Internet Marketing textbook.pdf - Vula

Website design and developmentour email newsletter subscription.CHAPTER 2Our website must provide useful content for people in the book publishingfield. We want to entrench our position as the leading book publishers inour genre.2. What do you need on your website? Make a list of all the tools and functionsthat are essential for your website, and be strict with yourself not to includeunnecessary extras. This list is important because if your project goes overbudget, you will know which elements are not negotiable, and which cansafely be cut. In strictest terms, the only essential aspects of a website arethe home, about and contact pages, a navigation bar and your corporatebranding; however, this would make for a bland site. Let your website’spurpose guide you.3. What do you want on your website? Once you have noted the essentials,think of the other useful elements that it would be good to have on yourwebsite. Again, be careful not to add frivolous and excessive details. Someuseful additions include:• A contact form that your customers can fill out, so that you can get theircontact details along with their permission to send them emails.• One-click sharing on your content so that readers can instantly post yourcontent to their Facebook, Twitter and other profiles (more on this inchapter 7).• An automated feedback form for complaints and queries.4. How much control do you want over managing the website? Do you want tobe able to do everything yourself, or would you prefer for your developer orIT department to manage your page and update your content? In addition,consider how often the content will change: if you post a blog article everyday, it is easier and quicker to manage the website in-house, but if the contentis relatively static, you can safely leave your developer to manage it.4.2 Visual aspects of your websiteOnce you have planned out the overall holistic aspects of your website, you canbegin thinking about the way that it actually looks and behaves. Be careful not toget too carried away by the potential of what you can include on your page – startsimply, and you can always grow the content from there. In addition, rememberthat your website is for your customers and visitors, not for you – don’t addelements just because you like them; your primary consideration should be if theyadd any value to your target market. The “keep it simple” rule applies here.4.2.1 Design considerationsYour website is a public face for your business and its design should therefore betreated with considerable care and consideration. One of the first steps you shouldtake is to research your competitors’ pages to get a general feel for what your28GetSmarter Internet Marketing textbook