AM Website Planning Workbook

8/2/2019 AM Website Planning Workbook

1/25


2/25

This eBook was published by Abnormal Marketing in 2011. The eBook, which is valued at

$19.97, is free and for instructional use only.

You can distribute the book however you like so long as it is given away for free and you do

not alter the content in any way. We encourage you to share it with anyone who you think

can benefit from the information contained within this eBook.

Legal Notice:

While all attempts have been made to verify the information in this publication, neither the

Author nor Publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary

interpretations of the subject matter herein.

This publication is not intended as a source of legal or accounting advice. The publisher

wants to stress that the information contained herein may be subject to varying state/local

laws or regulations. All users are advised to retain competent legal counsel to determine

what state and/or local laws or regulation may apply to the users particular business.

The Purchaser or Reader of this publication assumes responsibility for the use of these

materials and information. Adherence to all applicable laws and regulations, federal, state

and local governing professional licensing, business practices, advertising and all other

aspects of doing business in Australia or any other jurisdiction is the sole responsibility of

the Purchaser or Reader.

The Author and Publisher assume no responsibility or liability, whatsoever on the behalf of

the Purchaser or Reader of these materials.


3/25

Welcome to our Website Planning

Workbook

Having a business website is more important now than any other

time before in business history it is a marketing necessity.

However there is more confusion than ever before about exactly

how much time and money needs to be invested to obtain an

effective business website.

Interestingly, the investment required to obtain a website has gone

through a huge curve of change:

Firstly, websites were only for businesses with $10,000 min to spend

(1999 2006).

Secondly, websites became A LOT cheaper as technology changed

and new platforms arose, and suddenly $100 could get you a website

(2007 2011).

Thirdly, a lot of businesses who got a website previously, have now

discovered that its not bringing in the tonnes of new customers and

new business they expected. Also the search engines have changed,

social media is booming, and a new kind of website is needed.


4/25

So 2011, brings a new era of business website. $100 wont work

anymore, and you only need to spend $10,000 for an amazing portal

or fancy eCommerce site with bells.

Website solutions which are fairly priced are now available...

But are they enough?

If you dont have a proper online marketing ePlan, if you are not

using all the tools available, and investing on an ongoing basis, then

just having a website may not be enough.

But the BEST start is planning.


5/25

Table of Contents

1. Purpose of your Website

2. Hosting and Domain Name

3. Site Organisation (Sitemap)

4. Content

5. Colours and Design Inspiration

6. Navigation System

7. Photos and Videos

8. Contact Form

9. Post Launch Promotion

10. Maintenance

11. Monitoring and Tracking

12. Budget


6/25

1 Purpose of your Website

Is it very important in the early stages of website planning to

determine your exact reason you are investing in a website.

To establish an internet presence

To extend your current advertising (radio, flyers, newspapers,

etc.)

To enhance your companys professional image

To offer company information and give customers a favourable

impression

To educate customers and potential customers

To provide better customer service

To increase public awareness of our companys name, brand or

identity

To strengthen your position in the marketplace

To strengthen brand identification

To develop a list of qualified prospects

To increase sales

To sell products directly over the Internet (e-commerce)

To make product/ service information available to current

customers

To make product/ service information available to distributors


7/25

To serve the needs of current and future clients

To explain your products and services

To encourage potential customers to contact you by phone or

e-mail

To close a sale

To bring in new clients or customers to your location

To compete in the global marketplace

To offer links to other relevant sites

To offer a virtual community, a place where users can interact

with each other

Which are the most important 3 to you:

1.______________________________________

2.______________________________________

3.______________________________________

Ultimately, you need to know the single, most important purpose

for your website, and everything in your website should point to

that. Then your website visitors wont be distracted and will know

exactly what to do when they visit your site.


8/25

2 Hosting and Domain Name

Domain Name

Your Domain Name is the actual web address where people will find

your website www.yourcompany.com or www.yourcompany.com.au

If your business is a common or popular name, you may need to be

creative in determining which address you purchase, as it may

already be taken. It is best to keep in mind, that you choose an

address which is easy to remember and not too complicated.

Hosting

The Hosting is the server which will hold the actual code and content

of your website, and broadcast it onto the World Wide Web.

The most affordable option is to buy space on a shared server. You

can expect a reasonable level of service, if you choose to spend

between $6 and $10 per month. It may be a good idea to check

reviews before choosing your host, as the level of service can vary

enormously.

We can recommend some more reliable hosting companies if youd

after one.


9/25

3 Site Organisation & Sitemap

You need to decide exactly what content will appear on your

website, and the first selection you must make is what major pages

will be visible on your homepage. Some popular considerations

include:

About Us

News (or embed a Blog)

Products

o_________________

o_________________

o_________________

Services

o_________________

o_________________

o_________________

Image Gallery

FAQs

Links

Press

Contact Us

Terms and Conditions

Privacy Policy

Other:

_____________________

_____________________


10/25

Total Number of Pages: _______________

Sitemap

Creating a Sitemap is a good idea, so you can understand how your website will

flow:


11/25

Website Planning Workbook

11Copyright 2011 Abnormal Marketing - All Rights Reserved

4 Website Content

Content is the text (words) and images (photos/ videos) that will make up the

pages of your website. When writing the text for your site, it may help to keep

a couple of keywords or keyword phrases in mind. This will help with your SEO

(search engine optimisation).

We advise that you create 1 x Word document file for each page of content you

intend on using, and to keep all the docs in one folder.

You can use this table below to keep track of exactly how many pages of

content you have:

Content Page/

Details

Word Doc File

Name

No of Words Photo or Video

file names

Eg. About Us About-Us.doc 213 Team-photo.jpg


12/25



5 Colours and Design Inspiration

It may be a good idea to offer your designer as much as possible to help them

determine the overall layout and feel of your website. The colour and design

may be the first thing you want to focus on, but it really is just one of the

elements which must be considered as part of your website development

marketing strategy.

You should provide your designer with:

Business Cards

Business Brochures or Leaflets

Your Business Logo

Your Business RGB colour codes

Your Business official font (if known)

You should also communicate to your designer:

Your preference for colour, if not already in your

materials_____________________

If your business engages in Social Media, which icons would you like to

show:

o________________________________________

o________________________________________

o________________________________________

o________________________________________


13/25



Your preference for style corporate, contemporary, arty, unique

o________________________________________

o________________________________________

o________________________________________

Other websites you like:

o________________________________________

o________________________________________

o________________________________________


14/25



6 Navigation System

Once the Colours and Business Brand is considered, the next part is to consider

the layout of the website/ homepage, and how the navigation system will work.

Do you want your website to be 1 column, 2 columns or 3 columns? What do

you want in your Top Menu? In your Side Menu? In your Footer Menu?

Do you want all these menus to show, regardless of what page your viewer is

on?

Layout Example:


15/25



7 Photos and Videos

Not everybody likes text. Sometimes you can give a much better impression

with an image. It is important to have text, since this is what the search engine

spiders read to rank your website, but having images can relay your impression

or message better to your potential customers.

In adding photos and videos to your website, you need to consider:

Will you have a Photo Gallery? Or just carefully selected images pasted

across your website?

Will you be providing video content? Will this be hosted on your website,

or on an alternative website or social network like YouTube or Vimeo?

How often will you replace the images? Or how often will you plan to be

uploading new images?

As soon as you have decided to launch or re-design your website, you should

start collating images together. Of course the images have to be a certain level

of quality, with appropriate angles, good lighting, and a professional

appearance.

You may also opt to choose some stock images as well, and Abnormal can

help with choosing these for you. But a website with only stock images feels a

little cold, so we recommend at least a couple of real photos too.


16/25



The aim with photos is to show you are a real business, and you can be trusted.

Start collecting photos and videos for your website, and saving them into a

folder. Its important to keep your website up-to-date with fresh photos as well,

at least once every 6 12 months.

Image Name Date of Image/

Photo


17/25



8 Contact Forms

Of course, the reason for having a website is so that people can contact you. So

you really need your business address and phone number/s available.

As an alternative to pasting the email address on your website, we may suggest

that you use a built-in Contact Form. You can choose more than one contact

form:

Contact Us Generic Form

Request a Quote

Answer a Survey Question

A contact form guides the user to providing the information you require, so that

you can best serve them.


18/25



9 Post Website Launch Promotion!

Once your website is launched onto the internet, the key is to get people

(preferably potential customers) to find you, view the site, and take action

bookmark or contact.

Here are a few suggestions you may want to consider:

SEO

Just because your site is on the internet, doesnt mean it will appear in the

Search Engines (like Google) or be easily found by your target market.

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a skill and takes time and energy, to

optimise the website, not only in the beginning, but on an ongoing basis so that

your site will appear where you need to appear.

It normally takes a couple of months to get ranked, so dont expect amazing

results in a day. It is very important to continue to invest in your website, so

that your website will perform for you.

Press Release (PR)

A good idea after the launch is to craft and send out a Press Release. This is a

great way to get local journalists, and journalists accessing the online PR portals

to view your website, and possibly use your press release to help you promote

it.

You can also send a modified press release to your existing customers.


19/25



Stationery and In-Business

Add your web address to your letterhead, business cards, email signatures,

business newsletter, company cars, business signs and display advertising

Social Media

If you dabble in Social Media Networking on behalf of your business, the web

address should be added to all your social media profiles. It should also be

communicated to your followers on Facebook/ Twitter, and they should be

encouraged to view your site and offer feedback.

SEM

There are many options now to invest in SEM (Search Engine Marketing) across

the internet, which is online paid advertising. You can pay for:

PPC/ Google Adwords/ Facebook Adwords

Online Banners

Listings in Local Business Directories/ Online Yellow Pages

Start an E-Newsletter

This is a great way to keep viewer coming back to your website. You can even

offer them a valuable freebie to subscribe, but then you must keep sending

them amazing information and content on a regular basis to keep your

newsletter worthwhile.

You could email out the newsletter weekly, fortnightly or monthly.


20/25



10 Maintenance

Your website should be an invaluable tool in your Marketing Plan, and after the

website is launched, it is imperative that time is taken to maintain the website

on a regular basis.

This comes back to your original plan, but you need to allocate 1 person in your

business to be responsible for the website, and the maintenance.

If you do not have the time or resources to do this, Abnormal can help you.

Basically the monthly website maintenance should include:

A Monthly Back-Up of your entire site as insurance in case something

happens to the server where your website is hosted.

Checking that all the content is up-to-date, and removing or adding

content if necessary

Monitor your Uptime to ensure your host is doing its job

Make sure Release/Production software patches are applied


21/25



11 Monitoring and Tracking

As mentioned before, a website should be an investment, and should be

delivering a return on your money (ROI). So its imperative you review and

monitor your website on at least a monthly basis, to ensure it is performing as

well as it could be.

There are a great range of tools and services across the web that can help you

with this. The first tool I would recommend is:

Google Analytics

This program can give you a good idea, how many people are coming to your

site, exactly where in the world they are coming from, which pages they are

viewing, how long they are staying on your site, which keywords are driving

traffic to your site, and many more great facts.

It is very easy to set up an account and currently it is free. Its just a matter of

taking the time every month to visit, and monitor how your site is doing, so that

you can make appropriate changes to your website if required.

Google Webmaster

At Google Webmaster Central, you can access their webmaster tool, which is

designed to check data about crawling, indexing and search traffic on your

website. The tool can also notify you regarding any problems that it detects on

your site.


22/25



There are many other programs available across the web, for a premium of

course. Some of these include:

Web Metrics

GFI

Site24X7

Marketo


23/25



12 Budget

Now that you understand everything that goes into planning, setting up,

launching, managing and monitoring your website, you need to set an initial

budget, as well as an ongoing budget.

If you want your website to rank well in the search engines (like Google), and

you want to get as many visitors as you can, to convert into your clients you are

going to have to spend wisely and continuously.

Item Upfront

Costs

Ongoing Costs

(per month)

Website Design and Development

Hosting

Domain Name

Monthly Maintenance

Monitoring and Tracking

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Public Relations (PR)

Social Media Community Management

Copywriting/ Blogging

Search Engine Marketing (SEM/PPC)

E-Newsletter

Other/ Misc


24/25



Website Planning Workbook CHECKLIST

To get you started, here is a summarized checklist for you and your business:

STEPS TO ACHIEVE DONE

1. Determine Main Purpose2. Buy Domain Name and Hosting3. Decide on Site Organisation (Sitemap)4. Write Website Content and File5. Decide on Colours and Design6. Decide on preferred Navigation System7. Take or Collate Photos/ Videos and File8. Decide what Contact Forms you will use9. Decide on initial website promotion and what

ongoing promotion you will do

10.Set up a Maintenance Plan11.Establish your tools for Monitoring and

Tracking

12.Work out your initial and ongoing Budget

I hope you found this eBook helpful. We welcome your questions and feedback

at [email protected]


25/25


About the Author

Fiona McEachran is at the forefront of helping small

businesses with their online marketing and

establishing a profitable web presence.

As a Marketing Media Consultant, aspiring Speaker,

Blogger and Partner at

www.AbnormalMarketing.com, Fiona understands

more than ever the importance of being truly

abnormal to stand out in todays competitive marketplace. Fionas philosophy of going

against the grain, and using the latest technologies available to boost small business

marketing results, makes up the foundation of Abnormal.

Fionas core experience lies in social media marketing involving creating plans and

strategies, incorporating brands and communications. And through the

www.OnlineMarketingSuccessClub.comFiona also provides a range of online marketing

training for business owners who want to take charge and get their marketing on track by

methods including building a business blog, maximising the social media networks, creating

or updating a marketing plan, and launching a new campaign.

Fiona and her team at Abnormal Marketing can also devise website plans which incorporate

web design, mobile technology, copywriting, SEO and PPC.

If you are looking for help with online marketing activities for your business please contact

Fiona at Abnormal at [email protected]

AM Website Planning Workbook

Documents

Transcript of AM Website Planning Workbook