ESTABLISHING A MAINTENANCE AND MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

How do you establish this type of system? Use the Internet — take advantage of its dynamic and interactive attributes. Your first step should be to put a customer feedback form in a prominent place on your website. Such forms are invaluable in getting your online customers involved in the process of analyzing your site. Many of your customers will be eager to participate.

Take the proffered information and use it to ensure that your site always achieves optimum performance from your customers’ point of view. Don’t be afraid to experiment; but constantly monitor the results. In this way you can make your changes, measure the results against other experiments, and settle on the best-performing choice.

Another tried-and-true approach for maintaining and managing a website is to tie it into your marketing strategies. This allows you to measure the results of your marketing campaigns — whether a specific campaign is on-track — bringing in customers and sales.

If you are a click-and-mortar, your website strategy must be integrated into your overall business strategy. This allows you to closely monitor whether your website is meeting your stated business objectives.

If shortfalls are found, bring out the blueprint and re-evaluate your web business plan. You must not only define the process but also institute a methodology that provides the means for a continuous evolution of your website’s objectives. Remember, as the new century progresses, and technology races ahead, you will continuously redefine the role that your website plays in your overall business goals.

The establishment, management, and maintenance of a website requires a significant investment of time and resources on your part. But don’t let these tasks overwhelm you. The best approach is to start with the basics:

• Design your site for ease of modification.
• Avoid sloppy formatting, numerous and gratuitous image maps, and superfluous links on every page.
• Know who will maintain and update your website and have more than one person that can easily step in and take control.