Upfront Strategic Planning Leads to Better Website Development
website development schema draw on black chalkboard

Upfront Strategic Planning Leads to Better Website Development

Start the Process Right to Ensure Your New Site Works Hard for Your Business

Upfront strategic planning is the most important part of website development. A thorough planning process helps ensure the end result is in sync with the company’s message, and that it strongly supports business initiatives and goals.

It’s not uncommon to hear business owners and managers question the need to such deliberate planning, because it adds time on the front end. But the upfront investment pays off in making the development process more efficient and in greatly reducing the need to make changes toward the end of the development stage. Without the planning, you might be disappointed and settle for a less-than-ideal outcome. You don’t want that; nor does the web developer.

Through the upfront planning process, we uncover a company’s message assets and create a messaging document. If the company has already gone through a messaging process, the planning is a matter of confirming its target audiences, markets, differentiators, growth plans, etc. The message assets set the tone for the website’s design, and drives the navigation and functionality.

In early 2019, we used the process to develop a new website for the Laureate Group, which owns and operates eight senior living communities in the area. Beth Anderson, executive vice president of the Laureate Group, said PKI Digital Marketing’s planning process was instrumental in delivering a website that is now working hard for the business.

“The PKI Digital Marketing team’s strategic planning process provided us a roadmap to effectively reach our market and identify key audiences, services, channels and crystallize our messaging,” Anderson said.

Through PKI’s website development process they brought everything together to launch our new website that clearly defines what makes the Laureate Group’s senior living communities unique among southeastern Wisconsin senior living options.

See the site at www.laureategroup.com.

Another business owner told us the planning process was invaluable, as it required company management to take a good, hard look at the business, and resulted in knowledge that would help guide growth.

Yes, you can have a website developed without putting much, if any, planning into it. But you’re likely to be disappointed in the results, and will have paid for something that doesn’t work as hard as it should.

Learn more about our strategic planning process, and how it has helped give companies websites that work hard. Call 414-940-6555, or email jweiss@pkidigital.com.