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For example, you may want an all-singing, all-dancing website to golive
in 5 weeks – but if you only have the budget to employ 1 designer and
have not yet started to create any of the content you need – such an
outcome is merely aspirational.
The overall lesson is … “Cut your coat according to your cloth”.
Only build what you can afford in time and money – both now and with
regard to the effort you will need to invest in ongoing maintenance.
Setting Smart Goals
When choosing goals for your website, it is not enough simply to
produce eloquently worded statements of aspirational intent. Your goals
are commitments to yourself (and to whomever pays your bills) that the
site will deliver real, tangible value.
You goals must be reasonable and actionable. That is, they must be
SMART :
• Specific. Goals must focus on a particular area of activity and
not be so broad as to be meaningless, e.g. “Reduce telephone
calls about closing dates by 50% by putting highly accurate,
clearly written, easily navigable information about closing dates
online”.
• Measurable. It should be possible to gauge when a Goal has
been achieved. For example, if a website Goal is to "increase
awareness”, the key measure will be public knowledge. A survey
can help establish if that has happened and how much of it was
due to the online campaign.
• Achievable. There is no point setting a Goal that cannot be
achieved, e.g. would the Goal “to increase revenue by 250%” be
achievable?