Web Consultant Services
Website Critique and Analysis
Very often those closest too the subject are too close to see things objectively. Your current web presence and it's performance can be measured against a proven 3-tier, 27-point in-depth checklist to prepare a detailed analysis.
All aspects from architecture to marketing strategies are evaluated, and not only on their own, but also in comparison to competing sites within the same or similar industries.
Business Process Analysis
At the end of the day, a website is only one piece of a bigger puzzle. The entire business process is analyzed to identify areas where costs can be cut, profits can be increased, or simply higher ROI items can be considered in place of lower ones.
Development Planning
If a new site is required or an existing model is to be re-worked, the entire development needs to be planned with maximum ROI in mind. Effective marketing channels connected to a proven supply chain should be fully automated where possible to generate ongoing conversions and income.
It is not enough (in most cases) to only plan for the current development. Understanding that websites have an evolutionary process, it is best to plan each and every iteration along the way into as much detail as is possible.
Functional Specification Development
This is the corner-stone of strategy – where thought becomes an image. All too often companies send out RFP's to multiple web vendors for a new interactive and profitable web presence, just to receive multiple quotes for hugely varying deliverables and price-points.
It is of vital importance that the plan is in as much detail as possible, including fake screenshots, so that everyone on the team knows exactly what's being built, all vendors know what is expected, and returned quotes are comparable (apples to apples).
Having a predetermined overall spec of the entire project ensures that all components of the corporation and their project developments are acknowledged, thereby avoiding any surprise changes that can be costly if implemented midway through the development stage.
Vendor Selection
Once you have a functional specification to send to prospective vendors, it's time to submit RFP's to a select group and filter the results returned. Even with detailed specs, there may be a noticeable variance in quotes received, and at this stage it is important to pre-qualify vendors based on their understanding of the spec and detail of their proposal. Naturally, experience and history would also play a role here.
It is important that the correct vendors be selected to work on the team to achieve maximum project development traction. Depending on the plan, requirements could include copywriters, graphic designers, programmers, IT generalists, marketers, and project managers.
Industry Best Practices
The Internet is no longer new in the marketing / sales and distribution channel. There are various best practices to abide by which have been formed based on user interaction with sites and their expectations as learned from such historical usage. The industry as a whole has also learned to do things better based past mistakes and experience in general.
It is important that your site adhere to best practices to maximize it's effectiveness. Very few companies would willingly decrease their sales simply because certain market segments are not able to use their websites.
Intermittent Health Checks
During a project's execution, it is important to periodically check in and ensure that the project as a whole is still on track and that the plan as developed is still applicable to the business.
