How to devise a Web strategy that can produce consistent results for your business

Kevin Hourigan, President and CEO, Bayshore Solutions

A “set it and forget it” belief is the fast-lane to failure in Web marketing. In fact, one of the most detrimental moves that many companies make is to build a website without understanding that the creation of the site is just the first step in an endless commitment.
According to Kevin Hourigan, the president and CEO of Web designWeb development and Internet marketing agency Bayshore Solutions, you have to constantly update and market your website.
“Recent statistics show that 80 percent of customers begin their buying research online, and to ensure that your product or service shows up for these potential customers, you need to take some basic actions to keep your website current and performing,” says Hourigan. “This includes frequent updates and publishing relevant content that showcases your company’s subject matter expertise.”
Smart Business spoke with Hourigan about what it takes to keep your Web strategy up to speed so it produces consistently positive results for your business.
What is the first step in an effective Web strategy?
You must start at your website. Basic requirements of being found at the top of the search results when people are looking for your product or service are the relevancy to the topic they are searching for and the freshness of the content. Websites that are built with the correct structure to support relevancy and the flexibility to allow fast changes are the essential core of a successful Web strategy.
My best advice on how to start is to build with the never-ending end in mind. Really understand what you want from your website before you design or develop it. What are your goals for your website? What do you want your website to do? Generate leads; be used as a research tool where prospects can learn more about you; serve as an interactive tool for your existing customers; recruit employees, etc.? Your website goal, or prioritized goals when there are more than one, are your guide. Make these the driving force and litmus test for all aesthetic and functionality considerations when creating your site.
How do I bring it all together?
Three things to be sure to have your website integrated with are:

  • A content management system (CMS).
  • Analytics (Google analytics is free and can serve this need well).
  • Integration with your CRM for tracking leads through to sales.

These will help ensure that your website is built to be search engine optimization-friendly, and friendly to your Web marketing needs in general, which are a moving target. If it takes a Web programmer to add Web pages or affect a change to your website, then your Web marketing is nearly doomed before it begins. When you are forced to incur the time and expense of programming to achieve the ongoing needs of your Web marketing, you bog down your ability to quickly adjust to the dynamic nature of marketing. This costs not only time and money; it will cost you sales and competitive performance in your market. A CMS enables marketers to do your Web marketing. Analytics is a prerequisite to effective SEO and measurement. Integration to your CRM enables accurate tracking of the bottom line impact of your Web investment.
Having your core website solidly in place and able to meet the needs of ongoing change enables you to best utilize Web marketing tactics that achieve your goals.