Website platform options

From an online brochure to encyclopedic domain expertise to an e-commerce site, your website is a pretty essential starting point for your marketing. However, there is a shift in terminology towards having a 'Hub Property'. This may be what we have known as a website, probably designed and built on one of the Content Management Systems (CMS) or platforms, although in some cases the BLOG or the FACEBOOK PAGE could perform the function of a 'Hub Property' for smaller businesses or small projects.

There are a number of objectives that a website could achieve, depending on the organisation and the marketing and sales processes. Combining this with the level of sophistication, the following provides a generalised outline.

Website - Entry level

This could be a typical 'online brochure' site outlining what the business does, and what problems it solves. Content is displayed that conveys this to the reader, and also to get the website found in the search engines. Getting targeted traffic to the website is one of the biggest challenges. There are many online and offline ways to do this, the key being to get targeted traffic cost and time effectively. 

For these reasons some businesses are now using Blog and Facebook pages as their 'Hub properties' as these have an inbuilt advantage when it comes to them being 'found'. One key aspect of a website or hub property is to engage with the visitor in some way, whether this is by encouraging them to leave their email address, or to subscribe to a Blog or to 'like' and comment on Facebook. 

There are many Free and Low cost CMS platforms particularly from the Open Source community, Blog platform like Wordpress and Social Media platform such as Facebook available that would meet most mainstream requirements at this entry level. 

One approach is to identify a Web Hosting company that provides a suite of applications that can be easily installed within the hosting contract. This Site, for example is hosted by Midphase, and built on the RVSiteBuilder tool-kit which is easy to use if a bit limited in flexibility. However there is also the choice to install the Wordpress platform, which we have done, and also SugarCRM and many other applications and tools.

Website - Intermediate level

Increasing the website or hub property content, function, user engagenent, findability and navigation, accessibility, moves it up from being an online brochure to being a more critical part of the marketing and sales infrastructure. At this level there may be some KPIs assigned to the website, such as number of visitors, number of email subscribers added, and there may be some restricted access content for customers or partners but not for general access. Management of the website moves from being an adhoc occasional activity to something that is done on an active and ongoing basis, particularly adding new content to sustain the search engine rankings.

At this level the commercial website platforms or Open Source but with a commercial support contract, have been dominant. As a typical second generation website a design company may be involved. Project costs increase significantly as the level of function and integration increases. 

At this level some 'Website Plus' systems appear, such as SiteCore with its Marketing Suite and Business Catalyst with its marketing and e-commerce capability. The selection challenge is often between a solid commercial CMS platform plus some bespoke work, an open source platform plus integration and support work and a configurable package including business functionality. Each will have advantages and considerations that need to be identified and weighed up.  

Website - Advanced level 

When the website is performing a level of financial transactions that are a significant part of teh revenue of the business then an advanced level approach is needed. The technology platform needs to be robust as there will probably be a high level of integration with other applications such as payment processing and inventory and dispatch facilities.   

Identification of a supplier at this level may well be done formally through a procurement process involving a Request for Information (RFI), a written bid, site references and similar due diligence. 

With an increasing range of integrated platforms offering many additional applications and tools there are more strategic choices to make. 

In large organisations at least, the website has evolved from being a technical tool 'owned' by IT, to being a marketing tool, 'owned' marketing either with IT support or via an external marketing agency. There should be technical support and disaster recovery plans in place. 

Increasingly the website is a platform for delivering a whole spectrum of communications to many audiences. Audiences include customers, prospects, partners and staff. Business functions and processes delivered through the web include branding, lead generation, sales support, customer support, logistics, repairs, and many other functions specific to different sectors.

Secondly, with all these various interests at work the choice of supplier route becomes interesting. At the core is who will provide the integration of all the software and the underlying data. Will it be the in-house IT department? Will it be an external consultant or systems integrator? Or will it be the hosting provider?

It is the latter group, the hosting providers, that are now coming forward.

Website - platform trends

Over the next few years I anticipate a significant growth in Hosted or Cloud delivered, On-demand, Software as a Service and Platform as a Service propositions. This will be driven by providers who are looking to add value above a basic hosting service, which has rapidly become commoditised, and customers who no longer want to pay large sums for integration and support.