partnership opportunities for my type of business? Audience: Water Providers o Has ExampleCo worked with any other water agencies? o Is information about my agency’s local water saving incentives available here? Secondary Audience: Current Customers o What is the support number / email? o How do I contact ExampleCo? o How do I login to manage my service? o How do I get updates on any issues affecting our service? o How do I get updates on new regulatory requirements or rebate offers and how they affect me? o Is anyone available to advise me if I have a question? Secondary Audience: Potential Investors o What is this company’s vision and business model? o What is the company status (Public or private? Filed for IPO?) o Are financial details available about the company? If so, what are they? o Who are their current executives/investors/partners/customers? o Who do I contact to discuss strategic investment options? Secondary Audience: Potential Partners o What does this company do? o What is their business model? o How are they positioned in the industry? o How might we/they benefit from a partnership? o What kind of partnerships do they have now? o Do they have any partner programs? o Who do I contact to discuss partnership opportunities? Secondary Audience: Current Partners o Is our relationship with ExampleCo visible on their site? (if appropriate) o Is our relationship with ExampleCo communicated correctly and effectively? (if appropriate)


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Secondary Audience: Press / Analysts o What is this company’s vision and business model? o How are they positioned in the industry? o Who are their current executives/investors/partners/customers? o What differentiates them from the competition? o What’s the latest news on this company? o Is this company doing anything worth writing about? o Who should I contact for more info? o What is the company status (Public or private? Filed for IPO?) o Are financial details available about the company? If so, what are they? Secondary Audience: Potential Employees o How do I apply for a current or possible future position? o Does this company have any job openings? o If so, what are they and what are the job requirements?


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COMPETITIVE ASSESSMENT Competitor #1:

Name

Competitor 1

URL Calls to action:

“Learn More” “Read More” “Read the Case Study” “Contact Us”

General Comments: At first glance, there is not a major, distinctive difference between Competitor 1 and ExampleCo Competitor 1 appears very similar in messaging, general branding appearance, products and services, and benefits. Although not without its problems, the Competitor 1 site is better organized and surfaces important benefits and information more quickly and clearly than ExampleCo’s site. Competitor 1 also appears more credible than ExampleCo due to the inclusion of numerous industry and customer quotes throughout the site and detailed information on their key management team members and advisors. The cumulative effect of this information is an impression of a solid, wellthought of company. Home page screenshot:


Secondary page screenshots:

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Competitor #2:

Name

Competitor #2


“Find Out More” “Save $100”

General Notes: This is a small company that does not offer any equivalent to ExampleCo’s service. However, their site provides some good examples of surfacing key information on the homepage. Home page screenshot:



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Competitor #3:

Name

Competitor #3


“eliminate erosion and runoff, stabilize slopes and conserve water” “contact us”

General Notes: While less professional-looking than ExampleCo’s site, this small company’s messaging differentiates them by clearly stating an advantage of their type of product over ExampleCo’s (see boxed area) Home page screenshot:



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TRAFFIC SOURCES

General Notes: The main source of traffic to ExampleCo’s site is currently direct navigation. Much of this traffic is made up of existing customers returning to the site to login to their management console area or renew their subscription. ExampleCo does not currently have a paid search campaign and the site is not optimized for organic search visibility; what organic search traffic the site receives is largely from searches on the company or product brand names.

CURRENT Traffic Source

CURRENT Percentage of Total Traffic 65%

Direct navigation (typed or bookmarked URL) Partner Sites

15%

Email Campaign

8%

News Sites

6%

Organic Search

4%

Unknown

1%

TARGET / PLANNED – Target Date: August 23, 20xx Traffic Source

TARGET Percentage of Total Traffic 45%

Direct navigation (typed or bookmarked URL) Partner Sites

15%

Email Campaign

14%

News Sites

12%

Organic Search

13%

Unknown

1%


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STRATEGIES 1. OBJECTIVE: Increase sales by 50% during the next fiscal year. STRATEGY: Convert a higher percentage of web site visitors to leads by motivating potential customers in each audience segment to make contact, in the following ways: a. Create a highly visible persistent element on the site with a “Contact Us” call to action. This element will appear on most if not all site pages. b. Contact Form c. Email d. Other possible online signup (i.e. whitepaper or rebate info request form) e. Phone f. In-person meeting at tradeshow or other industry-related event 2. OBJECTIVE: Make it easy for visitors to understand who ExampleCo is and explore ExampleCo’s services and information. STRATEGY: clarify ExampleCo’s branding and identity by updating our logo for legibility and updating our tagline for clarity. STRATEGY: provide a better, more obvious path to service and product information, both in the main navigation and in promotional areas on the home page and right column area, as appropriate to page content. 3. OBJECTIVE: Communicate key messages to target audiences. STRATEGY: Create audience-specific site pages to address each audience individually. Also, indicate which products are services are most appropriate for which audiences, on a new comparison matrix page. 4. OBJECTIVE: Demonstrate the quality and ease-of-use of ExampleCo’s services. STRATEGY: Provide animated demos of the products and services. Promote these on the home page and contextually on individual product and service detail pages with a “See a Demo” call to action. 5. OBJECTIVE: Promote ExampleCo as an industry leader - a professional, quality company with cutting edge technology. STRATEGY: Use the phrase “proven industry leader” as a branding term when referring to the company. STRATEGY: Provide case studies and research that directly support the company’s claim to being an industry leader. STRATEGY: Include press coverage and press releases on the site to support the company’s position as a cutting edge, industry leader. 6. OBJECTIVES: Support the ExampleCo brand identity. STRATEGY: Standardize the logo placement and treatment across all sections of the site. Ensure use of color on web site matches brand style guide as closely as possible.


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METRICS The following metrics are listed in approximate order of importance to ExampleCo. Baseline values will be collected over a one month period prior to initiating any site improvements. After site improvements have been implemented, these metrics will be reported on weekly during the initial three-month period, then once per month thereafter as additional site improvements are made. •

Total number and dollar value of service signups originating from a web site contact

•

Total number and dollar value of equipment purchases originating from a web site contact

•

Number of leads originating from a web site contact

•

o

Conversion rate (percentage) of these leads to a service signups or equipment purchase

o

Average dollar value of each type of conversion

Number of contacts originating from the web site o

Conversion rate (percentage) of these contacts that become leads

•

Number of times our Demos are viewed

•

Number of times our Product Brochure is downloaded

•

Number of unique visitors to the following site pages: o

Main Services page

o

Services comparison page

o

Demos page

o

Home page

o

Reseller Locator page

•

Total number of unique site visitors

•

Number of referrals from Partner sites where we advertise

•

Number of referrals from organic search engine results o

Which keywords are referring, and how many unique visitors per keyword


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