Contact Applied Intelligence at:
You’ve come to the conclusion that you need a website in order for your business to be competitive. Certainly the World Wide Web is part of our future and has a place in you business. Equally true is that we are only at the beginning. The changes will come faster than with the introduction of either the Telephone or the TV, and competition is intense.
Fortunately, decisions around websites are no different than any other business decision you make daily. You wouldn’t buy a new computer without doing some basic research, and the same should be true when deciding on a website and who should build it. Things seem complicated and abstract because of the many new terms – E-commerce, CMS, (X)HTML, SEO, Usability, Spam, yada, yada, yada -- Fortunately, the basics are pretty simple and the internet itself provides lots of information.
You have probably heard the adage; “the right tool for the right job”. Websites are just tools, so the question becomes are you trying to drive a screw or pound in a nail? A website is part of your marketing mix: Product; Price; Place; Promotion, and a website can be any of those. Online games are the “Product”, the lower subscription cost for the online version of the Wall Street Journal is an example of “Price”, Facebook is the “Place” of choice for all kinds of things, and I am certainly using this website to “Promote” my own services…
Most web developers won’t understand your business; after all it is your business. Many will not understand marketing either. What does that mean to you? Well, a website is at its core a piece in a marketing mix; your marketing mix. It’s up to you to make sure that it fit’s in with your marketing strategy…you do have one don’t you?
A website like any good tool seldom does more than one thing well. That is why you need to decide exactly what you are trying to accomplish. A good developer or project manager will work with you to clearly define your requirements. If you simply ask for “a website” without a SPECIFIC goal, what you will likely end up with is a generic site, or a platform for the developer to practice whatever trendy technology they’re learning at that moment.