By Anna Curnow, Internet Strategist. When is it Time to Freshen Up?
The internet as a marketing medium has been around for a while now. That’s not to say there aren’t still a few businesses out there who have yet to see the benefits of marketing online. However, for most of us, our websites have been up there drawing in the customers for at least a couple of years. So how do you know when it’s time to freshen the old girl up?
Remember where it was you were going
In order to find out if anything has worked, you first have to remind yourself what it was you were trying to achieve in the first place. Dig out those dusty old strategic plans from way back and take a look!
Find out how close you have got to your goals
If you aren’t already going over your website statistics and looking at your ecommerce reporting, now is a good time to start. You’re looking in particular for information about where people are going on your website, who is visiting, how many orders you are making and what is the value of each order.
Ask someone else how well you are doing
There is a common test used in the internet marketing world called the ‘mother-in-law’ test. Without wanting to insult any mother-in-law the assumption is that they don’t know much about your website and will be able to look at it with fresh eyes. If your website has been around for a while, you should probably ask some of your experienced users too and balance up how well you are meeting the needs of both new users and old-hands.
Ask yourself how well it’s going
By yourself, I don’t really mean you on your own, I mean your company. Lay on a morning tea, take time out of the normal routine, ask staff to review the site and bring their findings to a group meeting. Record their input – they are the ones facing the customers as they use the site.
Generate some paperwork
Now, this is where the hard part starts. Pull all this information together into a report so that you get a clear overview of how well you have achieved your objectives.
If your report concludes that your customers are happy, your staff are supportive and the site is achieving what you set out to achieve, sit back and have a nice cup of tea.
If not, it’s time to update………. and of course WEBENZ will be happy to help!
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