I have been communicating this idea to clients for quite sometime. The idea that a few hours spent planning can save thousands of dollars spent on a poorly executed creative campaign. As part of our process at Flower Press Creative Studio, we require clients to sit down and scope out their strategy. This goes beyond creating a sitemap and content for pages. It delves into defining your target market, brand personality and service offering.
If your website is core to your business, the services and content you offer are critical to your revenue model and ultimate success as a company. Many people have successfully started and sold social-network-based startups. Case in point is Maya's Mom, a client who was purchased this fall by baby kingdom Goliath, Johnson & Johnson via their website holding, BabyCenter. The purchase was motivated by a need to break into the social networking market around motherhood. Maya's Mom has created a valuable online community built around the idea of sharing relevant information with future and current parents. Everything from relationship advice to how to help your child handle a bully. Maya's Mom provides a handful of curated, editorial content an links to many online resources for research, but their primary offering is a set of tools that allow users to create and stream content that is relevant to them.
The importance of valuable, relevant content cannot be understated. Why will users come to your site and what will they do there? Why will they be compelled to come back? Is your offering substantively different from other offerings in the marketplace, or are you just creating another knock-off content site or social network. If your offering is interesting, but not extremely different, you may consider partnering with your potential competitor to offer a widget or information plug in for their site. For example, an add-on to Facebook or LinkedIn has proven to be a very effective business model when advertising is also introduced.
Consider for a moment what businesses you frequent in person. If you're shopping for a coffee table, one particular store probably comes to mind. If you're looking for something for the main sitting room, you may check out Ethan Allen or Crate and Barrel, however, if you're furnishing the family TV room, you might shop at IKEA. All of those places offer the same sorts of products, but their offerings are different enough that you would consider frequenting them at different times. Each of those stores, at one time or another will get a piece of your business. Similarly, many online users have a Facebook and a LinkedIn account. Many users use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and LinkedIn to stay up with their business or career network. Both require similar amounts of time investment in creating profiles, adding photos, and inviting friends to join. Both offer valuable returns for these investments – valuable enough that people, and their friends keep participating.
The other point that is important to note is the design and communication of core brand messaging. When you think of IKEA, you probably think of cute, but lower quality furniture. Ethan Allen likely reminds you of high quality, but higher priced items. Its like Coke and Pepsi. Each brand carries with it a carefully crafted personality.
New companies who are working to make their mark in the online world, must consider this carefully. Market research and brand development are all part of the planning process, and should be considered necessary first steps in developing a website. For more information on brand development, design and planning for website, check this blog often. We will be posting on related topics in the days and weeks to come.
Don't be surprised if your copies have you seeing red. 
