Planning your Website: Business Strategy

Watch Jen Kramer's video from lynda.com's "Website Strategy and Planning" series on incorporating business strategy into your website.

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We hear so much about Business Strategy.
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What does that mean?
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I just want to make some money and get rich quick.
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Isn't that my strategy?
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Much as we might all like to get rich quick, and as much as that might be part of
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our business, most businesses and organizations have a bit more to say about why
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they are in business.
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Business Strategy covers the mission of the organization, its vision, how it
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conducts business, its plan for the future, the markets in which it competes and
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the people it serves.
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Your client should be able to tell you their business strategy.
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If they don't have one, it's a good idea to have them think about that strategy
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a bit before starting to build a website.
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After all, the website doesn't drive the business strategy.
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The website is a piece of the puzzle of the implementation of the business strategy.
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You should ask your client some key questions about their business.
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What product or service are you selling?
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Who are your competitors?
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Who are your customers or clients?
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What is your competitive advantage in offering that product or service?
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Why are you better than your competitors?
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Where will your company be in five years?
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Does your company have a mission or vision statement, or do you have a
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statement of company values?
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How are you marketing your business?
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Notice not one of those questions had to do with the website or what shade of
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blue they'd like in the logo.
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These are all fundamental questions to understanding a business.
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If your client has unclear services or ill-defined products, no idea who their
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competitors are and if they're not sure who's going to buy this product, a
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website isn't really going to help them at all.
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In fact, they're just throwing away their money.
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You'll also want to get a good sense of who your client is.
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Sometimes this is the business owner or senior manager.
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Sometimes it's the head of the marketing department and other times, it may be a
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committee of people.
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Understand where the website fits into their job priorities.
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Its unlikely the client hired you to build this site if they have a full-time IT
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staff or webmaster working for them.
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If it is a business owner who's just launching a business, they may not have the
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time to update the site regularly.
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They budget for maintaining the site as well as how much they have to spend on
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the initial site redesign and you'll want to understand who specifically will
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maintain that site and what their technical skill set is.
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Understanding your client's business strategy will give you lots of insights
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into how a website should be constructed to market to potential customers and
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clients effectively.
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You'll better understand your client's strengths, which you can show in the best
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light while minimizing their weaknesses.
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You will start to think about good tools to include on the website that will be
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effectively used and will support that business strategy.
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You'll also get a sense of how much time is available to maintain a completed website.
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There is no sense in including technologies that require constant maintenance if
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they don't have time to keep them up-to-date.