Developing An Effective Company Website: Understanding Target Audiences, Purpose, And Objectives

Website Analysis

The world of business today is largely driven by innovative techniques in the field of communication. It is one of the integral part of business that ‘oils’ various marketing and business strategies employed by companies or organizations. With the collapse of economic boundaries and globalization of the business to international markets, it has become imperative for business to venture into online world of communication where information can be accessed from any point of the world without necessarily having physical contacts. The client can pick information about a product from online platforms, and if she likes it, she can order and pay for the same product online with ever making actual visit to the store or show room. One such tool, with such capabilities is a corporate or company website.

A website can be defined as a connection to the World Wide Web that host one or several pages. These pages include homepage, where it is the first general page of the website that leads to other pages with more specific information like the location of the company and the brands in has in the market. More like a book with the first page probably containing introduction or table of contents, a website can be linked to it, where you can read various ‘chapters’ of the ‘book’ so long as you are connected to the website.

This report will therefore articulate aspects and concepts that organizations need to understand when coming up or developing a websites for the purposes of effectively targeting and engaging to their respective audiences which include clients and other interested parties. The paper is developed from a perspective of retail chain seller such as Woolworths limited.  (Boomer, & Vanderfeesten, 2007)

Benefits of a website for the organization

Television adverts especially at the prime time are quite expensive way of advertising. But with as website all the information that a company wanted to inform her potential clients will be availed to them at cheaper rate leading to massive savings through website marketing. A website is always available tool where clients can access it so long as they are connected to the internet. For a retail store like Woolworths customers can shop while going back home after work on train and have their shopping delivered at their kitchen shelf by the representative of the store. This therefore leads to consumer convenience while shopping something which boosts customer loyalty and sales.

Websites are also interactive tool that a client or any other interested party can move around and check the location of stores for instance, prices and promotion schedules. This in turn saves on time and resources that the party would have used to gather all the information he or she obtained at the website. Another important benefit of a website is that it can be updated, for example, if Woolworth has opened new stores in a given locality then all the traffic that would be visiting the website would be able to access the new information and perhaps purchase from the new store if the user is able to willing to purchase from the new store. (Darlington, 2011)

Benefits of a website for the organization

It also saves on mailing and printing cost that would have been otherwise spent if there was no website. An effective website also benefits the organization by improving customer relation through providing relevant information to the customer leading them to making informed decision.

After sales services can also be provided through website in that a customer can access advices on how to use certain products or in case of Woolworth, the website can contain cooking recipe for certain type of food which contains vegetables which most probably were bought from Woolworth’s supermarket. This way customer loyalty is improved as the organization increases the interaction between itself and her customers. Research indicated that loyal customers cost five times less than new customers and they spend 67% more on purchases compared to new customers, combining this with the fact that websites are very affordable way of keeping companies online; it translates to a mammoth ripple effects that can see the company grow and develop exponentially. (Darlington, 2011)

  Before developing a website organizations should consider the target audiences it seeks to engage. This will inform the choice of the contents the company will host in the website. For example, using our perspective organization Woolworths, the retailer targets shoppers who have interest in buying fresh food among other items, the company will need to ensure information on the importance of buying fresh food is contained in the website. While the target consumer is browsing Woolworth’s website, such piece of information will greatly appeal to the consumer and he or she will likely end up buying the same from Woolworth.

The purpose of and objective of the organization also plays an important role while developing the website for the organization. If the organization is a retailer then the website must have windows such as viewing and payment window. The reason for this is that some of the clients might be interested in purchasing online and as such the website should be able to accommodate such customers. Online business has grown steadily since the advent of internet connectivity. This consumer behavior is associated more with younger generation of buyers, the Millennials. This is the direction business is moving towards. It will be therefore imperative any retailer who intends to build a website should ensure that an online payment capability is of the feature of its website. (Fingar, & Aronica, 2008)

 To successfully utilize its website, companies need to pay attention to its contents, style of writing and arrangement as well as language. The content of a website is a very crucial component of a website. The content is dictated by the objective of the company. In our company example of Woolworths, the company must host information in the website which customers expect to get it from the internet. Woolworths being a retailer company dealing in fresh foods among other items that can be found in a supermarket, has to have information on types of vegetables available, their prices, time it will take to deliver to a given location upon placing an order, the source, a recipe on how it can be cooked (as an after sale service) as well as storage conditions among other pieces of information. This not only helps the customers to get relevant information but also increases customer loyalty. Content must attempt to answer all the possible questions a customer could be having on his or her mind and not leave any knowledge gap that will force customers seek alternative source of the information they need from the company, thus driving away much needed traffic to the company website.

Understanding Audiences, purpose and objective of the organization and website

The contents should also be persuasive messages. As a company in retail business as in the case of Woolworths, you don’t want customers to get bored with your company passive massages that do not even psyche them up or persuade them to be part of your family and enjoy quality fresh food from the company that would give them energy for the day an in an healthy way. The style should also correspond with the nature of business the company is dealing with. For instance, in example the style of writing the content of a food retailer or any other retailer should be that of short, clear and conspicuous messages. Most people do not have a lot of time (especially customers) to peruse through long contents rather they prefer something they can spend the least time possible to read and have the information they needed. The nature of the language should be appropriate, courteous and with respect.

The customers must feel valued and not demeaned in any way. It should pay attention to specifics such as gender equality if there is an instance in the content hosted in the website where gender has to be mentioned. The company should also pay attention type of the language. In markets where there are various types of languages spoken then the website should have option where the visitor to the website can choose chose his or her preferred type of language. (Ja?rvela?inen, 2013)

The company should be aware of the laws governing various types of information rights in the countries or jurisdictions where they operate business. For example if a customer has given his or her email address so as to receive promotional contents and any other marketing contents from the company, the company should not share this information with any other third party without consent from the owner of the email address. This can potentially land the company in court over breach of rights to privacy. If the there new technology or a marketing slogan that a different company came up with and patent it, the company coming up with the website should not use such information in any way, for any type of gain because that will attract legal suits that may end up forcing the company as a defendant in case compensate the accuser. Therefore the company while coming up with the website should ensure all legal aspects of the information content hosted in the website are adhered and can consider seeking legal advices from competent law firm with mandate to offer legal services in the country where the company is located. (Marketing and management sciences, 2010)

The company should also ensure that the website interface is as easy to use as possible from the customer point of view. Retail business as in the case of our example, Woolworths, should have a website that easily allows customers to view various products, place an order, make payment and check out in a quick a simple way. The client can maneuver around the website easily for example, if the client has forgotten to add another in the cart box, then he or she should be able to click back easily without losing previous information contained in the previous window. The client would the proceed to add any items he or she feels like adding then place the order and make the payment.

The website should also be able to support various modes of payment popular in the respective markets where the company operates. This not only ensures the company does not miss out on any potential purchase due to incompatibility of the payment options but also makes customer feel catered for thus encouraging repeat business. (Robbins, 2010) The company should therefore ensure that its website can be easily operated by the client, if there is a certain aspect that can not be avoided and makes the interaction of the website a bit challenging then the company should offer a manual on the website where clients with challenges in operating the website can refer and make their browsing on the website a pleasant experience. (Smith, & Chaffey, 2008)

In conclusion, website is one of the best ways of marketing a company and its products. In comparison to other types of media such as television, radio and print i.e. newspaper, website is by far the most cost effective compared to the three. To be able to advertise say on the from page a newspaper is expensive and only happen once in while same applies to advertising on TV and radio during prime time e.g. news time but the website is there all the time also known as 24/7. 

References

Boomer, T., & Vanderfeesten, E. (2007). Building websites with e107. Birmingham, U.K.: Packt Pub.

Darlington, K. (2011). Effective website development (1st ed.). Harlow, England [u.a.]: Pearson/Addison-Wesley.

Fingar, P., & Aronica, R. (2008). The death of "e" and the birth of the real new economy (1st ed.). Tampa, Fla.: Meghan-Kiffer Press.

Hughes, R., Pride, W., & Kapoor, J. (2011). Business foundations. Australia: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Ja?rvela?inen, J. (2013). Co-created effective, agile, and trusted eServices. Berlin: Springer.

Marketing and management sciences. (2010). London.

Peacock, M. (2011). Drupal 7 social networking. Birmingham: Packt Enterprise.

Robbins, T. (2010). Kentico CMS 5 Website Development. Birmingham: Packt Pub.

Smith, P., & Chaffey, D. (2008). eMarketing eXcellence (1st ed.). Amsterdam [u.a.]: Butterworth-Heinemann.