If you’re like most business owners, you have probably been thinking about updating your website for some time. And now that you’ve made the decision, you want to find someone you can trust to make it happen without further delay.

But before you brief a web designer or agency to start the project, it pays to get a few things clear first:

1. What are your objectives for the website?

Think about all the key points in the customer’s buying journey and how you would like the website to influence what they think or do next.

2. Who are your target audiences and what do they want from your website?

There are likely to be many people who will visit the website for different reasons, from researching the market, to investigating your products or verifying technical or commercial details. All good marketing is based on treating people differently, depending on their needs, interests and priorities.

3. What will you need to do, to bring people to the new website?

Make sure your website planning includes clear ideas about how people will find your website in the first place. Whether you will be using social media, content marketing, advertising, industry events or direct marketing, the website needs to be designed from the outset to attract, hold onto and convert these different audiences.

4. How will you measure how well it is all working?

One of the great benefits of a well-planned website is that you can use it to measure how people are reacting to your different marketing and sales activities. Think about the behaviours you might be able to observe online that would indicate which of your marketing is working well and what isn’t so effective at driving people towards your goals.

5. Who is going to create the content for the website?

Too many tech companies end up delaying their website launch, because they realise belatedly that there is no-one within the business who has the time and ability to write really compelling website texts. There are plenty of good marketing copywriters out there, but few who have the background to understand and write about complex technologies.

I help the directors of technology companies to develop successful marketing strategies and create clear, persuasive marketing messaging. If you are planning a new website, I’d love to talk and share ideas about how to maximise its marketing impact and effectiveness.