Networking4Business Website Build Case Study
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The key to making a business work online, is to understand the offline business. The first thing VirtuAffinity do for any client is to sit down with them and understand the business, after all, each business is unique and so are its’ objectives. The crucial thing to understand about Networking4business is that it is about people, people who love doing business. However, there is a strong undercurrent of informality amongst the N4B regulars. People tend to prefer to do business with people they like and so much of what N4B provides, through Simply Networking is a platform from which people move off to develop a business relationship with later. We know for a fact that many regulars now go for a drink or a meal together or even go to watch the football. Whatever we did with the N4B brand had to reflect those brand credibility points.
Foremost amongst the points to consider is how does the website fit into the N4B marketing strategy? Well, as you’ll know, N4B has grown enormously via an intelligent email marketing campaign using an excellent tool that allows delivery of high quality e-mails with a broad range of tracking and analysis tools built in. This strategy also allows those who have already bought into the N4B concept to propagate their belief in the brand by circulating the mail out via built in tools. The website and the mail marketing have to be seamless with the e-mail tool integrated into the website and with the brand being consistent across both mediums.
Another requirement was that the Networking4Business should be able to manage elements of the content on the site themselves. One of the key principles of Internet Marketing is that change is good. By the third time you’ve looked at something that doesn’t change, you’re not likely to visit again for quite some time. The principle works similarly for search engines as well. There are various methods for implementing content management on a website. VirtuAffinity tend to favour deploying a combination of Macromedia Dreamweaver for design and enabling Macromedia Contribute for content management purposes. There are significant advantages to this approach. First of all, cost per seat is affordable to both SMEs and Micro business. Secondly, there is a greater certainty of continuity of support by using a credible major brand product. Bespoke content management systems may have some benefits when well built and delivered but if the company that built them fails, then it is unlikely that support, development and maintenance will continue, leaving the website owner with a huge problem.
We have already mentioned Search Engines. There are many methods of marketing online, one of which is Search Engine Marketing. (SEM) VirtuAffinity has extensive experience in this field and also runs a specialist Search Engine Marketing agency, PushON Ltd. The foundation of SEM is to have a site that Search Engines can examine in depth. The major three search engines: Google; Yahoo and MSN fundamentally care about two things: text and links. If a search engine can not "see" all of the text on your website, then it cannot match a potential clients search terms with your text. Consequently, VirtuAffinity build websites to verifiable international web standards as defined by the World Wide Web Consortium. (W3C). By adhering to these standards, you can be guaranteed that a Search Engine is going to love your site.
Another benefit of building to standards is that it goes a long way to achieving the legal requirements placed upon all UK websites to enable reasonable access for disabled people. Put very simplistically, a disabled person should be able to get reasonable access to your website. If they can’t, then you are in breach of UK legislation.
To summarise, the requirements for the project were:
- Supports the N4B brand credentials
- Integrates with existing email marketing strategy
- Can be cost effectively content managed
- Is Search Engine “visible”
- Can be effectively used in future marketing plans
- Is compliant with UK accessibility legislation
With a clear shared understanding of the requirements, we were able to move forward with the development programme. VirtuAffinity developments work on a two pronged approach, separating design from content which significantly aids efficiency. First of all we planned the website structure and then put a “wireframe” of the website in place. A wireframe is a website without any design items on it whose sole purpose is to put together content and structure so that it may be developed, tested and changed with the minimum of fuss prior to the more complex implementation of the website proper. In parallel with this, we worked very closely with N4B to develop the new look for the brand. It had to be unique and it had to be very people oriented. After much discussion we came up with a design that we were all really happy reflected the people oriented nature of the business and really stuck in the memory.
With the design agreed and content deployed and proofed, we moved onto the development of the website proper. At this stage were able to deploy third party applications such at the email marketing tool. The site was deployed behind the scenes for testing and a select group given access. Their findings were acted on with any errors rectified or enhancements put in place. Finally the site was made live.
If you would like to discuss any website issues with VirtuAffinity, we are always happy to talk. Please call us or drop us a line.
Email: info@virtuaffinity.com
Telephone: 0870 757 4888 or 0870 757 4889
VirtuAffinity also have developed a specialist Digital Marketing Agency, PushON. If you have any concerns about how well your website is working for you, or you are just curious, we will be very happy to provide you with a free website MOT report that will give you an insight into what is good and bad on your website.
Web: www.pushon.co.uk
Email: info@pushon.co.uk
Telephone: 0870 757 4888 or 0870 757 4889
