Website Development

            Websites have become an increasingly important aspect of most companies.  As websites were first created for the purpose of simply having one, today websites are used as marketing techniques with carefully created objectives (Lombardo, 2001).  Websites play increasingly significant roles in most companies, and therefore, it is important to understand and follow the website development process.

            Websites play a very significant role in the marketing strategy.  They act as a channel for providing information or a channel for generating sales.  They can also act as a channel for both (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  Websites are commonly created for the purposes of increasing sales revenue, increasing company visability, advertising products/services, providing customer service, and retaining and growing customer bases (Lombardo, 2001).  To successfully fulfill these objectives, it is important to follow the website development process carefully.  The website development process consists of seven essential steps (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

            The first step in the website development process is to establish site objectives.  The company must first decide whether the intention of the website is to be informational of transactional.  It is also important to include both generic and specific objectives in doing so (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  When creating objectives, they must also be measurable (Lombardo, 2001).  When creating an information website, the objectives should be based on the AIDA model, which stands for attention-interest-desire-action.  The website should guide visitors through each of those stages (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  Ultimately, objectives should provide a strong foundation to the overall marketing goals of the company.

            The second step in the website development process is to identify and describe the target market.  It is then the responsibility of the marketing department to understand how each of the objectives relate to a specific target market.  This information needs to be shared with all website developers (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  A target market, its profile characteristics, and the reason for visiting should all be developed and then website content and the navigation structure need to be designed around it (Lombardo, 2001).

            The third step in the website development process is to design site content and navigation structure.  This is the stage in which the necessary content and the appropriate manner of how to present the content is decided.  At first it generally appears to be straightforward to the public eye.  However, successfully created websites are far from straightforward.  It has been proven that generally website viewers skim the text rather than read it word for word.  This creates a need for the text to be placed properly.  Properly placed text is generally in short blocks and a column fashion.  Eye catching graphics, clean fonts, and strong visual metaphors have also recently been found to be helpful.  Ultimately, the goal is to simplify the site’s message and improve the visual appeal of it (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

            The fourth step in the website development process is to conduct usability tests.  This is when internet users test out the website.  They are able to discover issues within it and provide suggestions as to how to improve the site.  The site needs to be user friendly when it is all done and displayed.  Therefore, it is important to test the site on samples of individuals before putting it in front of the public eye (Lombardo, 2001).

            The fifth step in the website development process is to deploy and tune the site.  This is a technical focused step.  This is the stage when images are compressed to make them load quicker and links are checked to ensure they work.  Overall, it is the stage when the site is checked to make sure it is running as quickly and smoothly as it could.  If not, then measures are taken to fix it.  The website may then be uploaded (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

            The sixth step in the website development process is to measure and evaluate the site’s effectiveness.  This is the point where the IT department monitors the technical aspects of the website.  Doing this enables them to find things such as infrequently accessed websites, abandoned carts, or navigation paths that indicate difficulty.  The IT department is then able to take action on these issues to resolve the problems quickly.  These changes improve the website (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).     

The final step in the website development process is to refine and improve the site’s effectiveness.  It is important to continuously be updating the website and improving it in as many ways as possible.  One good way of improving the website is through obtaining customer feedback.  Ultimately, it is the customer you are trying to impress, so it is their feedback that should be taken into consideration (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).

            Overall, websites are very beneficial for companies to have.  Creating a website to fulfill certain roles within a company and following the website development process to ensure the site fulfills the roles will help ensure greater successes for the company.  Having a strong website can really give a company a strong competitive advantage over other competing companies. 

 

References

Lombardo, C. (2001, June 1). Marketing Online Services: The Need to Be Savvy. EBSCO

Publishing Service Selection Page. Retrieved December 15, 2012, from http://ehis.

ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&hid=23&sid=423a61c9-cce9-45c4-aa2e-4eab67c308d2%40sessionmgr12.

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. L. (2013). Internet Marketing: Integrating Online and Offline

Strategies (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Social Media Marketing

            There are over 1.125 billion social media users worldwide.  Users are not just visiting social sites, but rather spending about 22% of their online time on social sites (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  Therefore, it has increased the importance of organizations using social sites for marketing purposes.  There are many ways social sites can be used to market and multiple benefits of doing so.  However, it is also important that companies understand ways to effectively use social sites to ensure the success of social media marketing.

Social media marketing can be defined as, “Business use of selected social media channels to understand customers and to engage them in communication and collaboration in ways that lead to the achievement of ultimate marketing and business goals (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).”  Companies use social media marketing for a variety of reasons.  Most companies use it for the purpose of generating exposure for their business, increasing traffic, building new business partnerships, helping the company rise in search rankings, generating qualified leads, helping the company sell products/services, or reducing overall marketing expenses (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  Some common social media sites throughout the United States include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, MySpace, LinkedIn, Friendster, Orkut, Tagged, Xanga, Flicker, and Tumblr.    

            One advantage of using social sites for marketing is that the message gets in front of large audiences quickly.  Facebook alone has over 500 million users worldwide, and about 50% of them log onto it everyday (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  85% of businesses that use social sites for marketing reasons do so with the intention of generating exposure for the company (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  Another benefit of using social media marketing is that it is cost effective.  Social media marketing is generally free, unlike most other sources of marketing (McAlister-Holand, 2012).  The only real resource that is usually needed to make a successful social media marketing attempt is time.  It takes a great deal of time to plan and implement a social media marketing site that is going to be attractive and attention getting for customers.  Another benefit of using social media marketing is that it improves employee engagement and internal collaboration within an organization (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  Ultimately, social media marketing is very beneficial because it gets the message in front of a large audience, around the world, quickly, and for a low cost.  Another benefit of social media marketing is that it creates a sense of community (Roberts & Zahay, 2013).  Social media marketing messages appear in front of a select target audience.  Those in that audience that are interested in the message/page forward it on to share it with friends, getting the message in front of more people, and this continues to happen.  It also creates a community in the sense that people can read about other’s thoughts and opinions, as well as share their own thoughts and opinions.  Social media marketing becomes a two way communication method between a business and customers, which in turn can make a community.

                One of the most important things that a company can do when participating in social media marketing is to understand and listen to their target audience.  It is essential to first determine where the audience can be located (McAlister-Holand, 2012).  Generally young males could be found on more gaming type sites, whereas young females could be found on more social chatting type sites.  Another important concept when using social media marketing is to engage the audience with relevant communications (McAlister-Holand, 2012).  Sending out different messages on a somewhat regular basis keeps the audience more engaged than just posting everything at one time.  Responding to people’s blogs, comments, messages, etc. is also another way to engage the audience.  Another important thing to do when using social media marketing is to make the audience feel like winners (McAlister-Holand, 2012).  When it comes down to it, people like to win and people like free things.  Competitions or contests of some sort bring the company and their social media site into the spotlight, attracting a lot of new leads and potential customers (McAlister-Holand, 2012).  Competitions or contests are most effective if they are repeatable, simple, and fun (McAlister-Holand, 2012).  Quizzes that are fun and appealing can also be a good way to get people to engage with the company social media site. 

            In a world that thrives on social media sites, the importance of businesses using social media marketing has increased.  In order to be successful however, a company needs to understand how to effectively use the different sites to reach out to the intended audiences.  Social media marketing offers a great deal of benefits to companies.

 

References:

McAlister-Holand, D. (2012). Social Media Marketing: or Marketing on Social Networks ?.

Sales & Service Excellence, 12(9), 1-2.

Roberts, M. L., & Zahay, D. L. (2013). Internet Marketing: Integrating Online and Offline

Strategies (3rd ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.