In order to speed the development process along please start filling out the following form and gathering the materials (as applicable to this project).
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Company Background Questions
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1. What does your company do?
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3. What are all the different ways visitors can contact you?
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Use CTRL key to select multiple items
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4. List hours of operation, time zone (PST, EST) and days closed.
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5. What are the needs your business satisfies for your customers? What words or images will impart those needs? It is important to paint a mental picture for customers using words, colors and images. What analogies can be used to explain offers in simple, understandable terms? *
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6. Do you have a brick and mortar or other off-web locations or contact point (like a mail order catalog)? How do you see the website and off-line business working together? What are the weak points of each and the strong points that can be exploited? Don't try to recreate a catalog showroom on the web. Use the website to drive people to your physical location. To handle customer service support after hours, offer on-line coupons that can be printed and redeemed at the physical location (and vice versa) use the physical location to promote the website.
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7. How does your business and products benefit your target audience? Please specify a clear list of bullet items of benefits. What can your business offer your visitors, what's in it for them, how can you help them? What problems do your prospects have that your business solves?
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8. List features of your products and/or services? Please specify a clear list of bullet items.
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9. List 30 words or phrases that describe your business. Pick words/phrases relevant to your business. List all keywords that would link search engines to your website. Phrases should be both specific and general.
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10. Write a 25 word description of your business to be displayed and used in search engine submissions. Describe what your business offers, to whom it is offered and a succinct reason your business should be considered.
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11. Write a 50 word description of your business to be displayed and used in search engine submissions. Describe what your business offers, to whom it is offered and a succinct reason your business should be considered.
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12. Do you have a business slogan or catch phrase?
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13. Give reasons why your business clearly beats the competition? What is your USP (unique selling proposition)? Customers tend to look for information as a priority over shopping on-line. They may surf at other sites, but they will continually return to the sites they trust intuitively and can solve their problems. A visitor may need to return many times before making a purchase (studies suggest as many as 5 times). What can you do to encourage customers to purchase now and abandon the need to continue to search?
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14. List some of your competitors' website URLs:
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15. List any problems experienced with your existing website (poor performance, graphics, load time, design, etc.). Should you choose another web host?
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16. What is your budget for the completion of the website and yearly maintenance? *
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Website Goal/Objective Questions
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17. List the major purposes for the website, the reasons for building one (in order of importance, i.e. name branding, e-commerce, because that's what everyone else is doing, etc.)?
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18. Describe your vision for this site? How will visitors interact with it? Provide sketches or other mockups if possible.
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19. What are the specific short-term goals for the website (in the first 1 to 6 months, reduce customer service workload by X%, generate X volume in sales)?
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20. List specific long-term goals for the website (in the first 1 to 3 years).
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21. If you currently have a website, how many visitors do you receive each month? What is the expectation for future traffic and is there a plan and a budget for scaling the web hosting if traffic increases beyond its capabilities? Will you have the capability to handle increased monthly costs for service? Have you planned and accounted for possible additional costs?
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22. Define the criteria you will use to determine the website's success (i.e. Internet orders of a certain volume, website traffic of a certain volume (this should not be used as the sole definition of success), X amount of sales as a percentage of hits, decrease in customer service costs, increase in productivity). There should be a trackable method to determine success.
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23. Do you need domain registration and/or an ISP to host the site? What level of hosting will be required (this may need to be determined during the design)? Can you use a low cost service ($10/month)? Do you need a higher end outsourced service? Will you be hosting and managing your own web servers (this would typically be for large companies as the costs can be very high).
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24. What process will be used to integrate the website into the business on a daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly basis. Who will manage each aspect of the website once it is complete (i.e. e-mail management, system maintenance, new content, testing forms periodically, marketing, etc.)?
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25. Is the site dated (for a single event)? If so what is the expiration date?
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26. List audience demographics - who you want to reach and how this will be accomplished. Be as specific as possible (age range, profession, interests, etc.).
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27. Are you a local, regional, national or international business? What areas do you want to specifically target?
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28. Are there any search engines, directories or sites you would like to submit to besides the industry standard top 10 that are specific to your business or industry?
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29. Is this a new market you are trying to create for your product/service or is there already an existing market? Selling in an existing market is easier and less risky. The understanding of what you are offering already exists since other companies have paved the way. What existing distribution channels are you able to tap? Are there any 800-pound gorillas and if so, how can you compete against them? Microsoft and Toy's R Us are considered to be gorillas in their markets.
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30. What is your budget for marketing the website and how do you intend to market both on and off the Internet? You should conservatively plan for at least half of your budget to be for marketing. Simply putting up a website and submitting to search engines is not marketing. It is only one small tactic in an overall campaign.
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31. Web surfers have short attention spans, may not remember your site and will probably not return unless you give them a compelling reason to do so. How can you encourage repeat visitors and referrals? Every measure should be taken to encourage visitors to voluntarily submit their email address. Free offers, contests, referral forms, surveys and requests for information forms can be useful tools to encourage email signups. What can you offer that can be digitally delivered on site (computer wallpaper, screensavers, special reports, on-line coupons, affiliate programs, etc.) and is free?
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32. Will you use a survey form to gather information from your visitors? What questions would be included on this survey? Will you offer an incentive to customers for taking part in this survey? Surveys can also be used as exit strategies to gather useful information as visitors leave the site. A cookie can be used to eliminate seeing the form for repeat visitors
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33. Include unique content on your site. Partner with a content provider to update content. Since most surfers seek information, the best sites are those that become hubs or portals. A site that contains a large amount of information (not readily available elsewhere) directly related to the product or service being sold may be far more successful than one that that only offers a product or service. It has been proven that the amount of traffic, links into your site, return visits and referrals is directly proportional to the amount of unique and useful content available to your customers at the site or the amount of money spent on off-line and on-line advertising. Are you able to write articles on subjects related to your visitor's interests or can you offer to publish other works in exchange for exposure? Some companies offer content that can be leased as well. Can you provide on-line assembly instructions, how-to guides, tips and tricks information pages, etc.? This is one of the most important aspects of creating a successful site. When coupled with a quality design and competitive products and services and outstanding customer service the site becomes a winner.
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34. What can be done to add value to products and services? If your prices cannot be competitive, what other methods will showcase your products/services? The addition of free bonuses, lifetime warranties, free shipping and handling, upgrades, etc. will often be perceived by the consumer as value-added especially if a dollar value can be attached to these extras.
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35. Will you use an affiliate program? An affiliate program is useful for any or all of the following: allows 3rd parties to market your products and services for a commission, tracks effectiveness of individual advertisements and marketing campaigns. Some allow customization to manage signup of individuals or companies with personalized self replicated web pages. Is the ability to track effectiveness of individual ads and marketing campaigns a requirement?
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36. Will you join any affiliate programs and link those sites to your website? You can signup on related sites programs and get a commission on sales made on your site. This works best when other sites are directly related to your website and affiliate links are worked into your site in context. Third party product endorsements work better than simple links to other sites.
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37. If you do not already have a domain name choose 5 names. You're choices may already be taken. You can check www.internic.net for availability. Consider registering a few general and specific variations including .net and .org domains. Your domain name should be easily identifiable, easy to explain over the phone and print on a business card. Most short names are usually taken; long names can be good if they click in someone's mind. Try out your ideas on several people. Then ask them in a few days if they remember how to spell it. Try out the name on the phone to see if it is easily remembered and spelled by others. Resorting to lengthy explanations or spelling means problems. How long (in years) will your domain be registered?
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38. List e-mail addresses you want associated with your domain name (info@your-domain.com, sales@your-domain.com, etc.)
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39. In order for your site to appeal to your primary audience, what style or "voice" will you use (conservative, hip and trendy, etc.)?
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40. Which of our portfolio of sites is most appealing?
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41. List a series of website URLs with designs or schemes that appeal to you and give reasons why.
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