My everyday work (often fueled with a healthy dose of techno) involves helping people and businesses build a successful web presence. That’s not all, of course, but it’s the major thrust of what I do and, in general, there isn’t a good framework used for this.
I don’t mean a technical framework, mind you, but a business framework. My clients focus on less important details (Will there be a “home” link? Where? What color?!) and not the fundamentals, like how the site is going to meet measurable business goals.
So I’ve created a framework. It’s not rocket science but it helps keep people on track. In general the components are:
- Acquire: Determine how you’re going to get visitors to your site and what number you need to reach your goals. If you want 10 contacts per month and it takes 100 visitors to get a contact you need a plan to get 1,000 visitors to the site, otherwise your goals are toast.
- Engage: Once a visitor gets to your site what will they see? It’s not about colors, photos, or even the details of the text, the key is understanding what your visitor needs and building a site that will convey that message. Want them to call you? Make that clear. Engage them with your content, presentation, and the actions on the site.
- Maintain: This is where people fall down. You’ve done the hard work of setting up a site, driving traffic to it, and encouraging them to take an action. Now what? Keep in touch! Use LinkedIn or Facebook, send out email newsletters, blog, tweet, whatever works for you. Just maintain and grow that connection you’ve worked so hard to create.
