Doing Web-Based Communications Right—Part 1 of 3

August 29th, 2008

Large corporations and well-funded start ups have the bankroll to build web communications with large amounts of research and planning. There are teams of people working on tasks such as:

• Defining purpose
• Defining goals
• Clarifying guiding principles
• Articulating desired outcomes
• Performing user research
• Brainstorming
• Scheduling
• Defining tasks and assigning to people to get it all done
• Delivering the product (website, email campaign, etc.)

For the small business person who may not have the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in the design and development of their website, there is a way to get the most value using a simple process to build or assess your web communications.

The first step is to ask yourself, or your company some basic questions about why you are doing this, what your desired outcome is, and how to get it done.

Here are some of the first questions to ask:

Purpose

• Why are we building a web site? Or if you have one, why do we have a web site? What is its purpose?
  • Inform people about your company?
  • Sell goods or services?
  • Create a sense of community?
  • Establish you or your company as a leader within your industry?

Guiding Principles

• While we are building this, what will help guide us?
  • Do we want to have fun?
  • Do we want it done efficiently to meet a deadline?
  • Are we working under a budget constraint?
  • Is there a philosophy, or mantra, that should be repeated while working on this?

Desired Outcome

• What do you want to achieve?
  • Do you want to make money?
  • Do you want to get more customers?
  • Do you want to establish your new brand?
  • Do you want to establish yourself, or your company as a thought leader?
• How can we measure our success?
  • Pick a measurable desired outcome.
  • Can the desired outcome be broken down into smaller milestones? What are they?

Get it Going

This should be plenty to get you started on thinking about your web-based communication project—or any project for that matter. In part two I will write about the next steps in the process, and in part three I will write about the conclusion; where does this get you?

If you have any comments or feedback please share below.

Related posts

• Doing Web-Based Communications Right—Part 2 of 3 (1)
• Rushing To Deadlines (0)
• Not Up To Your Standard? Work Harder! (0)

Leave a Reply

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website