B2B Website Planning
Don’t Redesign Your B2B Website Before You Discover the Importance and the Benefits of Website Planning
YOUR WEBSITE
4. FINDING WEBSITE FLAWS
1. DEFINING GOALS
3. CREATING STRATEGY
5. CREATING WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE
2. CREATING COMPANY PROFILE
Unfortunately, too many designers and programmers are comfortable with coding and designing without a plan. Lack of planning is what makes clients unhappy with their websites.
Because the internet is still young, many website developers aren’t experienced enough to insist that you get a website plan first.
Do You Have a Serious Business? Don’t Skip Website Planning.
A website plan contains instructions on what needs to be built, how, and why.
Building websites is similar to building houses: first you hire the architects, and then you hire the construction company.
The construction company would refuse to build a house without an architectural plan.
Fact: 25%* of Website Projects Fail. Why?
It’s 2016 and website projects still exceed their budget, scope, and deadlines - mostly due to the lack of website planning.
* Source: ZDNet, 2008
This Is How Website Projects Fail
OVER BUDGET
OVER
TIME
RUINED RELATIONSHIPS
OVER
SCOPE
cost overruns caused by frequent changes
changes in requirements delay the launch
content doesn’t fit in the new slick design
an important feature is missing
old bugs are carried over to the new web
website fails to bring new customers
agency fails to finish the project
client is confused and unhappy
This is what a proper website development process should look like.
If you don’t have a written website plan, it’s too early to hire programmers and designers.
Solution: Planning First.
Website Planning Consists of 5 Main Activities:
YOUR WEBSITE
DEFINING GOALS
FINDING WEBSITE FLAWS
CREATING COMPANY PROFILE
CREATING WEBSITE ARCHITECTURE
CREATING STRATEGY
First, your S.M.A.R.T. business goal(s) are defined.
These goals will drive the entire project.
S.pecific
M.easurable
A.chieavable
R.elevant
T.ime-Bound
What Do S.M.A.R.T. Goals Mean?
Example of a goal statement: “We will put a man on the Moon by the end of the decade”.
S.pecific
M.easurable
A.chieavable
R.elevant
T.ime-Bound
“A man on the Moon” sets a target specific enough to focus on.
Is there a human being on the Moon, or not? It must be relatively easy to measure whether the goal has been achieved or not.
It must be possible to succeed. In 1962, when president Kennedy delivered his famous speech, scientists were already sure that going to the Moon was tough, but possible.
Is it worth spending your time on achieving this goal? Goals that are relevant keep the motivation of the entire team high enough and long enough to succeed.
A goal without a deadline is just a dream. Setting a hard date sets your team up for success, and enables you to measure your performance.
2. Your Company Profile
Creating your company profile is an important discovery process in which website planning specialists gather strategic information about your business, the kind that is unavailable to the public.
The result is a document defining the following aspects:
Your Products and Services
Your Ideal Customer Profiles
Your Competitors
Your Market Situation
Your Competitive Advantage
Total Clarity About Your Business Is a Prerequisite to Having Good Strategy.
Your Products and Services
Profiles of Your Ideal Customers
Your Competition
Your Market Situation
Your Competitive Advantage
We’ll define the desired range of products and services which you want to present on your website.
We’ll understand who your best customers are, what motivates them, and which problems you’re solving for them.
We need to research what your competitors are doing online so that we can keep you several steps ahead of them.
Explain to us your position on the market, and we’ll uncover hidden opportunities available to you.
Your website needs to clearly say how you’re creating value in a different way than your competitors do.
3. Your Strategy
Digital marketing strategy defines how digital channels fit into your overall business strategy.
The result is a document defining the following aspects in greater detail:
Buying / Selling Cycles
Marketing Funnels
Marketing Channels
Content
Work
Processes
Timelines
Strategy Is Knowing How to Achieve Superior Performance.
Marketing Funnels
Timelines
Buying / Selling Cycles
Content
Processes
Marketing Channels
How do your customers prefer to buy? How are your sales efforts aligned with the customers’ expectations?
Which paths will exist on your website so that it turns first-time visitors into repeat visitors into inquiries / sales?
Where are your customers congregating online? Which channels must you use so that they’re willing to listen to you?
What do you say when your customers are ready to listen, and how do you say it so that your message influences them?
How must you organize your internal teams and processes so that your strategy works well?
When do you work on executing your strategy, how often, and are there any deadlines?
4. Finding Website Flaws
No website is without flaws.
You need specialists to detect and help you remove those flaws so that they do not reappear on the new website.
The result is a written website improvement report analyzing 4 aspects of your website:
Sales / Marketing Features
Architecture & Layouts
Design & Programming
Content
Is Your Website a Mess? For Example:
Sales / Marketing Features
Architecture & Layouts
Design & Programming
Content
Are there clearly defined marketing funnels, and are they set up well?
Are calls to action used?
What does Google Analytics data tell us?
Does your website use the concept of landing pages?
Is your navigation confusing?
Are there broken links?
Do you use links well?
Does your design make your content stand out?
Do your apps work well for humans and search engines?
Do you answer your customers’ most important questions?
Is your content hard to understand?
Is your content boring?
5. Creating Website Architecture
Website planning specialists ask questions such as: why? what? how? how much? which ones? to define and document the following technical aspects:
Content Types, Formats & Scope
Visual Website Map
Sales & Marketing Features
Applications
Characteristic Design Templates
Creating Great Website Architecture Means Answering These:
Sales / Marketing Features
Content Types, Formats & Scope
Visual Website Map
Applications
Characteristic Design Templates
References, blog posts - yes or no?
Text, presentation, or video format?
How many pieces of each content?
How will the website menus look like?
Two, three, or more levels of navigation?
Which content is most important?
How do we design marketing funnels?
Where do we put call to action buttons?
Will there be an email newsletter?
Which apps are essential for delivering the content well?
Do we need a blog, search, web forms?
How should we structure our landing pages?
How do we design our content so that it influences our visitors?
Benefits of Starting With a Well-Planned Website Project
With this plan in hand, begin requesting quotes from website development agencies and expect the following:
We’re a digital consultancy helping established B2B companies get more customers online by increasing their website’s sales and marketing capabilities.
Hire Logit to Plan Your New B2B Website.
Logit internet services Ltd.
Phone: +385 1 3773 062 / info@logit.net / www.logit.net
Featured Website Planning Projects
AluK Tim d.o.o.
We manage the entire digital marketing for AluK, the Croatian authorized distributor and reseller of high-quality Italian aluminum systems for windows, doors, and curtain walls:
“After launching digital marketing campaigns and our new website, it didn’t take long before we started getting inquiries and closing sales. We didn’t expect such good results.”
Mrs. Monika Hrvatin, Director of Marketing and Sales, AluK
MIT Software d.o.o.
Software development company MIT Software hired us for:
We created 2 sketches of their website mit-software.hr and both sketches were approved by the client with only minor changes that needed to be done.
“Thank you for everything that has been done, your promptness and communication while working on the project. It was a pleasure to work with you. I look forward to further cooperation on new projects that we're preparing.”
Mr. Kresimir Zoric, CEO
MICRO PROCESS, an experienced software development and industry automation company, hired us to create a professionally looking, content-rich B2B website micro-process.hr. The services we provided are:
MICRO PROCESS d.o.o.
We wouldn't be able to create this kind of content by ourselves. We wouldn't know what to do and the energy we would spend on it would be enormous. You guided us through content creation and we’ve got results with minimal involvement.
Mr. Zoran Spoja, owner of MICRO PROCESS
About Logit
Logit internet services Ltd. (www.logit.net) is an EU-based digital marketing consultancy established in 2002. We help B2B companies get new international customers online by providing the following services: