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What is an Internet Strategy?

strategycompujerameyYou may have heard the term Internet Strategy thrown around recently. With the rise in popularity of the Internet, businesses have felt the need to get on the Web bandwagon.  Most businesses have a website, but many are feeling the need for a more thorough look at how to use the Internet effectively.  So, what exactly is an Internet Strategy?

Like any good strategy, an Internet strategy is a process of deciding upon a goal and then figuring out how to work towards that goal.  An Internet strategy should be intimately tied to your business strategy.  If you don’t have a business strategy, start there and incorporate the Internet into your planning. The goal should be a business goal, not just an Internet business goal.  The Internet has matured enough to be able to assist in reaching most business goals.

Once you have your business goal, an Internet strategy is the process of figuring out how the Internet can help you reach that goal.  Think about your business website.  What functionality and information should be available to your customers to help you reach your goal?  What other Internet technologies can help?  It helps to think broadly – email, internet advertising, twitter, social networking, blogs – can all help you reach business goals.

To differentiate yourself from your competitors, think about what makes your business different.  What are you good at?  What is your core competency?  How can you apply that to your Internet strategy?

Your customers are the reason why you’re in business.  Don’t forget about them.  What benefits will you offer them through your products and services?  How can you leverage these benefits on the Internet?  How can your customers help you reach your goals?

(photo by compujeramey @ Flickr CC)

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Reach for Your Business Goals, Not for Numbers

soccerrandysonofrobertOne of the top requests we get from clients is to help increase traffic to their business website.  Our first response is to ask what business goal they are trying to attain.  While increasing traffic may be one of many possible solutions, it may not be the right one.  Working on increasing traffic on your website without understanding how it will help you reach your goals is like getting triple-bypass heart surgery before you’ve had a doctor’s diagnosis.

Let’s take a look at an example:

An e-commerce site is spending a great deal of money on Internet advertising and SEO, but is sales have fallen.  Their first reaction is to increase traffic to their website.  What should they do?

Understand your business goals

Is the business goal to increase traffic?  Hardly.  Their business goal is to increase sales.  Increasing traffic may help, but there may also be other issues.  By understanding their business goals, they’ll be able to come up with solutions and ways to measure whether they’ve attained their goals.

Understand the problem

Understanding the problem helps you brainstorm all the possible solutions.  The highest return on investment may come from a mixture of solutions or one solution may not be complete without taking a look at other aspects of the website and business.  After taking a look at their website, their advertising and marketing efforts, this client had a number of different issues to address, including conversion rates, usability, marketing message, and ROI of advertising, which were all affecting their sales and bottom line.

Look for solutions

Now that you have recognized your business goals and understand the full set of issues, you can come up with the right solutions.  In our example, there are a wide range of solutions, of which, increasing traffic was only a very small part.  By creating an Internet business strategy from the set of solutions, the client was able to more efficiently attack the problem.

Measure your progress

This is where the numbers do actually help.  Of course you need to understand exactly what numbers you are looking for.  Just increasing the number of visitors or page views won’t help attain your business goals.  For our example, we had to measure conversion rates, ROI of advertising, time on site, exit pages, etc. to see how we were progressing.  It may seem like a confusing bunch of numbers, but once you’ve gone through this thought process, the numbers you need are much more clear.

Summary

Before you spend big bucks on SEO or Internet advertising, take a few minutes to consider what business goals you are trying to achieve and all the possible issues that you may need to consider to reach those goals.  Just a few minutes of thought can help direct your efforts into the biggest bang for your buck.

(photo by randy son of robert @ Flickr CC)

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