internet business consulting

Sarah Worsham / Oct 7, 2008

Reach for Your Business Goals, Not for Numbers

soccerrandysonofrobert One 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)

Technorati Tags: internet business strategy, internet strategy, internet strategic planning, internet strategic plan, internet strategy consulting, internet business consulting

Sarah Worsham / Oct 6, 2008

Creating an Internet Business Strategy – Implementation

gnrimplementation We’re in the home stretch of our Internet Business Strategy planning, but let’s quickly review the parts of the plan:

Executive Summary
Methodologies
Current Situation
Vision & Goals
Requirements
Implementation

The implementation portion of the Internet Business Strategy planning is not intended to be a full implementation plan. Once you have your strategy, you’ll need to create detailed implementation plans. For your Internet business strategy, consider the following for implementation :

Lessons Learned – Are there any previous projects we can learn from? Are there external sources that have implemented similar strategies?
Implementation of Sub-Projects – Does it make sense to divide the project into smaller, easier-to-manage proejcts? How will you divide up the implementation into sub-projects? Who is responsible for each sub-project? How will the sub-projects be managed in order to move towards a common goal?
Phasing and Milestones – What is a realistic timeline for implementation? Should we divide up implementation into phases? What are the various phases of implementation? What are target dates for each phase?
Budget Plan – What are the budgetary requirements for any phasing and sub-projects? Are there any opportunities for cost-sharing with other organizations? What are the specifics of our financial processes? Who is the financial authority for administration the budget? How does the available budget affect the time periods for phases and milestones?
Marketing – How will we get the word out about our strategy? Who is the target audience? Are there any events we should attend? What is our marketing budget?
Measuring Success and Making Adjustments – What are the critical success factors that should be communicated to our stakeholders? What performance metrics should we use? What cost avoidance can be expected and how can it be measured? How often do we assess our progress to determine if adjustments need to be made?

Once you have created your Internet business strategy, you will need to work to implement and communicate your vision throughout your organization. We’ll cover these topics in future posts.

(photo by qnr @ Flickr CC)

Technorati Tags: internet business strategy, internet strategy, internet strategic planning, internet strategic plan, internet strategy consulting, internet business consulting

Sarah Worsham / Sep 30, 2008

What are the Requirements for your Internet Business Strategy to Succeed?

boullosatrainwindow Now that you’ve considered the methodologies for your Internet Business Strategy, assessed the current situation, and created vision and goals, it’s time to figure out all the requirements. Requirements in terms of an Internet strategy plan are much broader than normal project requirements. These requirements need to encompass everything needed by the organization to reach your vision and goals. Think broadly.

Here are some requirements to consider:

Data Requirements – What data and information do we need to attain our goals? What information do we need for monitoring our efforts? What content do we need? Where can we get access to this data and information? How does the data and information need to be analyzed?
Technology Requirements – What infrastructure do we need to support our strategy (network, servers, etc)? What system architecture is needed (operating systems, web browsers, etc.)? What applications need to be supported (or purchased)? Do any of the systems or applications need to work together? How? Do we have any legacy systems that need to be integrated?
Resource Requirements – What skills and expertise are needed for our strategy? Are the skills available within the organization? Will new staff need to be hired? Are consultants required? Are there any other resources we can use to meet our requirements (voluntary, part-time, interns)?
Standards Requirements – Are there any organizational or external standards that require compliance? What standards should be required or created in order to assure quality? How will these standards be monitored?
Organizational Requirements – Are there any organizational changes needed to meet our goals? Are the people resources required spread out throughout the organization? How will they be organized and managed?
Executive Support – What is required to ensure top-level executive support and buy-in? How will executives be briefed on progress? What involvement is required by executives to ensure success?
Coordination & Oversight Requirements – Who is responsible for coordinating strategy efforts? Who is responsible for making decisions related to strategy implementation? Who is the champion of the strategy? What responsibilities are required and how are they assigned? Who is monitoring progress and how is progress reported? Who in these cases does not need to be an individual. A team may be more effective especially if diverse departments are involved.
Policy Requirements – Are there any existing policies that need to be considered and possibly altered to attain our goals? Do any policies need to be put into place? Are there any external policies that need to be followed?
Staffing Requirements – If we need more staff, how do we justify them? What qualifications should new staff have? What support personnel are needed for implementation and supporting new staff? Can volunteers be used? Part-time personnel? Interns? Are there any professional credentials or certifications that are relevant? What are the job descriptions for any new positions (or changes)?
Budget Requirements – What funding is required? How will we be funded? Can we redirect existing funding? Are there opportunities for cost sharing? How do we get more funding/money? How will staff positions be allocated? How will expenses and profits be allocated? How can we mitigate any future budget shortfalls?
Community & Outreach Requirements – What communications are required to keep implementation of our goals on track? Who will be responsible for coordinating any communications? Who needs to be informed of progress? Are any external organizations or stakeholders involved?
Risk Assessment Requirements – What major challenges could affect the outcome of our strategy (both internally and externally)? How will we recognize risks and overcome them? What might happen if we do not overcome obstacles?

Gathering all the requirements probably seems very time consuming. And it is, but if it is done properly it will make the next step, implementation, much easier. Requirements gathering is a great place to get many people involved. Many different types of expertise are needed to gather some of the requirements. Dividing and conquering can save a lot of time and effort and create a much more robust set of requirements.

What other requirements have you considered when strategizing for Internet business?

(photo by nicolas.boullosa @ Flickr CC)

Technorati Tags: internet business strategy, internet strategy, internet strategic planning, internet strategic plan, internet strategy consulting, internet business consulting