Two popular site revamp drivers: CRM/SFA integration and SEO/SEM optimization

There are a variety of business reasons to justify a site redesign. Often, two or more reasons will green light a project. For example, an organization may need to update its site with the introduction of a new product. Given that need, it may take advantage of the re-launch to add Ajax-based interactive menus and graphics (for example, a scrollable list of customers) to improve site ease-of-use. With the cost of Web site redesigns often ranging into the tens of thousands for a moderately complex site, having multiple justifications and delivering multiple new, incidental capabilities and features is often the norm.

There is a laundry list of reasons why an organization will spend the time and effort to revise its site. Today, two of the most important drivers of site redesign are driven by sales and marketing needs.

1. Helping make more money: CRM/SFA integration. For many organizations, the Web site is the primary public interface. Prospects are driven to the site by a variety of marketing campaigns, search engine results, and other means. Often, companies offer incentives for visitors to provide their contact information, such as downloadable content (white papers, software tools, etc.) or  visitors  fill out a form to have a salesperson contact them. An easy win in terms of efficiency and speed is ensuring that this incoming data -- already validated by the visitor (assuming the information is not intentionally false) -- is pumped directly in to the customer relationship management (CRM) or sales force automation (SFA) tool, such as the popular salesforce.com service. With automatic validation and rules-based routing, these leads will immediately enter a salesperson's pipeline.
   
   Not only will this integration enable faster response to lead data, it will enable the marketing team to analyze the resulting impact on sales, answering questions such as how fast and how many Web leads are pursued by the sales team and how effective various data source are (e.g., sales requests versus information gathered from download registrations).
   
   
2. Attracting more visitors: SEO and SEM optimization. Generating site visitors is critical to the success of most organizations, as the site will provide a company and product offering overview, influencing the entire sales process. One way to increase traffic is to focus on search engines, such as the popular Google and Yahoo! services. Site redesigns can be tailored to improve both "organic" search (free, visitor-driven queries and link selections) and paid for search results (e.g., Google AdWords). Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) efforts range from enhancing page keywords and matching keywords to appropriate page content, to redesigning the site to make it inherently search friendly (e.g., removing non-searchable elements, such as Flash menuing systems, and adding site maps).
   
   With SEO and SEM improvements, sites can generate increased traffic. By tying these efforts with Web analytic tools and specific landing pages, organizations can understand and track traffic, enabling marketing to determine the effectiveness of email campaigns, advertising programs, trade shows, and other outbound efforts.

We'll spend more time talking about both technology and business drivers in upcoming posts. For those contemplating a Web redesign project, a good way to start is to create:

• An initial list of business drivers. These drivers should be matched with measurable goals that can be analyzed after the refreshed site is live.
  
  
• A list of incidental benefits. While these are not the original drivers, this list details the added benefit that the redesign will deliver, such as easier navigation,brand enhancement, and simpler and cheaper site maintenance.
  
  
• A prioritized list of what is viable. The first two lists represent possibilities -- what can be done with unlimited time and money. The third list is your reality check. List No. 3 should take into account how much you have to spend, how much time you have to revamp your site, and what resources you have to manage the process. This is a critical step to ensuring the success of your projects.