According to Jonathan Lines, marketing director at DGM,”The department which owns client communications should own the website; its language should reflect the brand.” A website acts as a window through which anyone can view a company. It should therefore be the most customer-orientated piece of communication which the company owns.
Other departments should contribute to the website’s development and have responsibility for updating their own sections of the site, but the marketing department should have overall control.
First things first
As with any other marketing communication, companies must first work out what they want their websites to do. “People always start by worrying about the technology,” says Chris Wilson, head of B2B at Loewy, “but it’s so easy and cheap now that you should set the site’s objectives first.” The website can be primarily for driving enquiries, informing customers or selling products and services. Marketers should identify the target audience and then construct the site to be of most help to them. Wilson from Loewy again: “Journey planning is a relatively new exercise in the B2B arena, although B2C companies have been using it for a while.”
Once you’ve decided the site’s objectives and audience you start working out information and functionality, ie. what the site should say and what users will be able to do on it. At the very least you need to include details about the company, what it does, its products or services plus contact details, including email (contact forms are unpopular), phone, fax and address.
A small, newly-launched business might be looking for investors, so it could have an investors’ page; B2B businesses might need different pages for different size business customers, etc. The site’s functionality depends very much on the business and could include product searches, purchasing tools, account access or tracking systems. Online marketing information and activities should complement those offline. Don’t merely lift chunks of information from brochures; rewrite it for the different medium. Users take in information more slowly online, prefer text in small chunks and are reluctant to scroll.
What to include
Opinions differ about the amount of information companies should provide. Matt Butterworth, managing director at Folk, says: “For a marketing function I believe that you only provide a limited amount of information to drive the user to ask for more.”
On the other hand Tony Cavallo, new media manager of Houston Associates PR says: “Product-based companies should offer clickable images of the product with bullet points of key features in a language a customer can understand. Service-based ones should concentrate on benefits and differentiation from its competitors.”
News, case studies, press exposure and testimonials all help credibility – providing they are updated frequently. Wilson of Loewy again: “Make sure that the site is amended at least every couple of weeks and advertise the fact on your home page.” To maintain interest, website managers must ensure that information changes frequently or customers have no reason to revisit the site. Implement a good intelligence system so that you can tell where site visitors came from, what they were looking for, what they did in fact look at and where they left the site. Such analysis is vital for shaping future online strategy.
Customers return most frequently to websites which offer something more than merely information. Mark Brewerton, managing director of Total Marketing Solutions, advises: “Use the website to give something back to your customers – a free advice guide, online discounts, etc.” One website for a training provider has online skills assessment to guide visitors to suitable courses; an online bank provides a calculator; the site of a professional society, downloadable factsheets, etc. Matthew Tod chief executive of Logan Tod says: “Ask visitors to register in return for access to your best content – the people who do are your best leads.”
Don’t keep the customer waiting
Speed and simplicity are key. If a visitor has to wait ages or download a particular plug-in, they won’t stay. Brewerton of Total Marketing Solutions comments: “Customers should never be more than two clicks away from where they want to be. Anything more than that acts as a barrier between your company and your customers’ needs.”
The site’s appearance must complement the written content, not get in the way of it. Spencer Gallagher, managing director of Bluhalo says: “HTML-based sites are more suited to companies whose website changes frequently or is used for ebusiness. Flash-based websites allow a dynamic presentation of products or marketing messages. Combine the two for rich-managed content with dynamic presentation.” Cavallo of Houston Associates adds: “Remember Flash is a tool to achieve an effect, not an end in itself. It can have drawbacks in terms of load time and searchability.”
If you have someone in the company who understands how websites work as marketing tools then construct the site in-house. If you don’t, then get advice. “Remember that IT specialists don’t necessarily understand business,” says Cavallo. Finding and vetting a specialist is very much like sourcing any other service. Ask around, get recommendations, look at your competitors’ sites and find out who has created ones which you like and find helpful.
Once you have a list, talk to web development companies; reputable ones offer free initial consultations. “Good web developers will begin by finding out what the client needs, which is not necessarily the same as what he wants!” says Cavallo of Houston Associates. Look at sites they’ve created and their own site. If you don’t like them, consider whether you’ll like what they produce for you.
“Companies may need help to get it started but should run the website themselves,” says Tod of Logan Tod. An agency builds the framework which companies update and manage on their own using a content management system. Suitable software costs about £1000 per year.
“Don’t buy a template which can be populated with information,” says Cavallo of Houston Associates. “If you’re going to spend your limited budget on web design then buy something bespoke.” Wilson of Loewy adds: “Get a demo of the admin screen. It must be easy for anyone deputed to update.”
Over the past year there has been a growing trend for companies to recruit new media managers to head up their online business strategy. SMEs probably don’t have the resources for a specialist but should still consider the website as a marketing activity and approach it with the same thought and rigour. Cavallo of Houston Associates comments: “The site is an ambassador for the company. It must be friendly, easily approachable, deliver the right message and allow the user to respond without any obligation.”
As Tod of Logan Tod says: “Websites have the ability to generate more leads and cut marketing expenses but so few B2B businesses use them well.”
