Your Web site is more than just a place to post information. It’s the hub of your entire branding effort that can increase your profitability, says Malcolm Wolter, director of interactive at BrandExtract.
“A Web site must be purpose-driven,” says Wolter. “It should make those viewing it want to buy something, ask another question, or contact your support team. It should drive the user to do something, and that has to be planned from the beginning. This requires an understanding of what your audience wants and then building your site around this, as opposed to having a user just look at your Web site and say, ‘Hey, that’s pretty cool’ and move on.”
Smart Business spoke with Wolter about how a Web site can strengthen your brand and help you cut costs and increase revenue.
What mistakes do businesses make with their Web sites?
Too many companies do brochure sites, translating their corporate brochure to the Web, which comes across as just a list of the things they do without a business purpose to it. They tend to concentrate more on features and benefits, which is more of a tactical discussion, than on a higher level of a strategic message that communicates the main value proposition. A visitor comes to your site because of a need he or she has. Your site better be able to quickly convey that your company has what the visitor wants, why you’re indispensable and why the user should choose you. And that decision is often made at a higher level than what features and benefits you offer and their cost.
You should be doing business on your site. That doesn’t necessarily mean e-commerce. You should be generating leads, using it as a sales tool that elicits a predefined action. Of all the marketing opportunities a company has, its Web site is uniquely active, a place to engage and interact with customers.
How do you get started creating an effective site?
You have to determine exactly what you are hoping to accomplish with your Web site, such as increasing sales revenue or decreasing costs. Understand your goals as a business and understand what your audience needs, and make sure both of those are being met. Other factors to consider are:
- What are you trying to accomplish with your brand?
- How are you trying to position yourself?
Then make sure your site reflects this not only in the messaging that you provide, but also in the imagery and the entire user experience. Every button, every statement, every link, every paragraph and every picture should have a purpose, both in positioning and from an experience standpoint. Look at your site as if you’re hiring the best representative of your company. Does it represent what you want in the marketplace? Sites create first impressions for your company. If you use bad photography, or don’t respond to requests, or make the site difficult to navigate through, you can actually damage your brand.
Another good starting place is to use analytics tools to evaluate traffic trends and study abandonment rates. If people aren’t responding to your call to action, the offer may not be compelling enough or it may simply need to be moved to a more visible position. If no one ever visits certain pages, you need to rethink how information is being presented. Both of these scenarios are solvable, but you can’t fix them if you don’t know they’re problems. The use of analytics can quantitatively pinpoint how effectively you’re meeting customers’ and prospects’ information needs.
How can you ensure that your site remains effective?
People who visit your site need a reason to keep coming back, which means it’s important to continually add and update content. It doesn’t create a good impression if you have old information on your Web site. If it hasn’t been refreshed in three years, it begs the question of what’s going on with this company.
Also, be sure that you can support what you’re putting on your site. If you include a news and events section, make sure you are updating it frequently. If your contact form says you will respond within 24 hours, make sure that you do. You have to deliver on the brand promises you make, because every action — or inaction — impacts how a user thinks about your organization.
How can an effective Web site benefit a company’s bottom line?
On just about any Web site, there are savings to be had and revenue to be generated. Your site can increase your profitability, either by cutting costs, increasing revenue or both. An effective site can influence purchasing decisions, cut costs in recruiting and cut costs in support. You can’t accomplish that with a brochure site that simply tells who you are and what you do.
A surprising number of companies haven’t made this connection yet. They think they need a Web site only for visibility, or because people expect them to have a Web site, or for credibility. Those are important things, but they are only a small part. There are many other components to a site that can, and do, impact your bottom line.
Malcolm Wolter is director of interactive at BrandExtract. Reach him at (713) 942-7959 or [email protected].