Preparation & Planning - Tourism North East

Your Website: Preparation and Planning

Plan first or pay later

Internet marketing starts with your website, right? Almost. Actually, like all marketing, it starts with your products and your customers. As in all things, a little planning goes a long way. Even if you already have a site, following the steps in the next sections will identify if you have the right site and if it is advertised in the right places. It will also keep the costs down when you come to having your site built.

To get a good website you need to:

Understand what a good website is
Think about your business and your customers
Make a paper site - a site plan
Decide how or who to build it

What makes a good site

From a customer perspective a good website is a mixture of facts and style. It must be easy to use, show the right information and be easy to buy from. It must convince us of the business' expertise.

From a seller's perspective the website, like any other kind of marketing, should do four things:

Display - attractively lay out your wares
Reassure - show you're good to do business with
Motivate - get customers excited about buying and imagining their break or visit in their head
Capture - make it easy for them to buy

Good websites have clear layouts, easy to use menus, appealing text and images. They are honest and clear. They help us (all - irrespective of our abilities) to find or buy the right things and they link us to other useful sites. Good marketing websites make us excited about the prospect of buying this product or service, help us visualise the experience in our heads and provide easy ways for us to actually take the plunge.

To design your site (or check the design of your existing site) you need to start with a fresh look at your products and your customers. Don't skip this bit, it doesn't take long, is an interesting and even entertaining exercise and most importantly, it's the only way to get the right site. It will also, without doubt, save you time and money.

Tip: If you've already analysed your business in Raising Quality or the Marketing and Advertising Section you can build on this now.

Analysing your products and services

The things and services that you offer are your 'tourism products'. Looking at what you do and why you do it helps you plan and communicate your website. It may seem a simplistic exercise, but you'll use the entries in your columns to decide what goes into your menus, what text and images you need and what search terms you should include.

How to do it

Get a piece of paper and write the name of your business at the top and divide the page into six columns. As an example we've used an imaginary watersports school: North Sea Watersports.

North Sea Watersports


What we do	Why we do it	Our assets	How it feels	Themes/ Niches	Custom-ers	Search Terms
						(We'll explain this later)

Then underneath write:

Price: Cheap average expensive

Credits and awards

Think hard about what goes in here. It only takes twenty minutes but what you put here shows you, in a way that nothing else does, what should be in your menus, your text, your images, the style of the site and where to advertise it.

Filling it in

What we do - write in all your products and services. Asterisk or highlight any main ones. You'll use this column and the Assets column to make sure you've covered all the important aspects of your business in your menus. You'll also draw on these columns for search terms and for key words to put in your text and tag to your images.
Why we do it - why are you in the business you are, where you are? Because you've spotted the niche? Because you have the experience and the skills? Because you've got the perfect location? Because you're passionate about something? Because you want people to experience what you get a buzz out of? You'll use this column to identify key words, search terms and, most importantly, the tone of your site.
Assets - what are your real strengths, as a business? Your location, facilities, equipment, staff, food? Or something less tangible like your friendliness or hospitality. Items from this column will combine with the What we do column to create your menus. They also help to identify key words and search terms.
How it feels - how does it feel for your customers to do business with you? What does it feel like for your staff to work with you? What the experience is like, is unique to your business, it's one of the things that differentiates you from the business down the road, and is therefore one of your unique selling points. Try to wax a bit lyrical here: relaxed, peaceful and calm or fun, exciting, young? Professional, stylish and exclusive or offbeat, informal and bohemian? Customers buy because they think they are going to get the experience they desire, as much as to actually receive the products and services. You'll use this column to help you identify the pictures you need at your site and the entries will also form keywords and possibly search terms.
Niches and themes - Niches are specialist markets or themes that your business is particularly suited to and for which you provide extra facilities, services or knowledge. Examples are Walking and Cycling, Natural Heritage, Rest and Relaxation. If you identified niches that work for you in the Advertising, Marketing and PR section write them in here, otherwise leave blank for now until you have read the Niches and Themes section in this topic.
Customers - if you analysed your customers in either Raising Quality or Advertising, Marketing and PR, then write in your top customer types (asterisk the most important ones like the high spenders or repeat visitors) and your top new customer targets. Otherwise leave this column blank until you've completed the next section's task: Identify your customers. The entries in this column will heavily influence the pictures you choose, the overall tone of your site and the type of language you use for your copy. Where you promote the site will also be determined by your key customers.
Search terms - leave this column blank for now. At the end of your analysis, before you start writing your copy, you'll need to complete this column with the types of words, phrases and terms that customers might use if they were searching for a business like yours on the internet. More about this in Planning to be found.
Price - customers want to know. Price is a key decider: are you cheap, average or expensive? Don't know? Check out your competition on the internet, not just in your area, but further afield too, especially in areas you know you draw customers from. If you are on the expensive side what justifies the extra cost? Quality? Service? Location? Extras? If you are competitive, why? Because you believe in good value? Write down the justifications next to the price bracket.
Credits and awards - put down any awards, inspections, membership or affiliations - they are a 'third-party' endorsement that you are good to do business with and are therefore a key comfort factor for the customer. Giving the customer confidence that you are a good business to deal with is very important in making sales.

Our example looks like this:

Website planning table

Price: Cheap - average - expensive - competitive, we want everyone to have a go.

Credits and awards - AALS, Northumberland DC Award, Green Award, Access rating, 'best family day out' Evening Standards.

Immediately you can see how the analysis will help you plan your website:

With a bit of organising "What we do" and "Our Assets" will become your main and sub-menus.
You need to make sure you get across the entries under "Why we do it" and "Search Terms" in your text and images.
"How it feels", "Themes" and "Customers" will strongly influence the style of your site. The entries will provide a constant source of reference for pictures, text and tone. Your site should reflect your business' individuality (a unique selling point) and appeal to your key existing and target customers.

Next steps:

If you haven't already filled in the "Customers" and "Niches/themes" columns do this now by going to the next step. If you have, then go straight to the Planning to be found section.