The Key to a Successful Website – Determining Its Purpose

Websites, they seem to be the be all and end all for businesses these days. Granted they’ve been a fundamental part of the setup process of businesses for a long while but with internet access now being readily available whenever and where ever for many people, the need to have an online presence has grown ever further.

Before you go anywhere near having a website designed for you though, you should fully understand what you want it to achieve. There are numerous purposes you may have for the website and each one will play a major role in determining how it will look and function.

Here are some of the main purposes, one of which you might be able to relate to, for creating a website besides doing it just for the sake of “having an online presence”.

Sell products

If you offer products and they can be sold online, you can have a website designed with this in mind. Depending on what it is you sell, ask yourself how much information your customers might need before purchasing the product. Are your customers likely to already know about the products or will they need them explaining to them? Is there a chance they could need an online assistant to help usher them along the buying process? All of these things, and potentially more, need to be considered before jumping into having a website designed based on something you’ve seen elsewhere as the buying process will differ from market sectors and the type of customers. So what might work for a certain product or business, might not necessarily work for you.

Generate enquiries

If you are offering a service or a product which can’t be sold online, then you might opt for looking to generate enquiries. In these instances, you’ll be wanting to know exactly how far down the buying process the website should allow the customer to reach. Should it end with them requesting a quote, or them booking a meeting/consultation, or simply registering their interest for you to get back to them.

Deliver insight on business/cause

If your business is offering a products or service which is either new to the market or just not very well known, then you might want your website’s main focus to be on delivering insight on what you do and details on your product. In some cases this could be the first instance that customers come across your products so you need enough information to sell them the product. Exactly how much information you offer however will vary depending on your target audience and how much you feel they’ll be willing to take in.

Alternatively, informative websites are also useful for charities of all sizes to not only explain what they support but also how they support their given cause. People are often wanting to know where their donations are being spent so this allows you to keep those that have already donated updated, and also help to show newcomers that you are making a difference and in turn encourage donations from them.

Gather customer information

While most websites should have a form of gathering visitor information (such as email addresses) to then allow them to contact them, your website’s main focus could be to do this. This would mean that you would need some form of medium to allow you gain this information. This can be achieved through things such as newsletter signups or free downloads from the website (such as e-books). Remember your website will still need substance and quality content around the rest of the website.

If you feel that you still need some support in identifying what the main purpose of your website should be then feel free to get in touch with Opportunity Marketing. We start with putting together a marketing strategy which can help you establish what your website’s main purpose should be. Not only that but we can also support and project manage the entire process alongside you, from deciding which creative agency/freelancer will be best suited to developing your website to the very completion of it, ensuring it looks and feels just how it should.