Startup? Thinking about building a website? In today’s real time web, putting together a website is fairly easy – buy the domain, sign up for a WordPress site, use one of their default templates, create a homepage, and there you have it; you now have a website.
The problem with the process described above is that it’s good for companies that don’t consider online marketing as part of their marketing mix (usually small businesses), or for companies who think they will never grow to be a big player. If you own or work for such a company, this blog post is not for you.
If you own, or work for a company who thinks about online marketing as an integral part of its strategy and has hopes of becoming the next big thing, the 7 tips below are for you.
7 Basic Tips for Building Your New Site For Future Success
Tip #1: Build it to scale
Too many startup companies are building a brochure website that later they need to invest an arm and a leg in redesigning because they outgrew their basic WordPress site. I’m not advocating putting your hard-earned funding money into an elaborate website structure, but at least think of scale and think about the different types of pages you’ll eventually have to have. Create your basic templates so they will be able to support rapid growth.
No matter what your business is, if your business grows, your website will have to grow with it. At a minimum, your website will have to include: a decent homepage, a pricing page, an About page, a Press page, a Contact Us page or at least a sidebar.
Tip #2: Build it to test
You’ll never really know what’s working with your target audience until you start testing. As my marketing professor used to say: “Marketing is about three basic things – testing, testing and testing.” Incorporate simple testing mechanisms, such as Google’s A/B testing or Google Website Optimizer to ensure future testing ability. At an early stage, use your website as the main channel to test your message with your inbound audience.
Tip #3: Build it to track
Whether you’re using Google Analytics or another tracking software (Optify offers a free visitor tracking feature–and a free trial), make sure you’re installing a visitor/lead tracking system on your site to start gathering data on your online performance – what pages drove the most visitors, what pages had the highest conversions, what industries are coming to your website and other valuable data to learn if you’re on the right track to success.
Tip #4: Build it to share
Unless you’ve been in outer space for the last 18 months, you should already know this; social media is the new, big thing. Social media has become the new facilitator of word-of-mouth marketing and you need to make sure your website is optimized for it. Make every page easy to share by including the main sharing buttons and a call to action. Treat social media networks as an extension of your site, pick the right networks for your business and resources (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, etc.), and customize and align them with your brand.
Tip #5: Build it for search
As a startup you need to first make sure your inbound marketing is optimized before you pour money into outbound. SEO should be the first thing you think about and it will also help you focus your positioning and messaging. Research your target keywords and optimize your pages – the few that you might have – for them (we created a basic work flow for you to do that – Build Your SEO Campaign in 15 Minutes).
Tip #6: Build it for press
As a startup company, there are a few press related events you will need to take full advantage of – funding announcement, beta release, public release, etc. Optimizing your site for press is crucial to make sure the press uses the right info and materials. Create a press page that minimally includes the About language you want the press to use, short bios of your executive team and board members and contact information of whoever handles your PR. A more elaborate press page will include the branding materials you approve (logo and tag lines, pictures of your executives and board members) and your old press releases. Make these pages easy to find and don’t bury them in your site; the press will not invest too much time to find them and will use the first thing they find on your site.
Tip #7: Just build it
Even if you’re only putting up one page with a Contact Us form, you should at least build it.
The problem with the process described above is that it’s good for companies that don’t consider online marketing as part of their marketing mix (usually small businesses), or for companies who think they will never grow to be a big player. If you own or work for such a company, this blog post is not for you.
If you own, or work for a company who thinks about online marketing as an integral part of its strategy and has hopes of becoming the next big thing, the 7 tips below are for you.
7 Basic Tips for Building Your New Site For Future Success
Tip #1: Build it to scale
Too many startup companies are building a brochure website that later they need to invest an arm and a leg in redesigning because they outgrew their basic WordPress site. I’m not advocating putting your hard-earned funding money into an elaborate website structure, but at least think of scale and think about the different types of pages you’ll eventually have to have. Create your basic templates so they will be able to support rapid growth.
No matter what your business is, if your business grows, your website will have to grow with it. At a minimum, your website will have to include: a decent homepage, a pricing page, an About page, a Press page, a Contact Us page or at least a sidebar.
Tip #2: Build it to test
You’ll never really know what’s working with your target audience until you start testing. As my marketing professor used to say: “Marketing is about three basic things – testing, testing and testing.” Incorporate simple testing mechanisms, such as Google’s A/B testing or Google Website Optimizer to ensure future testing ability. At an early stage, use your website as the main channel to test your message with your inbound audience.
Tip #3: Build it to track
Whether you’re using Google Analytics or another tracking software (Optify offers a free visitor tracking feature–and a free trial), make sure you’re installing a visitor/lead tracking system on your site to start gathering data on your online performance – what pages drove the most visitors, what pages had the highest conversions, what industries are coming to your website and other valuable data to learn if you’re on the right track to success.
Tip #4: Build it to share
Unless you’ve been in outer space for the last 18 months, you should already know this; social media is the new, big thing. Social media has become the new facilitator of word-of-mouth marketing and you need to make sure your website is optimized for it. Make every page easy to share by including the main sharing buttons and a call to action. Treat social media networks as an extension of your site, pick the right networks for your business and resources (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Digg, etc.), and customize and align them with your brand.
Tip #5: Build it for search
As a startup you need to first make sure your inbound marketing is optimized before you pour money into outbound. SEO should be the first thing you think about and it will also help you focus your positioning and messaging. Research your target keywords and optimize your pages – the few that you might have – for them (we created a basic work flow for you to do that – Build Your SEO Campaign in 15 Minutes).
Tip #6: Build it for press
As a startup company, there are a few press related events you will need to take full advantage of – funding announcement, beta release, public release, etc. Optimizing your site for press is crucial to make sure the press uses the right info and materials. Create a press page that minimally includes the About language you want the press to use, short bios of your executive team and board members and contact information of whoever handles your PR. A more elaborate press page will include the branding materials you approve (logo and tag lines, pictures of your executives and board members) and your old press releases. Make these pages easy to find and don’t bury them in your site; the press will not invest too much time to find them and will use the first thing they find on your site.
Tip #7: Just build it
Even if you’re only putting up one page with a Contact Us form, you should at least build it.
