Too many websites exist just for the point of existing, they look pretty and maybe have a contact form or a few PDFs to download, but the users or website owner seldom get as excited as the South American football (soccer) commentator I quoted in my post header.

Why?.. because with no clear Goal or objective it is next to impossible to gage how effective your website is. The very bottom line for a business website — when you pay for a website design your making an investment, and you should expect to get a return on that investment (ROI).

So you need to define a site Goal, there must be a point to you needing a website. This is normally an action, find what it is that you want a user to do at your site and then that action is your website Goal and becomes measurable. In this basic form of just defining one simple action you want your visitors to perform on the website, you will be able to create a website structure and content around it.

There are far too many parts to take into consideration for me to cover in a single post, but the main one is your Audience. You need to learn about users you needs:

* needs for information
* ways of thinking about, grouping, and organizing information
* expectations about your site
* levels of knowledge about the subject matter
* levels of experience with the Web and similar types of sites
* ways of working with information (how much they want to read)

By working with users, you can also find out about the technology they have available to them — whether they are on broadband or dial-up, what resolution they typically use, the physical environment in which they work, and so on.

To sum up:

You need a Goal to benchmark results against so you can figure out a ROI and not just a site that looks pretty.

Or put another way:

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”
Winston Churchill

ROI (return on investment) is a phrase used very often in business circles, essentially referring to the bottom line:  was this direct mail piece effective, or this product launch a success, or this marketing campaign profitable? However, from the perspective of a good business owner, ROI should mean are the employees and the company in sync? Does the whole team have similar goals? Is each and everyone happy to work at the company in spite of the long hours, intense days, price of gas? Compensation after all should be more than about money.

Oh, don’t get me wrong, we all need to have enough in our bank accounts to pay rent or a mortgage and have full gas tanks, with a little left over for fun things like going out to eat and vacations, and we should be able to depend on the weekly check, so money is necessary. But, earning a salary should include the realization that “I matter,” my ideas and skills and work ethic contribute to the greater good.  I work here because I can stretch my creative muscles, I work here because management empowers me, and I in turn produce. 

At Dynamic Digital Advertising, it is a business philosophy David and I constantly strive to maintain. An example would be the wonderful team in the video department, but it took several years to fill those chairs, and I am sure Laurence who is our Director of Multimedia Arts probably had his doubts about ever seeing his department become real.  If you walk into the new video and photography studios and see all the camera and video equipment, the sophisticated dolly system, the new sound booth, the special lights, the green screen on tracks, the double or triple monitors on desks, it is hard not to be impressed. And Laurence is still shopping for stuff! 

From my CFO position, I know there will be GREAT ROI from DDA VIDEO.  And our business development team, led by David and Toni will fill that pipeline to overflowing. The main conference room is constantly booked with scheduled calls from new inquiries. Our production team is very busy doing build out for projects, Vinnie and Rob have their hands full with flash and animation projects, so clients are finding Dynamic Digital Advertising, listening to our proposals and signing on. As a financial officer, can I ask for more? Yes. Let’s celebrate our busy days, and not get complacent. Have a great weekend all.