Giving an effective website brief - part 3

In the first two parts of the series we covered the basics of what and who your company is and does. We then went on to deal with the look and feel and technical needs your new web site will require. In this the final part of the series, we cover the maintenance and promtion of your spangly new web site to be.

Maintenance

This is a grey area often overlooked when briefing a web site. Most companies believe they can run the upkeep of the web site themselves, however, often this is not a realistic outlook. There is a price to pay for using vital staff resources on an area that is not their core skill, both in terms of loss of staff time, and in delivering the right service to the user.
Unless you have a web application built that wholly integrates into your business systems you will realistically need maintenance of some description.
Maintenance is not purely the domain of updating copy of images but it is whole area that needs careful consideration. So consider the following:

1. Who will be responsible for the on-going general updating of the web site?
2. Who is/will be responsible for the maintenance of the web site? Updating of servers, code, domains etc.
3. Being realistic, do you have the skills, resources and time to update the web site in-house?
   • If so, what happens if that member of staff leaves the company?
4. Would a maintenance plan with your web site supplier be preferable, so they handle web site updates and maintenance for a set fee or agreed hourly rates?
   • Consider amount of updating actually required
   • Back ups of the system for disaster recovery
   • Load balancing for high traffic sites
   • What maintenance of code / system updates it includes

Promoting your web site

Along with spending a great deal of time and money on building your spangly new all singing, all-dancing web site you need make sure people see it. And the right people at that. So consider how you promote the web site either on launch or on-going.

Off-line promotion

A web site should really be supported by an off-line strategy of promotion and advertising, consider including the following form(s) of promotion:

• Direct mail shots to targeted recipients.
• Promotional brochures.
• On-going PR campaigns.
• Sponsorship.
• Complimentary Gifts.
• Exhibitions.
• General/Trade Advertising.

Off-line promotion may not be the realm of the web development company you select but it is very important that all your outward facing communications align. In turn this means that it will be important that your agency or marketing department give strong visual guidelines to ensure that the web site ties up with those off-line activities.
This may mean extra data collection on the web site too. This can help streamline the process of using customer address details by using a central data storage facility. For example being able to apply addresses to the envelopes for your direct mail. In short think smart!

Online promotion

To complement off-line promotion or indeed to replace it you must consider how you intend to promote your web site. Promoting your web site, in terms of getting it listed on search engines and also building links with other web sites, is vitally important to the continued success of your site.
It worth noting, that some areas of this type of promotion are the realms of specialist web companies, such as SEM and SEO. Your developers may offer these services but it’s worth some time to fully understand what you really need.
SEM (Search Engine Marketing) - is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote web sites by increasing their visibility in SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages) through the use of search engine optimisation, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion.
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) - is the process of improving the visibility of a web site or a web page in search engines via the ‘natural’ or un-paid (‘organic’ or ‘algorithmic’) search results.
Optimising a web site may involve editing its content and associated coding to increase its relevance to specific keywords searches used on the search engines.
So what areas do you consider important to promoting your new web site:

• Building link partners.
• SEO and submission.
• SEM paid listings (such as the sponsored links you see on the side of your search results).
• Email marketing campaigns / Newsletters.
• Banner advertising on related trade web site or high traffic volume web sites.
• Social Media Marketing.
• What forums or blogs will you join and participate in?

Site mapping

Another useful tool to help make sure the proposal from your web developer is accurate and that you get what you ask for, is a site map. The best way think of this is how the user will access the information in a simple hierarchy (a flowchart). How the information will be grouped.
Remember, all the information on your web site is important to the various parts of your company, however, you cannot show all the links to these on the homepage. So your job is drive people to the right place as quickly and easily as possible. So think of a tree and use a simple flow chart to show where each level of your web site resides. But also remember not to overthink the map at the brief stage.
You can refine your initial site map with the help of your chosen web developer in the specification stage. They will have suggestions how to present the information in a user friendly way. They are the experts so use them. For the purposes of the brief create an initial roadmap. This will help you to collate the information you will need to deliver to them and the developer to checklist against for the development of the site.

Conclusion

Finish your web site brief with an outline of what you expect back from the web developers. You may also wish to outline budgetary constraints you may have. This may impact on your wish list for your web site.
Depending on the size of the development will depend on the type of proposal you recieve back in kind. For a large complex devlopment for example, you would typically expect feedback to be in the form of a full proposal, including details of how the site would be built, technologies to be employed, a site map, detailed costing with options, on-going costs, any licensing considerations, timescales, deliverables, any assumptions and other conditions of the proposal.
Then finish up with your contact details and expected timescales for you to receive the proposals and you may also wish to outline anticipated delivery of site deadlines at this point. A rule of thumb for web sites is a development period of around 3 months not necessarily including testing. But for larger sites this can be much longer.
In terms of deliverables and timescales, it may be worth considering a planned rollout, rather than waiting and waiting for the whole site to be finished. This can give you valuable time to build up anticipation or capture new audiences.

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And finally, always consider your web site as a key component of your business process. A web site should never simply be shoved up just because ‘we just need one don’t we’. Today a web site can, and needs to be, an essential tool in gaining and more importantly retaining customers. Along with all the functionality your company wants from the site, ultimately the web site is a user experience, so don’t skimp on investing in good user-friendly design coupled with fantastic functionality that really delivers value to both parties.

 

>> Part One - click here

>> Part Two - click here

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Don't forget to visit our website www.jcward.co.uk.

Giving an effective website brief - part 2

Following on from the first part of ‘Giving an effective web site brief’ where we began to outline your company and your existing web offering, part 2 aims to deal with your new website.

Your new web site

Sit down and really examine what you need from your web site. These may be direct and indirect needs. So a great starting point is to consider the following points:

1. What are the aims of the website? This may be different to your current offering but, for instance, they may also be to increase traffic, increase product awareness, generate more sales, offer e-commerce, advertise a new product or service.
2. Is your web site primarily aimed at B2C or B2B audience?
   • If it’s B2C, who is the target audience? (This may be a shift from your old offering)
   • Who / what are the user demographics you are targeting? (e.g. Children, Adults, Social Class, Income levels, Location etc.)
   • If B2B, what industry are you aiming the web site at?
3. Is the new web site to be developed in-line with a re-brand, a new range of services or a new product launch?
4. How do you currently market your products/services? Does your web site need to tie in with this?
5. What is your company’s USP (Unique Selling Point) over your competitors or indeed your products or your services?
6. Who are your main competitors?
   • List your competitors and web sites you feel most closely compete with your business.
   • Is the market saturated with competition?

Look and feel

It is important that you approach your web sites look and feel in a consistent way to your central brand. The designers must understand your corporate guidelines thoroughly. It must also be an extension of any offline or online media, advertising or other branding that you have. It must match up with both your internal and external brand communications.
Provide examples of your literature, advertising, logos and typography. This always helps a designer get a handle on your companies visual approach.

1. Take a long look around the web and provide some URLs of other web sites that you like, providing reasons why you like them.
   • They do not necessarily need to be competitors or sites related to your industry.
   • It could be sites that you like the colour schemes of.
   • Sites you like the navigation or the interactive elements of.
2. What type of imagery does your company use?
   Are there any types of images to avoid?
   • Do you have access to any corporate images?
   • Does your company have an image library?
   • Has your company invested in photography for other marketing means? (it makes sense to use these images if possible)
   • Is it consideration for your web site to have an image library (user protected or not) so that you can easily give access to other agents to save time and expense?
3. An area that is nearly always overlooked is the copy used on your website. Consider the following:
   • Have you got the copy text ready to go into your website?
   • Do you have the resources or skills to create and supply the text to go in the web site?
   • Will you require a professional copywriter?
   • Have you considered your audience in writing your copy? Don’t under estimate the power of the correct type of copy.
   • Does the copy need to be technical, conversational, trade based or audience led?

Technical requirements

As mentioned before, it is not necessary for you to have any technical knowledge about web sites but it is important to consider all the technical needs of your business. This might be your finance department’s requirement(s), if you are considering ecommerce. It may also be reports generated specifically for your sales department or export figures for your marketing department. Think smart think joined up.
Web sites today are not just a shop front that drives you to a phone line or a replica of your brochure, they should be interactive and add real value to your business and it’s processes.
Involve other selected people in the briefing process to make sure you maximise the return of your development costs in improving the effectiveness of your business processes.

1. Is the site purely public facing or does it need to run secure areas for clients or internal purposes?
2. Is it an intranet or extranet site only?
   • intranet – a local or restricted communications network, esp. a private network created using World Wide Web software.
   • extranet - an intranet that can be partially accessed by authorised outside users, enabling businesses to exchange information over the Internet securely.
3. If it is an intranet, on what platform does it run (i.e. Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac)?
4. Are there any restrictions to development governed by your hosting company or because you use internal servers?
   • Programming language i.e. Microsoft only ASP or Open Source PHP
   • Security issues developers may need to be aware of i.e. FTP restrictions, HTTPS (SSL certificates), Internal firewalls.
5. Do you need to comply to certain disability access?
   • Text only browsers.
   • Audio web browsers.
   • Braille readers.
   • Colour blindness.
6. Does the site need to be compatible with mobile devices or web TV?
7. Reporting, what type of reporting do you need?
   • Simple statistics.
   • Ad tracking (if you use online advertising).
   • Submission tracking.
8. Do you need specific data collection?
   • Do you need to export data into a file? if so, what format do you need it (i.e. CSV, Excel or txt).
9. Does your site need to link in with specific internal systems?
   • Book-keeping systems.
   • Sales tracking software.
   • CRM systems.
   • Delivery systems.
10. Is there any user specific functionality you require?
    • Booking systems.
    • Ecommerce functionality.
    • Links to social media.
    • Calendars etc.

Thinking of your web site as part of your business processes, rather than a means to end for marketing purposes, can mean that it becomes and integral element to your business practices. And it can help streamline your activities rather than becoming a burden on staff time and duplicating existing processes.
The web site is a worthwhile investment when using joined up thinking. Using a 3D business model rather than thinking in a 2D way.

In the last part of the series we will cover maintenance and promotion of the web site.

 

>> Part One - click here

>> Part Three - click here

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We hope you find this guide helpful, remember visit our web site www.jcward.co.uk

Giving an effective website brief - part 1

The chances are, if you are reading this, that you have been given the unenviable task of creating a web site brief for your business. You may even be redeveloping an existing web site and its content. We can help you to focus on the areas that you will need to consider to deliver a comprehensive brief to your proposed web developer.

So, first of all let's break down the elements you will need to consider.

Introduction

The process of creating a web brief will also help you to source prospective web development companies who are suited to the type of development you will require. It cannot be stressed enough that this is vitally important when sourcing the company who will help deliver your vision.
It is crucial to understand that web development is made up of a number of specialist areas. Among these areas you may need to cover design, user interface programming, application development, specialist programming languages, optimisation and marketing skills. It is not necessary for you to know anything about the technical stuff but knowing what you need to achieve will make a vast difference to how best to deliver the right solutions and, therefore, results for you and your business.
Now, it may not be that you require a vastly complicated web site. If this is the case then there are a multitude of companies who offer basic web sites. However, as you write your brief it may become apparent that your choice of web companies who can fulfil your brief will narrow. It may also hightlight, that although initially your needs maybe simple, your on-going vision may need a phased approach to the development of your web presence. This again, may have a direct impact on your choice of developers.
To start your project, your web developers will need to know some background information about your company. Not only will this determine how the developers may need to approah the development of your web site, BUT most importantly it may also suggest to you that you need a design agency or design consultant to create the desired branding for the look and feel of the web site before handing it over to the developers.
Remember, flexibilty can be essential for you as well as giving you the peace of mind that you have selected the right people to deliver the key ingredients to the web site mix. Be sure to ensure that if you do select two, or more, different parties to deliver your web site that they are happy to work together.
Whatever your choice, good background information about what you and your business is about will give the professionals a feel for your brand and in turn will directly affect how they design and/or build your web site.

Introduce your company

Let’s begin. A good starting point would be to consider and list the following:

1. A couple of paragraphs about the company. Consider giving some information about your history, your current position and especially future plans and vision.
2. Information about the products you sell or service(s) you provide.
3. How big or small is your company? This should include e.g. the number of employees, a rough turnover figure. Providing a figure can greatly influence the look and feel of your web site. Think of the difference between how a large company presents itself and then how a small company does. this can directly influence hosting and marketing decisions.
4. Does your company trade internationally? If so, which countries? This may influence the need for languages on your web site or ability to use other currencies etc.
5. How long have you been established?
6. Have you got a vision statement or mission statement that describes your company’s goals and ambitions? Or how would you describe your company in five to ten words (e.g. young, vibrant, technology based etc.).

The existing web site

This may be obvious but we’ll say it anyway, you need to be objective and examine your current web offering and list your opinions about what you need to improve and those things that work just fine. So, consider the following:

1. Firstly, what is your URL! (the web address). Is it easy to remember?
2. What is good about the web site?
   • General look and feel
   • The usability (from user point of view)
   • The accessibility (does it allow for disabled access)
   • The performance (does it load quickly)
   • What value does it deliver back to the company (reporting or feed to your systems)
3. What is bad about the web site? (use same guides as point 2 above)
4. How long ago was it built and who built it?
5. Do you know what traffic the web site is currently receiving? If so, what are these levels?
6. How often do you get a genuine sales lead through the web site?
7. How is the current web site updated? Who is responsible for updating it?
8. Outline a fully as you can any other areas where you feel your web site is failing your business.
9. What other related web activities does your company currently use that may have bearing on your current development.

Remember, anything you feel may be relevant will help to get you the right solution for your business. Any agency or web development company worth their salt will consider all your views to deliver the best solution.
That's it for Part one. Hopefully this will give you enough to get started.
In part two and three we will consider your new web site in terms of design, maintenance, promotion and technical requirements.

 

>> Part Two - click here

>> Part Three - click here

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We hope you find this guide helpful, remember visit our web site www.jcward.co.uk