Components that affect Web site investment size

measurable.)The time to compose a strategic plan depends on the number and complexity of each objective. For example, a company might want to use Web technology to help increase first time and repeat purchases, repeat Web site visits, newsletter subscriptions, and overall lead capture. They might want to implement cross-sell and up-sell strategies, reduce call center volume or eliminate administrative support.That’s 9 total objectives, all of which vary in complexity and planning time.On the other hand, a small business typically has one or two burning objectives.

They all say, “give me qualified sales leads and ample Web site traffic.” Planning time is, of course, much less.Side note: When budgets are limited, be sure to perform a cost/benefit analysis for each objective and implement those that will yield the highest return in the shortest amount of time. Check out: How to present a case for Web site investments.Once all business and marketing objectives are defined, more planning time is needed to set targets and benchmarks. For example, attract 2,500 unique visitors, receive 100 newsletter subscriptions, sell 50 widgets online and capture 50 widget-enhancement leads per month.This way, you can track your site’s performance at meeting each objective against targets every month and prove whether or not the investment is producing a return. ROI is the only justification for Web initiatives.Next, more planning time is needed to determine how Web technology (coupled with sales, marketing and usability strategies) will accomplish those defined objectives. This ties into interface, database and functionality design, as well as content creation and copywriting.Then, time is needed for design, development (scripting, writing HTML, database connectivity), testing the Web site for performance errors and transferring it to its hosting environment.So you see,