With so many companies offering affordable and high quality Web design services, some entrepreneurs rush to set up their online store without clear goals and web strategy. If this seems to be you, better STOP now or suffer the consequences later.

Here are some questions you should answer before getting in touch with your friendly Web designer:

1. What do you want to achieve with your Website? Is it for informational purposes only? A marketing tool to promote your products or services? A marketing tool to drive online customers to your brick-and-mortar business? Or a full-service online store?
2. Who are your target customers?
3. Who are your competitors? Spy on their activities, marketing campaigns and Web designs
4. Are you familiar with Internet marketing methods such as search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), e-mail marketing, PPC, and other techniques? Though many companies offer Internet marketing services, basic knowledge of these things help plan a good website.
5. How much is your budget for both Web development and basic online marketing?
6. What is your measure of success or ROI? Is it conversion, leads generated, traffic generated or online sales? This is connected with your overall goal raised in the first question.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 19th, 2008 at 6:40 am and is filed under web development. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.