Website as a tool
One of the standard questions that the web studio asks (or should be) should be at the first meeting with the client - why do you need a website? Often, the client readily responds “we need a website as a tool.” But, as experience shows, sometimes it’s about the same thing as coming to the store and buying a drill to be. To the house was a tool.
Recall the classic example that buying a drill, in fact a person buys holes that can be made with the help of this drill. In order for these holes to appear, the tool must be used, it is necessary to be able to handle and work with it. By itself, the drill (as well as the site itself) does not make much sense.
Taking into account the fact that site creation is often not cheap, what should be done so that the tool does not lie on the shelf, but is used for its intended purpose? Declaring that we are ordering a site-tool, we need to understand what kind of "holes" we want to get as a result.
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Let's look at the problem statement by example. Suppose there is a manufacturing company that produces and sells some products. Its target audience consists of two groups: end users and dealers. It is clear that both of these groups are very important for the company - if the end consumer is not interested in our product, then the dealers will not order it, and if the dealers do not order it, then the final consumer will simply not be able to buy it with good intentions. So, on the site we will try to take into account the interests of both groups.
The first thing to start with is to predict the visitor’s actions, starting from entering the site and ending with a specific action. What actions are we expecting from him?
We formulate the goal of visiting the site by potential dealers as an increase in the number of calls to the sales service. So, we are waiting for the dealer to either call or letter. Therefore, the minimum task is that the phone number and email are visible and accessible, the phone must be free, and the responsible officer will respond promptly and competently to emails.
But what can we do to make this appeal to the sales service all the same take place? Let's think about what we know about our dealers? They are primarily interested in profits when working with a particular product. If the dealer is already working with similar products of competitors, then our task is to offer him more interesting conditions and significant bonuses in order to switch to our product. Thus, we highlight the priority information that needs to be prepared for the site - information on prices and payment terms, a list of bonuses and discounts, interaction conditions in the process of product release and payment, logistics nuances and so on. Of course, when visiting a website, a potential dealer should easily find the necessary information, which means that we should help him in this and provide this information in a simple and convenient form.
Now we will think about final consumers. Our task is that they prefer our products to competitors. Since our product is not a necessity, it is important to position it correctly on the right niche. We are interested in literate consumers, so we will conduct a dialogue with them, and the overall presentation of information will be democratic and to the point.
The purpose of the site for such visitors is defined as the creation of brand involvement. Involvement implies certain actions and emotions, which means that we will provide interactive elements on the site in order to give visitors the opportunity to respond to the information received or provide feedback on our products. Further, we will provide for BTL-actions when selling goods, where our site will be mentioned, and on the site we will post attractive bonuses and entertainment. It is also worth thinking about the reviews section, it is advisable to use photos of people relevant to our target audience, who tell about the experience of using our products and their emotions about this.
If our products are not yet sold "at every corner", then you should put a list of those places where you can buy it (preferably with a description of travel to them, indicating the time of work and contact numbers), as well as provide a convenient way to place an order using the site.
Thus, we will consider and measure the achievement of the site’s goals from the point of view of end users by the number of orders from the site, participation in bonus promotions and the presence of active feedback.
So, by some such reasoning, we come to what information we need to place on the site , what priorities to place, what we need, and what can be dispensed with. At the same time, we note how we will test the effect of achieving our goals. The number of calls to the sales service and the availability of feedback from consumers are quite measurable quantities.
Now, with a critical eye, we will look again at the list of necessary sections, referring to our goals and the predicted behavior of the audience. Obviously, sections like “About the Company”, “Our Mission”, photos of the managers of the enterprise and production premises may be of interest to someone, so we will leave them, but these will not be the most priority sections on the site. Further, since the general information about our products is important both for dealers and for end users, we will not rigidly divide it into different sites and into different sections, but make sure that it is convenient for both of them to get it.
Let us draw up a summary plan or a list of questions that we need to answer in order for our website to make the “holes” we need, and not just to please the eye.
1. What products / services will we promote on the site?
2. To whom do we want to sell them, what kind of people are they, what is important for them when they consume our goods and services?
3. How do we formulate our goals and expectations from the audience of our site at the level of actions and behavior?
4. What information and opportunities should we provide on the site so that people can conveniently give us money for our goods and services?
5. How will we track the achievement of the result?
The next step should be the preparation of content (that is, texts and illustrations), then - the creation of a prototype of the site or the schemes of its main pages. After that (yes, only after that!) It is worth moving on to design. Unfortunately, there are frequent cases when a client comes to the first negotiations with an already ready design sketch (because he likes such a design), but does not have an answer to the question why he really needs this site.
With this approach, the client and the web-studio always have the opportunity to check with the goals and objectives in the process of creating the site, because the main criterion in this case is whether we achieve our goals or just decide to add a cool piece of fun, interesting text or a beautiful picture. And most importantly - the site should be integrated into the client's business system, interact with it, help, complement and optimize business processes, and not just be the address on the business card.
Recall the classic example that buying a drill, in fact a person buys holes that can be made with the help of this drill. In order for these holes to appear, the tool must be used, it is necessary to be able to handle and work with it. By itself, the drill (as well as the site itself) does not make much sense.
Taking into account the fact that site creation is often not cheap, what should be done so that the tool does not lie on the shelf, but is used for its intended purpose? Declaring that we are ordering a site-tool, we need to understand what kind of "holes" we want to get as a result.
')
Let's look at the problem statement by example. Suppose there is a manufacturing company that produces and sells some products. Its target audience consists of two groups: end users and dealers. It is clear that both of these groups are very important for the company - if the end consumer is not interested in our product, then the dealers will not order it, and if the dealers do not order it, then the final consumer will simply not be able to buy it with good intentions. So, on the site we will try to take into account the interests of both groups.
The first thing to start with is to predict the visitor’s actions, starting from entering the site and ending with a specific action. What actions are we expecting from him?
We formulate the goal of visiting the site by potential dealers as an increase in the number of calls to the sales service. So, we are waiting for the dealer to either call or letter. Therefore, the minimum task is that the phone number and email are visible and accessible, the phone must be free, and the responsible officer will respond promptly and competently to emails.
But what can we do to make this appeal to the sales service all the same take place? Let's think about what we know about our dealers? They are primarily interested in profits when working with a particular product. If the dealer is already working with similar products of competitors, then our task is to offer him more interesting conditions and significant bonuses in order to switch to our product. Thus, we highlight the priority information that needs to be prepared for the site - information on prices and payment terms, a list of bonuses and discounts, interaction conditions in the process of product release and payment, logistics nuances and so on. Of course, when visiting a website, a potential dealer should easily find the necessary information, which means that we should help him in this and provide this information in a simple and convenient form.
Now we will think about final consumers. Our task is that they prefer our products to competitors. Since our product is not a necessity, it is important to position it correctly on the right niche. We are interested in literate consumers, so we will conduct a dialogue with them, and the overall presentation of information will be democratic and to the point.
The purpose of the site for such visitors is defined as the creation of brand involvement. Involvement implies certain actions and emotions, which means that we will provide interactive elements on the site in order to give visitors the opportunity to respond to the information received or provide feedback on our products. Further, we will provide for BTL-actions when selling goods, where our site will be mentioned, and on the site we will post attractive bonuses and entertainment. It is also worth thinking about the reviews section, it is advisable to use photos of people relevant to our target audience, who tell about the experience of using our products and their emotions about this.
If our products are not yet sold "at every corner", then you should put a list of those places where you can buy it (preferably with a description of travel to them, indicating the time of work and contact numbers), as well as provide a convenient way to place an order using the site.
Thus, we will consider and measure the achievement of the site’s goals from the point of view of end users by the number of orders from the site, participation in bonus promotions and the presence of active feedback.
So, by some such reasoning, we come to what information we need to place on the site , what priorities to place, what we need, and what can be dispensed with. At the same time, we note how we will test the effect of achieving our goals. The number of calls to the sales service and the availability of feedback from consumers are quite measurable quantities.
Now, with a critical eye, we will look again at the list of necessary sections, referring to our goals and the predicted behavior of the audience. Obviously, sections like “About the Company”, “Our Mission”, photos of the managers of the enterprise and production premises may be of interest to someone, so we will leave them, but these will not be the most priority sections on the site. Further, since the general information about our products is important both for dealers and for end users, we will not rigidly divide it into different sites and into different sections, but make sure that it is convenient for both of them to get it.
Let us draw up a summary plan or a list of questions that we need to answer in order for our website to make the “holes” we need, and not just to please the eye.
1. What products / services will we promote on the site?
2. To whom do we want to sell them, what kind of people are they, what is important for them when they consume our goods and services?
3. How do we formulate our goals and expectations from the audience of our site at the level of actions and behavior?
4. What information and opportunities should we provide on the site so that people can conveniently give us money for our goods and services?
5. How will we track the achievement of the result?
The next step should be the preparation of content (that is, texts and illustrations), then - the creation of a prototype of the site or the schemes of its main pages. After that (yes, only after that!) It is worth moving on to design. Unfortunately, there are frequent cases when a client comes to the first negotiations with an already ready design sketch (because he likes such a design), but does not have an answer to the question why he really needs this site.
With this approach, the client and the web-studio always have the opportunity to check with the goals and objectives in the process of creating the site, because the main criterion in this case is whether we achieve our goals or just decide to add a cool piece of fun, interesting text or a beautiful picture. And most importantly - the site should be integrated into the client's business system, interact with it, help, complement and optimize business processes, and not just be the address on the business card.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/50013/
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