I wrote earlier about the importance of determining your business goals before embarking on a web design (or web redesign) project. What you are trying to accomplish—find leads, sell products, provide a service, raise funds, sell advertising, etc.—will influence everything from what platform you choose to how much you need to budget.
Imagine that you’re buying a car rather than building a website. Do you need to take half the soccer team to matches? Do you commute by yourself 70 miles every day? Are you a real estate agent taking clients to gated communities? Do you want to haul your fishing boat to the lake every weekend? The goal you’re trying to accomplish with your vehicle will determine whether you are looking for a minivan, compact, luxury sedan or SUV. Once you’ve figured out your goal, then you can look at dealers, options and pricing. If you shop on price alone, you may end up trying to haul the boat or impress the clients or cram seven kids into a vehicle that won’t accomplish any of those goals. You won’t have saved money—you’ll have wasted it.
When you are setting the goal for your website, the first factor that comes to mind will usually be the personal desire that’s driving you to build a website, such as
- I need more customers.
- I need people to donate money.
- I want to sell my products.
- I want people to vote for me.
- I want to sell ads.
The first challenge is to turn that idea on its head and think of it from the point of view of the person coming to your website. Why is he or she at your website in the first place?
- I have a problem and I’m on the web looking for a way to solve it.
- I am concerned about an issue and would like to know more about it.
- I’m looking for a certain product and want to find the best one that will suit my needs.
- I am trying to figure out who to vote for in November.
- I am amusing/informing/educating myself.
The next step is to bring you and your visitors together: they have come to your website for some reason of their own. Now that they are there, what do you want them to do?
- I want them to contact me to set up an appointment.
- I want them to click on the “donate now” button and send us money.
- I want them to click on the “buy now” button and buy a product.
- I don’t care what they do at my website as long as they vote for me in November.
- I want them to spend time at my website, return to my website, tell their friends about my website, comment on things on my website, and click on the ads on my website.
Now we’re getting somewhere that can begin to translate into the design, content and functionality of your website. But how do you know when you’re successful? If one person comes to your site and sets up an appointment, that hardly justifies the time and expense of building a website. You need to put some numbers to those goals, otherwise they’re not goals but desires.
- I want to have 60 people per month fill out the contact form requesting an appointment.
- I want to have $2,500 per month in donations through the website.
- I want to sell $40,000 worth of products on our website each month.
- I want 25 people every day to click on the “Yes! I’ll vote for you in November!” button.
- I want $12,000 in ad revenues each month.
Now you have some real goals for your website. Working with the end in mind, you can begin to build, promote, and measure the effectiveness of your website.
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Thanks Claire. Beautiful post. Love the metaphor of the car needs and how that relates to website goals, as well as the “put some numbers to those goals, otherwise they’re not goals but desires.”
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