I know you know, by now, that very many businesses in Kenya is thinking or has thought about getting online. Unfortunately, a lot of them simply just get an expensive website and fail to achieve anything significant via their internet efforts. Why is it so? This happens because many people think that once they have a website, things will suddenly magically happen.
Let’s take the example of a coffee farmers co-operative union who want to try and sell their coffee at better prices by using a website to reach customers directly. Nice strategy, ama? So what do the farmers do? They hire a ‘web designer’ who charges them Kshs 25,000/- for a nice flashy website (sadly most so called ‘web designers’ will not even make you a nice website). The farmers receive their website with glee and sit back and wait. Three months later, they are still sitting, and waiting. A while later still, they are still waiting, and waiting…
A website will not work for you untill you understand why you are getting it. Before you even get the website, you should think about:
- Who is your target customer?
- Is he/she online?
- How can you reach him online?
- Is it possible to get other customers (who may not be initially people that you target) using the Internet?
- How else can being online help the business?
Once you answer these or similar questions comprehensively, you will be in a better position to make a successful website. You will understand that a website is just a tool in your overall internet strategy.
I so get this. Most people tend to think that a website will really give them that push into the market, all along forgetting that they actually need to promote the website and get readership up. I like the example you gave! So maybe you can follow up and give a few hints on increasing readership for your website? Many people have no idea what to do.