define : your edge http://www.defineyouredge.com Breakthru Event - Registration for June 24th Fri, 01 Jul 2011 17:58:37 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 Why the process? Why is this phase important? http://www.defineyouredge.com/2011/02/why-the-process-why-is-this-phase-important/ http://www.defineyouredge.com/2011/02/why-the-process-why-is-this-phase-important/#comments Fri, 25 Feb 2011 20:09:16 +0000 Trever Yarrish http://www.defineyouredge.com/?p=11 The first phase of creating a website is the most important to the success of the website. So often we have clients that contact us because they “want a website” or they want to have their website “overhauled” and that is about as much thought of what the website needs to be as they have put into it. This first phase for the designer and development team is about gathering as much information about the client as possible. For the client, it is a chance to re-evaluate and set some goals. The following is a short list of powerful questions that can set your website up for success and, more importantly, give you an opportunity to get back in touch with the passion you have for your business:

  • Who are you (your business) and what are you about?
  • Who is your customer (demograph, likes, dis-likes, online tendencies, etc…)?
  • What is your business’ persona (attitude, personality, age, attire, etc…)?
  • What are your goals as a company?
  • What are the goals of your website (traffic, sales, build a network, build a list, etc…)?
  • Who are your competitors and what successful things are they doing?

This phase of the process is something to get excited about and will definitely be the most beneficial exercise. It can be a lot of fun, but it can also be quite an eye-opening experience. In the end of this phase, you will be in a place that sets your business and your website up for success. A big problem many companies have is a major disconnect between the physical presence of the company and the online presence of the company. I would bet money that in each of those instances, they either skipped this step or discarded its value and hurried through.

It does take work to create a super successful online presence that reflects the core values and direction of your company, and this phase is where it all starts.

Through the next several posts and podcasts, we will be walking through this process with our company as the “client.” It is going to be a fun experiment for us and we hope it is insightful for you. The format will be very open and we encourage questions and discussion along the way.

Define Your Edge is going to define its edge!

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