| Most
businesses Web sites, online catalogs, and business
documents have to do more than look pretty. They must
sell your products, support your customers, enhance
your reputation, and build your business. And your customers
have to find them easy to use, understand, and enjoy.
Time and time
again, we hear of companies and organizations that are
dissatisfied with the results being produced by their
Web site or other business technology. Typically we
find that the reason for the poor results is that they
have been unsuccessful in taking advantage of the many
business benefits a web site can offer. This is usually
not their fault. Quite frankly, we find that while many
of the web design firms can build fantastic looking
web sites, very few of them have the business expertise
and experience to design sites that will produce results
for their clients.
In fact: Most
of Today's Web Site Designs Actually Hinder Doing Business
on the Internet Most sites are designed and implemented
without a clear strategy and have not taken into consideration
many of the other essential aspects required for having
a successful Internet presence. Your Web site can be
the most effective brand-building device in your business
arsenal. That's because a Web site can do a much better
job of building relationships than any other form of
marketing communication with your customers.
But what's effective
on the Web? After three years of watching the "worldwide"
Web branding experiment, I've developed some guidelines
that can take your customer relationships to new levels.
Be True to Your Brand Many companies use "gimmick
appeal" to attract site visitors. This includes
such things as games, contests, and screen savers that
have no connection to what the company does or its style
of doing business. These gimmicks are similar to offering
coupons or discounts — they can cause a brief
spike in traffic but don't deepen customer loyalty.
Be Relevant
and Engaging
In general, visitors to your home page are not very
interested in reading about your company structure or
why you are No. 1 in the market. Instead, by identifying
and clearly presenting the information they are looking
for, you can provide visitors with an experience that
rewards them for the time they spend on your site. They
also would like to experience the unique business style
or personality of your company. Does your Web site reflect
your tone and manner, your point of view, and what makes
you unique?
Provide
Branded Interactive Value
A relevant and engaging Web site falls under the larger
concept of "branded interactive value." Site
visitors want to know how you are going to add value
to their professional or personal lives. For instance,
several companies have affiliate logo graphics placed
at the bottom of their home pages that click through
to the affiliate's Web page. By affiliating with other
services, companies create a customer bonding opportunity.
Unfortunately, most logos click to information that
has little relevance to building the value of a company's
brand. A great example of an affiliation that builds
a brand relationship between a company and an affiliate
can be seen on the Dell Computer home page. When parents
click on the GetNetWise logo at the bottom of the page,
they go to useful and compelling information on safe
Internet practices for kids, which includes a safety
guide, how to report trouble, and sections on Web sites
for kids. The "branded" in branded interactive
value means that whatever you provide on your site for
visitors is in alignment with your brand strengths.
Add Brand-Relevant
Sponsored Content to Your Web Arsenal
"Sponsored content" offers something of value
that is not directly related to your product or service.
Here's how Web marketers use sponsored content to raise
awareness about their brands. Miller Brewing Company
turned its long-term Super Bowl sponsorship into a sponsored-content
win by creating a linked site in conjunction with ESPN
Internet, called Superbowl.com. While the site is about
the Super Bowl, it is chock-full of Miller's brand imagery.
The result was 8 million unique visitors in a single
month vs. the fewer than 250,000 visitors Miller received
at its own Web site. Because of Miller's long-term brand
association with professional sports, this site helped
to reinforce the connection and encourage consumption
of its product during sporting events.
Use the
Real World to Enhance Your On-Site Brand
"Off-site/on-site branding" uses the real
world to build Web brands. Recreational equipment retailer
REI recently reported that it is selling more through
its Web site than in all its stores combined. But a
major source of online sales was through its in-store
kiosks. healthshop.com used runners dressed in healthshop.com
outfits to hand out packages of vitamin C drinks to
San Francisco customers. The packages were printed with
details on how customers could enter an online contest
for a sweepstakes drawing. Customers could also send
their friends to the same site so they could have a
chance to enter too. Thirty runners delivered 125,000
packages over several days, which resulted in a response
rate that far exceeded the typical 3-in-1,000 banner
ad click-through rate and also helped the company build
brand awareness.
Off-site/on-site
branding does not require a huge ad budget. Consider
trading banner ad space on your site for kiosk space
in your store, walking though a favorite park or busy
city street with sandwich boards, or using other low-cost
guerrilla advertising tactics to point people to your
site and enhance their understanding of your brand.
Effective online branding does not require big budgets,
just an understanding of what brand attributes you are
trying to build. By making every Web transaction brand-relevant
and providing your customers with brand-based value,
you will increase the depth and stickiness of your customer
relationships.
We Can
Make Your Internet Business A Success
Our web maximization consultation will perform a thorough
review of an existing site and make recommendations
that will transform it into a more successful site.
Our review will ensure that your site incorporates proven
business and Internet techniques that will allow you
to:
- support the
business goals and strategies for your company or
organization
- promote your
company or organization and initiate dialogue with
existing and potential customers
- help your organization
communicate more effectively and work more efficiently
integrate with your other business processes and marketing
campaigns
- meet your revenue
goals
In developing
a web, you'll create information which will help you
while accomplishing the web development processes. Here
are the elements of information: Audience information
is a store of knowledge about the target audience for
the web as well as the actual audience who uses the
information. The purpose statement is an articulation
of the reason for and scope of the web's existence.
The objectives list flows from the purpose statement
and defines the specific goals the web should accomplish.
The domain information is a collection of knowledge
and information about the subject domain the web covers,
both in terms of information provided to users of the
web and information the web developers need. The web
specification is a detailed description of the constraints
and elements that will go into the web. The web presentation
is the means by which the information is delivered to
the user.
Personalization
Forrester Research reveals that Personalized Content/Communications
is 36% responsible for driving loyalty and repeat purchases.
Does your current site have this?
After Computer
eCommerce personalization experts collaborate with you
to identify the kind of information that you need to
gain from your customer and the kind of relevant information
that your customers need to have, we'll design a personalized
system for your customers. Customer profiles can be
in-depth (as is usually the case for internal employees,
partners, B2B relationships and best customers) or they
can come from minimal data such as clickstream analysis.
Drive loyalty and repeat purchases.
Make a phone call
or send an email today to get more information. |
