By learning about everything that is available to you, and how to use it, you can ensure that you are taking advantage of every online opportunity that makes sense for your business.
2. Keys To Success line. However, it does take a consistent
approach to gain these opportunities in a
This paper will provide you with the
maturing Online world.
concepts to be applied to a
website project that will assist you
in getting more from the Web.
It wasn’t that long ago when having
a website that simply gave out
information was all your business
needed to gain some online
success. Those days, however, are
gone for good!
To realize any success on today’s
Web ver. 2.0, your site has to
Planning
address a combination of needs for
your customer and your business.
Planning Fixes Problems!
To get your company’s website in
line with today’s web user, it takes Building a new website or overhauling and
a lot of planning on issues of: updating an existing website to make it
more effective is an important aspect of
•Information Architecture
your business. An effective website is a
•Visitor Personas
wonderful tool for your company, to help
•Task Based Segmentation
increase your business, to get your name
•User Centered Design
out there for everyone to see, and to build
•And More...
relationships with future and current clients.
Today’s successful websites are
planned and measured on a regular Get Serious About Your Site!
basis to maximize the Return On
With all of the potential opportunities
Investment for your business.
“online,” it is time to get serious about your
There are great opportunities website and its contribution to your
available for your business, On- business.
3. The information that follows is an Easy To Use
overview of the steps necessary to
get your online efforts integrated
Information Architecture ROI
and performing for your business.
That’s right, we are going to talk about
Identify KPIs Return On Investment. If your Interactive
Identifying Key Performance
Indicators for your
website is the first and most
important step in developing your
online efforts. The KPI’s for your
site are measurable objectives that
your business needs to receive
from all of your online initiatives. By
taking the time to define the KPI’s
for your online presence(s) you will
find an improved Return On Agency cannot explain what your
Investment (ROI) because of a company’s ROI is going to be for a project
heightened focus and attention on then DON’T DO IT!
achieving your goals. You will no
The largest potential for returning a positive
longer be spending resources on
ROI is your website. To tap into that
initiatives that do not fit your KPI.
potential the most important value an
To properly define the KPI’s for Interactive Agency can provide is the art
your interactive project, begin by and science behind a solid Information
documenting specific goals for your Architecture for your website.
project. Keep in mind that these
Information Architecture is defined as “the
goals have to be measurable. Once
art and science of organizing and labeling
you have your goals documented,
websites, intranets, online communities and
decide how to measure successful
software to support usability.” In a word
accomplishments of the goals and
Information Architecture is all about
what those metrics should be.
relevance, its about getting the right
4. information in front of the right the goals that you have for your site.
visitor as quickly as possible.
Develop A Plan For Conversion
Information Architecture is the
single greatest influence to your All internet traffic is not created equal! All
online project. Get the IA too often we set goals for our websites that
wrong...your ROI will be horrible are too broad to equate into a profit- able
because your visitor will not be able result.
to accomplish the task that they
came to your site to accomplish. One of the first goals for your website was
Ultimately, leaving your site without probably to get more traffic to your site,
do- ing business with your which on the surface seems like a perfect
company. goal. However, if we dive a little deeper, the
first thing that has to be identified is the
Think about Information conversion rate of your site.
Architecture this way: when a
builder builds a house, not one By conversion we are talking about getting
shovel full of dirt is overturned the visitor to your website to take the
without a very extensive plan that is action that you intended them to take. If
put on paper. When a toaster is your website is a commerce site, then you
built, there is an extensive electrical will measure conversions by the number of
diagram put on paper before one visitors that purchase something. If your
inch of wire is uncoiled. Yet, website is intended to be a reference tool,
countless websites are thrown up then you may measure conversion by the
in a couple of weeks by that kid in number of visitors to your website that
school or that friend of a friend that download a PDF file. Conversion of your
kind of does this on the side! visitor is key to obtaining your business
objectives.
Information Architecture is about
structuring information to make it With this definition in mind, more traffic
easy to find. When information is may not be a good goal for your website.
easy to find, people will buy more, Quite possibly, the better goal for your
buy ore frequently, stay on your site website would be to increase the
longer or generally speaking, fulfill conversions that are happening on your
5. website. After all, 15% conversion This leads us to our next topic.
on 50 visitors is better than 1%
conversion on 500 visitors. Identify Your Visitors
User Focused Knowing the importance of conversion, it is
now time to identify who your visitors are.
Until you have clearly identified who your
Support Task Based Segmentation
visitor is, it will be impossible to improve
Understanding your users or site the conversion rate of your website.
visitor’s needs is vital to creating an
effective website. Creating a site
that gives the user what they need
and keeps them on your site for as
long as possible will help to convert
them from a potential client to an
exist- ing client.
Web users don’t have the time to
“surf the web” anymore. They are
using the web to accomplish a task
Developing and integrating visitor personas
and they need you to have a
into your website can and will greatly
website that will help them
impact your site’s success. A visitor
accomplish that task as quickly and
persona involves creating a visitor profile
with as little frustration as possible!
that exemplifies the way in which the visitor
Task-based segmentation interacts with your site and ultimately how
accomplishes this. Mapping out all they use the Internet and their level of
of the possible reasons a visitor to sophistication.
your website is there will provide
Making your site user-friendly with these
enormous support to the
visitor personas in mind will increase your
Information Architecture efforts
conversion rate. Thinking of how a visitor
when your website is being
will navigate your site and what products
developed.
they may be looking for will help you to
6. create an easy to use site that
focuses on the potential client’s
needs instead of simply showcasing
your products.
About 3Sixty Interactive
3Sixty Interactive is a professional
agency with over ten years of
experience in the digital world. They
offer a variety of digital marketing
solutions that include search engine
optimization, digital advertising,
email marketing, social media,
customized strategy reports,
analytics and maintenance of your
marketing plan.
Learn more about 3Sixty Interactive
at www.3sixtyinteractive.com or by
calling us at 1-877-43Sixty.