Ask these questions before building a website

1. Who are my most valuable customers and what do they really want?
2. How do customers encounter my brand and how can I use technology to improve their experience?
3. How can I turn this insight into business rules that create superior experiences for my customers and value for my business?
4. How do I collect, store and interpret this data to keep making customer interactions more personal and the business more profitable?
5. How can I design and build channels that create the best possible customer experience?
6. How do I communicate my proposition to customers and keep driving them back for more?
7. How can I use interactive tools to better train and support the staff that directly sell to and service my customers?
8. How do I make sure that there's a clear return on my investment and that my organization is set up for success?
9. How do I measure success and constantly improve the way I target, offer, sell and service my customers?

How to tell a strategy from a ferret

Everybody talks strategy these days. But it's easy for people to get confused. Just because you've decided to do something doesn't mean you have a strategy.

A strategy is the thought BEHIND the action. If your strategy is right, there can be many actions you'll take that will work. If the strategy is off-base, you'll be flailing around no matter what you do. The closer your thinking gets to core essentials, the more interior it gets, the sounder your strategy.

So how do you ferret out sound strategies?

The most comprehensive approach is the strategic plan.

The Plan is the plan

A strategic plan is like a vision ombudsman, offering a persistent tap on the shoulder and a loud "Ahem ..." when our eyes drift beyond the goals in front of us. As such, it's much more than words on paper. It's a living, breathing entity that evolves and is shaped by its surroundings. A strategic plan creates business-building ideas and helps organizations forge their futures. With measurable goals and benchmarks, it ensures against getting lost in activities.

In the 1970s, strategic planning for businesses came into vogue, using military science as the model. Strategic thinking has shaped the work we have done and will do with our clients; it tells us what we need to do, not what we want to do.

Although each planning process is tailored to specific needs and can have many potential elements, the following are included in most plans:

Environmental analysis includes gathering the viewpoints of key management, interviewing prospects and clients and researching and analyzing the marketplace. SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Research is an intrinsic part of the strategic planning process.

Mission goal and development starts as a dialog with key management and turns into a vision that can be articulated with one voice. A wealth of valuable information is uncovered during this process, including the company's core ideology and envisioned future. An article in the October, 1966 issue of Harvard Business Review by James Collins and Jerry Porras defines core values as intrinsic, unchangeable values a company already has, not ones they wish they had. A core purpose is the company's ongoing reason for being. In addition to its core ideology, the strategic planning session will reveal a company's specific desires for an envisioned future, in which long-term goals are carved out and a vivid description of what the company will "look like" is created.

Mission goal strategies and activities clearly outline the behaviors that must take place in order to achieve mission goals. Action plans, budget summaries and time lines are all clearly delineated. By assigning specific tasks to goals, you ensure every single marketing effort brings us one step closer to the envisioned future.

Positioning exists in the minds of consumers. A position as the first thing that crosses a person's mind upon hearing a firm's name. The criteria for an ideal position are: being clear, unique and defensible.

Branding and brand planning strengthens the bond between company and customer. People buy products, they trust brands. Therefore, the essence of building a brand is standing for something, having a clear identity and having a personality.

A Sound strategy is absolutely central to successful marketing. It reminds us why we're working, pulls us back if we stray and, most importantly, propels us forward along the pathway to the buyer.

Strategic Options

This checklist presents a range of small business strategic options proven in hundreds of applications.

1. Rationalize distribution. Cut back to most efficient network; look at volume, geography, type. Increase profit margins, lower inventories, some costs go down; may need new investment; moderate risk.

2. Develop the market. Create demand for a brand new product. Very high marketing costs, may increase receivables, impacts profit and loss statement, hinders cash flow; large expense budget; high risk-but high reward if successful.

3. Penetrate the market. Increase market share: lower price, broaden product line mix, add service and sales personnel, increase advertising. Increases marketing and sales expenses, need for working capital, and need for capital investment if capacity grows. Reduces short-term earnings; high risk.

4. Promote new products to present market. Develop, broaden, or replace products in product line, sell to present market. Lower unit costs; increase inventory, sales volume, profit, and cash flow; some capital investment needed, increased development, design, and manufacturing costs; moderate to high risk.

5. Seek new markets, same products. Expand existing markets by geography (abroad) or type for existing products. Increase sales volume and profit margins as unit costs drop and as new market grows; higher short-term selling costs; modest capital investment, increased working capital; high risk.

6. Develop new products for new markets. Invest in developing, manufacturing, and marketing products unrelated to product line for new markets. Will increase sales volume, costs, profits (if successful); will have same problems as a new business if products unrelated to current line; will need more working capital, may need new capital investment; increase in sales and marketing costs; high risk.

7. Rationalize market. Prune back to most profitable segments, higher volume segments; concentrate marketing focus. Reduce sales volume, increase profit margins, lower working capital needs, increase cash flow as percent of sales, decrease receivables; willingness to accept lower sales totals; moderate risk.

8. Maintain products and market share. Business continues as before; same products, same markets. Increase at industry growth rate with stable, short-term profit margins; decrease working capital and increase cash throw off overtime; may lower unit costs; investment in strategies to hold position; low risk.

9. Cut costs. Reduce costs uniformly through management edicts. Increase profit margins, achieve lowest possible return of all efficiency strategies; needs excellent implementation to apply intelligently; moderate risks due to arbitrary nature of cutbacks-may have invidious consequences.

10. Abandon unit. Sell or liquidate unit because it doesn't fit in with company-or because it is worth more to someone else. Improve cash flow from sale of assets, create possible morale problem in rest of organization; low risk.