Years ago, Peter Drucker wrote: "Concentration is the
key to economic results. Economic results require that managers concentrate
their efforts on the smallest number of activities that will produce the largest
amount of revenue...No other principle is violated as constantly today as the
basic principle of concentration...Our motto seems to be: let's do a little bit
of everything."
If you've violated the basic principle of concentration
with your bricks-and-mortar store, here's a simple process to avoid doing the
same with your Web store or Web site. Ask yourself: "Why am I building this
site?" If your answer is, "Because everyone else is on the Internet," you're
better off investing those dollars elsewhere. If your answer says something
about marketing, sales, internal communication or customer service, you're on
the right track.
Now, narrow your focus. Ask: "What holds the best hope
for my company's future?" This might be a single product, service or idea. Or it
could be recruiting high-caliber employees, decreasing internal costs, enhancing
customer service, addressing internal communication issues or generating new
business.
Your answer to this question will help you come up with a
Raison d'EAtre Sentence, a single sentence that states the reason your site
exists. (Yes, your site can have other purposes, but limit them to two and do
not allow them to take priority over your site's raison d'EAtre.)
It's
not enough to say, "The main purpose of my site is marketing." What does
"marketing" mean exactly? Will the site serve to:
- Increase visibility
and market exposure?
- Generate leads?
- Offer pre-sale and post-sale
customer service and product information?
- Strengthen investor relations?
- Re-inforce corporate identity?
- Secure new dealers, representatives
or distributors?
- Reduce fulfillment and print costs for marketing or
technical materials?
If the site is for sales, what kind of sales:
-
Business to business?
- Business to consumer?
- Business to
representatives or distributors only?
- First-time sales?
- Repeat
sales?
If the site's main purpose is for internal communications, what
kind of communication:
- Low-cost connection between headquarters and sales
offices or subsidiaries?
- Reduced cost of long-distance phone calls, faxes,
overnight deliveries?
- Employee-to-employee communication?
If the
site's main purpose is for customer service, does that mean you want the site
to:
- Delivery information?
- Offer instant updates?
- Lower 800
number usage and associated labor cost?
- Reduce mistakes made on request
for proposals?
- Enable customers to provide feedback?
Now, fill in
the blank: The main purpose of my site is to _____________.
This single
sentence is one of the most important you'll write for your Web efforts. It
becomes the criterion by which you judge everything you put on the site and
where and how you'll market the site. For example, if you think the best hope
for your business is new business and decide that the main purpose of your site
is to generate sales leads, every page on your site should have a link to your
"Contact Us" or "Request More Information" page.
If you insist on
devoting space on your site to "The President's Message," make that message
something that will generate an inquiry. If you can't figure out how to do that,
the page doesn't belong on your site. If you have a favored photograph and want
to post it on your site, ask yourself, "How will this photograph help generate
sales leads?" If it won't help generate sales leads, get rid of it.
Your site's Raison d'etre Sentence also forces you to think
about what you can do on the site to fulfill that purpose. You'll find yourself
thinking about what kind of contests or incentives you can offer to increase the
likelihood that prospects won't leave your site without submitting qualification
information. you'll be tempted to "do a little bit of everything" with your Web
site, don't. Be merciless. Concentrate - make less dilute, bring or direct
toward a common center or objective, focus - your Web efforts (and dollars) into
one area that promises the best hope for your company's future.
