Developing a Web Business Plan
Posted by Jack Powers | April 14, 1996
Revised March 19, 1997
A World Wide Web business plan has two goals:
- to crystallize the guiding vision and goals for the site; and
- to minimize surprises during the development process.
Because web sites come in so many different flavors and because everyone
comes to the Internet with so many different expectations, a clear and
complete statement of vision is essential. Since web development is such
a collaborative process and since most publishers dont have years of experience
managing interactive media creation, a formal understanding of the relationships
and the responsibilities of everyone involved in the development cycle
helps keep confusion and conflict to a minimum. A web development plan has
five important components:
THE WEB SITE PLAN
THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
MARKETING AND PROMOTION PROGRAMS
COST PROJECTIONS
DEFINING AND MEASURING SUCCESS
THE WEB SITE PLAN: THE VISION,
THE GOALS AND THE WEB MAP
Like any creative development project, a web site can have many different
purposes:
- to support (or supplant) a printed publication;
- to sell (subscriptions, products or services);
- to promote (specific events, product launches, sale programs); or
- to simply establish a presence on the web.
The defining vision for the site and the primary goals must be clearly
defined and well-thought-out. Internally, the editors, publishers, designers,
sales reps, marketers and others must understand and accept the priorities
outlined in the plan. Externally, the web developers, page designers, HTML
coders, programmers and systems operators need a strong direction for their
creative efforts and a comprehensive map of the elements needed.
THE VISION
The defining vision is the simple mission statement for the site, for
example:
Our web site will extend our reader service features
into the on-line world to provide information in a more comprehensive,
searchable and timely form.
or
Our web catalog will make products faster, easier and
cheaper for our customers to order and more profitable for us to deliver.
or
Our web forums will enhance our readers' sense of community,
increase readership of the printed magazine, and provide our advertisers
with new interactive marketing opportunities.
This broad vision should be based on the advantages that a web site
has over other communication formats (see the Six Advantages of New Media)
and should match or augment a company's overall mission statement, keeping
the web effort in line with the firm's main business. While it should not
be tied to actual revenues or sales projections, an explicit vision gives
decision-makers a sense of the scope of the planned development, whether
it fits the company's business and whether it is worth the effort and expense.
THE GOALS
A listing of specific site goals outlines the development priorities.
Every list of goals should be ranked in order of importance and provide
as much detail as practical to every member of the development team, for
example:
The Home Page should match the graphical style of
the printed publication and should give as much information as the print
Table of Contents page. New copy should appear every two days.
or
Readers should be able to search the whole site by
key word, create Boolean relationships, and be able to limit their searches
by main category.
or
Information should be accessible with as few clicks
as possible. Purely navigational pages must be kept to a minimum.
or
Video and animation should be available as options
to browsers that can view them but must not be essential to the site experience.
Often this list of goals is hashed out in a brainstorming session that
starts off with a clean slate and gradually builds the site experience
element-by-element. Usually there is no shortage of ideas, the hard work
comes in scaling and prioritizing the ideas into lists of "must-haves,"
"nice-to-haves," "should eventually-haves."
The goals should have cost considerations built-in: a sophisticated
interactive forum that costs thousands to develop and requires a full-time
moderator might not be as attractive as an unmoderated freeware bulletin
board routine. Input from web developers and programmers is useful in analyzing
the costs of each goal.
THE WEB MAP
Moving further from the general to the specific, the web map is the
chart of the features and information that are required on the site, for
example:
- HOME PAGE
Page One News
Feature Story
Stat of the Week
Ad Placement
- This Month's Table of Contents
Ad Placement
- Previous Month's TOCsin
- Subject-Oriented Catalog
- Departments
Ad Placement
- Arts and Entertainment
- Politics and Culture
- Sports
- Web-based Editorial Supplement
Ad Placement
- Editorial and Art
- Sound
- Animation
- Video
- Reader Forums
Ad Placement
- Arts and Entertainment
- Politics and Culture
- Sports
- Reader Roundtables
- Company Information
Ad Placement (House Ad)
- General Background
- Staff Biographies
- Recent Press Releases
- Regional and Local Offices
Office Search Page
- Dealer Database
Dealer Search Page
- Contact and Email
- Sitewide Search Page and Site Index
Ad Placement
The web map often mirrors the directory structure of the site, although
non-linear link relationships are easily built for example, between the
Sports Department editorial feature and the Sports Reader Forum. The easy
part of the map is the boilerplate data and the features that match the
regular print publication.
THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS:
WHO DOES WHAT, WHEN
Interactive media development has three primary components:
- CREATION, including editorial, art and design;
- COMPUTING, including forms building, searching and transactions;
and
- PRODUCTION, including keyboarding, scanning, coding and web
serving.
Different kinds of sites need different combinations of these components.
An advertising site might need advanced design and copywriting talents;
a complex forum or game site would require heavy programming skills; a
web newspaper or reference site that is updated daily needs strong production
capabilities. Pick the principal developer by matching their focus and
experience to the work that needs to be done.
Be sure that all parties involved in the creation of the web site understands
their roles, from the internal editorial and art departments to the outside
web developers and programmers to the systems operators and technical staff.
CREATION
While many web developers pitch turnkey site development, doing everything
from page design to coding to production and updating, the best web sites
are created by information providers who understand a market, own proprietary
content and generate their own publication ideas. A web developer can design
pages, lay out the file structure, program forums and games and run the
system, but the primary responsibility for editorial direction should always
lie with the information provider.
Multimedia design elements should be used to support the editorial direction,
not just provide "eye candy" or show-off technical wizardry.
Choose the most appropriate elements from the list of multimedia data types:
MULTIMEDIA DESIGN ELEMENTS
- Typography
- Illustration
- Standard GIFs and JPG files
- Vector files: CMX, ART formats
- Photography
- Hyperlinks
- Animation
- Server Push Animation
- Shockwave
- Sound
- Downloaded .AU, .AIFF, .WAV files
- Streaming RealTime Audio, Live Audio
- Video
- Downloaded Quicktime, .AVI, MPEG files
- Streaming VDO Video
- Virtual Reality
- Application Formats
- Adobe Acrobat .PDF files
- MS Word word processing files
- Spreadsheet files
- Presentations: PowerPoint, WebShow
Pick the multimedia illustrators who have the best visual sense and
the most experience with the particular elements that you need .
COMPUTING
The difference between a compelling interactive publication and a collection
of "re-purposed" print pages displayed on a browser screen is
often defined by the creativity of the programming features. Well-crafted
forums, a good search engine, interesting database hooks and exciting games
PROGRAMMING FEATURES
- Input Forms
- Email
- Feedback questionnaire
- Contest submission
- Reader registration
- Site search engine
- Live data
- Web still cameras
- Live audio and video
- Continuous database updates
- Sensor interfaces
- Transaction programming
- On-line ordering
- On-line digital delivery
- Computation
- Java applets
- Games software
- Form-based
- Shockwave
- Java applets
- Page customization
- HTML on-the-fly
- Algorithmic ad placement
- Algorithmic editorial
- Off-web links
- Web/CD-ROM hybrids
- Beeper links
- Fax links
- Electronic commerce
- Credit card and electronic funds routines
- Inventory and fulfillment system links
- Security and encryption utilities
Pick the web programmers who have the best design sense and the most
experience with the particular programming feature that you need .
PRODUCTION
There are two phases of production: the initial propagation of the web
database and the on-going input of new data. Often the first part is handled
through an outside service firms and the second part s handled in-house.
Production comprises a wide range of input,digitizing and converting functions:
PRODUCTION TASKS
- Keyboarding, proofreading and correcting new copy
- Creating new illustrations
- Scanning new images
- Developing a searchable web database
- Converting standing text into HTML
- Converting standing high res images into GIF and JPG
- Converting standing multimedia into Shockwave
- "De-composing" desktop publishing pages into HTML
- Distilling desktop pages into Adobe Acrobat format
- Digitizing sound and video
- Handling transactions
- Clearing credit card charges
- Shipping on-line orders
- Running the server
- Hosting the site
- Maintaining site statistics
Pick the production house who has the appropriate facilities and the
most experience with the particular production tasks that you need . Often,
traditional prepress and printing suppliers are best situated to handle
the digital text and graphics components.
ASSIGN RESPONSIBILITIES
As you develop the list of multimedia elements, programming features
and production tasks, assign responsibilities to the appropriate in-house
people or outside service companies. Before committing new ideas to expensive
computer code, storyboard and comp every page and multimedia element to
be sure they fit the design. Discuss the graphical look and feel of the
site as well as the navigation tools. Apply the search criteria on the
real database to test what the on-line reader will see, fill out each form
to see how real data will fit, and play every game to see what the likely
out come will be.
Checking approval proofs of type and artwork is easy, but checking interactivity
often means filling in the blanks with dummy data to see how the software
reacts. Build in clear approval steps in the storyboarding phase to limit
the expense of changes downstream.
MARKETING AND PROMOTION PROGRAMS
Every business plan need a marketing program, and a web site has both
conventional and electronic promotional elements. As in the basic development,
marketing tasks are divided between in-house personnel and outside service
firms.
CONVENTIONAL MARKETING
- Advertising
- House ads
- Paid ads
- Direct mail advertising
- Marketing
- Web launch party
- Web promotional literature
- Promotional items
- Public Relations
- Web-site press kit
- Press releases and follow-up contacts
- Conference and seminar appearances
ELECTRONIC MARKETING
- Listing on web search engines
- Creation of electronic descriptors
- Robotic search engine submissions
- Manual search engine submission
- Web page links
- Searching and targeting related sites
- Cooperative cross-links
- Paid web ad links
- Internet Public Relations
- Electronic press kit
- Press releases and follow-up to web publications
- Newsgroup appearances
- Email promotions
Unpaid house ads are the cheapest and easiest form of marketing, but
they only reach an audience that is already sold on the publication's contact.
Widening the audience through conventional advertising and marketing campaigns
are more effective although more costly. Electronic marketing targets the
individuals who are already on-line, and a good set of descriptors submitted
to the main search engines will probably deliver the most new readers to
the site.
Outside web public relations firms that handle both conventional activities--launch
parties, press contacts, speaker promotion--and electronic marketing are
very effective in drawing traffic to a new site. Pick a PR firm based on
their success with similar clients and their contacts with the relevant
media.
COST PROJECTIONS
A good web site plan will enable outside firms to bid on the basic web
development and on the multimedia elements, programming features and production
tasks., but even the most well-thought-out site will need a budget for
revisions and alterations. More importantly, the unseen in-house costs
of a site, the ongoing maintenance expense and the marketing and promotion
costs must be part of a comprehensive cost estimate:
WEB SITE COSTS
- Initial development: In-house costs
- Developing the web site plan
- Approving the development steps
- Testing and feedback
- Initial development: Outside charges
- Creation
- Editorial and art
- Multimedia elements
- Programming
- Production
- Input and proofing
- Systems operation
- In-house education
- Editorial and design staff
- Advertising and marketing reps
- Management personnel
- Marketing and promotion
- In-house costs
- Outside charges
- Web PR firm
- Paid advertising
- Maintenance and upgrades
- In-house editorial and art staff
- Outside suppliers
As a rule of thumb, new web pages will probably cost about 30% more
than the same content prepared for desktop publishing formats. The equipment
and software are not more expensive, but the design and coding skills are
new and untested. Over time, web pages will likely be much cheaper to produce
than DTP pages since the web design environment is simpler and the resolution
requirements are lower.
DEFINING AND MEASURING SUCCESS
The planning and projecting outlined above will reduce surprises during
the creation and roll-out of the site. The last surprise to target is the
definition of success: How do we know the site is a hit? In part, this
refers back to the vision statement and goals for the project, but once
the site is up and running careful monitoring and measurement is necessary
to gauge the effectiveness of the effort.
INDEXES OF SUCCESS
- Count of unique visitors (unique IP addresses)
- Analysis of reader domains
- Study of reader demographics
- Analysis of popular pages
- Analysis of average pages viewed per reader
- Count of email messages received
- Count of transactions processed
- Count of on-line orders received and fulfilled
- Count and analysis of referring links
- Press clippings, paper and electronic
Decide which success points are the most important, estimate the expected
traffic volume, and then assign a financial value to the results. For example,
- a site that costs $50,000 and delivers 200,000 readers translates to
a $250 CPM;
- if it results in press coverage of 1 million circulation the CPM is
$50;
- if it delivers 50,000 qualified catalog page readers it costs $1 per
lead; and
- if it generates 2,000 orders each order costs $25.
In the real world, of course, the effects overlap, with readership,
press coverage, qualified leads and actual orders all coming from a successful
site. Moreover, the main investment comes in the initial development of
the site, so second year costs are usually substantially lower.
Define your expectations at the outset and monitor the site's effectiveness
month-by-month. Expect a big surge of traffic shortly after the launch
date with a tapering off of readership as the newness wears off. The real
challenge is to keep upgrading the content and keep marketing and promoting
the site to maintain growth.
The World Wide Web offers a unique opportunity to deliver information,
communicate with customers and transact business in a high tech/high touch
environment. Careful and comprehensive planning are needed to focus an
organization's vision, it's content and it's human resources to develop
an effective interactive offering.\\
Copyright 1996, 1997 by the Graphics Research Laboratory, Inc.
All rights
reserved.
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