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WEB202 » Site Objectives

The scope of our websites are fundamentally determined by the strategy of our site—what the company is trying to gain from the website and what they want the users to leave their site with. In order to create a successful strategy to develop our site from, we need to look into the key aspects of why our site is going to exist.

The most common reason that sites fail is not because their technology isn’t sound. It is because the company was not in touch with what a website can do for them in terms of meeting their business goals and what users are actually wanting from their site in terms of an overall experience.

What do we want to get out of this site?

What is the purpose of this site and how will it help in achieving or business goals? By answering this question we will be able to describe the overall site objectives coming from within the organization. Being sure that everyone’s ideas line up is key.

See Also:

• Redesign Project Proposal for SugarSync | HCDE518 | Mike Sinkula
• Tahoe Moonshine | Shawn Harstad

Brand Identity: a set of conceptual association or emotion reactions that in the mind of your users is an overall impression about your organization that they formulate as they use your site. It is also what people are saying about you and your company when you are not in the room.

When writing up your Brand Identity, you may want to address the following questions:

• What are the guiding principles that define the company’s approach? What is your (rational and emotional) brand promise?
• What are the specific market needs the company exists to address? What does the company do to address these needs?
• Which market segment does your product or service serve? Why is your product or service different from the competition, and why should your customers care? Why do customers buy from you and not your competition?
• When your customers experience your product or service, what emotions does the encounter elicit? What values, beliefs and or benefits do you want customers to associate with your brand?
• If the brand was a person, what would it’s personality be? How would it look, act and talk?

Brand Identity Example:

Workstation Technologies strives to present itself as a cost effective solution for all of your computing peripheral needs such as: monitors, printers, keyboards, mice and storage devices.

Since everybody who uses a computer will eventually need to replace, upgrade or just want a new computer peripheral for their own workstation, Workstation Technologies will need to place themselves in the market as a company that understands the needs of the average to not so average computer user by offering products that are practical, affordable and ingenious.

See Also: 

• The Marketer’s Guide to Developing a Strong Corporate and Brand Identity | HubSpot
• Designing a Brand Identity | Creative Market

Business Goals: internal strategic objectives that are intended to make or save the company money.

When writing up your Business Goals, you may want to address the following questions:

• What problem does the company’s product or service solve? What niche will it fill? What is the company’s solution to the problem?
• Who are the company’s customers, and how will the company market and sell its products to them?
• What is the size of the market for this solution? Who are the competitors and how will the company maintain a competitive advantage?

Business Goals Example:

The Workstation Technologies website will be designed to be a self-service website that customers can browse and buy products from. The biggest driver that will save Workstation Technologies money will be the fact that the user audience can buy their products directly from the Workstation Technologies website directly instead of having to go through a reseller like MacMall.

Success Metrics: concrete indicators of how effectively the user experience is meeting strategic objectives and goals: visits per month, time per visit, increase of revenue, etc.

Keep in mind that these success metrics are based on quantifiable data. Ask yourself where can we track within the site or within the store how many people we “converted” from just browsing to actively buying or participating?

Success Metrics Example:

The most obvious success metric will be the amount of on-line sales that Workstation Technologies will be able to achieve. Other success metrics will include the subscription to their on-line newsletter, number of product manual downloads, decrease of calls to the sales center, decrease of product returns and increase in overall page hits.