Setting Direction
“there lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail”
-Ulysses: Lord Alfred Tennyson
It is easy to say ”let’s go!” and loosely pontificate about what could and should be done with vague but impressive stats and ideas. Many an executive will give such direction in regards to a business unit or project or a website.
A web site plan must have a strong strategy just like a business plan. They both involve many of the same components:
Mission
Vision
Goals
Tactics
So what are these components as defined for a website plan?
Mission: The motivation behind the website. Why are you broadcasting to the world? Every piece of information you put on the web should relate back to your mission.
Vision: Your vision for your website should define what you see the future impact of your website will be on your world. Put another way what is the impact you are trying to create on your community.
Goals: In your strategy document you need to develop blindingly clear objectives and milestones. For instance 100,000 unique visitors per month by December or section X of the site complete by Y.
Tactics: This is the fun part! With the above three set, this is how you go about meeting the mission, vision and goals. The Brothers Heath in their book Made to Stick provide an excellent framework for creating content that will help meet goals: S U C C E S. As long as your content is the following you will do fine:
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotional
Story
I believe the Flaman Stuck in the Muck contest provides an anchor for the Flaman.com websites and meets the Brothers requirements. Check it out and let me know. www.stuckinthemuck.com
Lastly people respond to pictures…I should not need to reference Face book as a data point but…and ultimately if you are going to meet your website strategy’s mandate you need to give users a reason to come to your site and come back…content is of course king and fresh content keeps the crown.
Steve Whittington is President of Roadmap Agency Inc. He has also served for over a decade as a member of the Executive Team of Flaman Group of Companies an award-winning organization and has over 25 years of executive experience. Steve’s current board work includes serving as; President of Glenora Child Care Society; and Co-Chair of the Marketing Program Advisory Committee for NAIT’s JR Shaw School of Business. Previous notable board work included, Chair of the board for Flaman Fitness Canada, a national retailer, a Director for a meal prep internet Startup Mealife and Chair of Lethbridge Housing authority, the third-largest Social housing NGO in Alberta.
Academically, Steve was an instructor of Project Management at Lethbridge College for seven years. Steve holds a Bachelor of Commerce Honours degree; he is a Certified Sales Professional (CSP), Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Marketing Specialist (CMS) and (CCXP) Certified Customer Experience Professional.
Steve’s first book Thriving in the Customer Age – 8 Key Metrics to Transform your Business Results teaches about the customer journey and provides a guiding framework spanning all stages of the customer experience. The book explains how every metric impacts an organization and how leaders can best utilize each metric to provide a stellar customer experience. Everyone knows the customer is the most important part of a business. This book provides the tools to improve an organization’s customer experience and drastically transform business results.
Recently Steve’s Blog has been profiled as one of the Top 75 Customer Experience blogs
Topic: Blogs, Content Tactics, Web Mission, Web Tactics, Web Vision