Your website is your brand

by Allan Gorman

How's your website looking these days?

Proud of it? Does it set the standard for your industry?

Does it tell the story your customer wants to hear?

Are their things about your site that are helping you, or is it sabotaging your chances for building a really distinctive brand?


The web has changed the way people make choices, and it's opened our eyes to the way they might choose you.

I designed my first corporate site about a decade ago.

Back in those ancient times, we marketing people looked at the web as a new and novel medium for spreading the creative messages we'd traditionally been crafting for print, outdoor and tv.

To us, web sites were ads... and we'd look for ways to get around the frustrations and impossibilities of coding in order to create pages that were handsome and clever.
We looked at the web as an extension of the branding arsenal that paralleled all the other mediums we were using to market our clients' services and wares.

Then, after a year or so of analysis (we could track where people went), we started to see indicators that the web was unique. Users weren't necessarily interested in our versions of the story -- they wanted to craft their own. What web users wanted was useful and relevant information -- and not just fed to them through the linear and logical story-telling fashion we were used to.

Usage patterns taught us that to get more visitors and to get them to return, we'd need to provide more content and more options.

Now, as you all know, sites have grown more sophisticated and larger-- from just a few simple pages -- to content, content and more content.

And, somewhere in the drive to add content, the power of the web as a psychologically powerful influencer became overlooked.

Today, I'd like to consciously shift the pendulum back the other way. And address our original intent. To use the web as a way of introducing, supporting and building loyalty for your brand.


Our society has changed and the web has become the prime shopping tool.

From the mid 1950s through the early 1990s, television was the primary information medium and shopping influencer. If a product was advertised on tv... if a celebrity endorsed it... it would probably be favored over one that wasn't. Tv advertising was our word of mouth. If your product or service competed with a brand that was featured on tv, and yours wasn't, you'd probably be out of the game.

Now, for the most part, tv ads are considered baloney. Many are very entertaining, but we don't necessarily trust the line an advertiser feeds us anymore. And we know that there are plenty of alternative choices ñ who may not run tv ads -- that are just as good, or maybe better.

Now we have the internet! If we want information, we won't trust the advertiser. We'll go online, find out what we need to know and make our minds up for ourselves.

Now, the internet has become our major shopping influencer... the marketplace where the brand is made or broken. And a web site is no longer just a corporate brochure or shopping flyer...

It's also your brand!


Branding begins before the first page loads.

I define a successful brand as "an experience of delight". Anything less hurts your chances for success.

Start thinking about the user's experience of your site, and how much delight he's going to derive from being there.

Does he have to wait too long for your flash animations to load? Are the clips useful for telling your story, or just gratuitous pieces of art that say: "See how cool I am?. (If so, stop using them.)

Same for the design of your home page. Is it cool for the sake of coolness? Does it use all the trendiest fashion, styles and webtools at the expense of legibility and clarity? Or is it pleasant to look at, easy to understand and easy to navigate?


Who are you, and are you for me?

Your home page (or your flash page, if you insist on using one) is... for many... the first opportunity you'll have to make an impression for your company. Right off the bat, that
impression needs to be a great one.

This may be the only chance you get to tell your story. In an instant, it needs to reflect all the pride and all the passion that you'll deliver if the visitor chooses to work with you.

Tell him what you do, who you do it for and why you're the right choice. Don't make him work too hard to figure out your message or if it's one that's right for his needs.
Don't waste his time if he shouldn't be on your site. And certainly don't confuse or obscure your message for him if he should.

Make sure your page is professionally designed and handsome. I have a colleague who recently launched his new site and sent me an announcement. I looked at his URL and winced. Here was a marketing guru who was professing to help people set themselves apart,
yet had a website the was, well... just plug ugly. Would you even try a great tasting candy bar that was wrapped in a amateurishly designed package?

If you can't make a great first impression, best not to make one at all.


What will keep them interested in your site?
Make it easy to find their way around.
Stress what value they will receive by sticking around.

Think about your audience's experience at your site. Pretend you're giving them a tour of your offices or plant and want to impress them.

What do you think they'd want to see or know? In what order does it best make sense to present this information? How can you keep them interested and make it fun? (Keep in mind that what will impress them is the value they can see in what you're presenting, and how they might be able to apply your skills to their needs.)

The answer of what specific content to include will be different for each type of business, but at base should be a section that addresses each of the following topics...

-- an explanation of your product or service
-- highlights that make it unique
-- technical data and information/information about processes
-- profiles of typical users
-- success stories/case studies
-- endorsements
-- an assessment test to see if they might be able to benefit from what you're offering
-- a way to reduce risk of trial (free sample, trial, guarantee, value-added offers, etc.)
-- contact/order information

Navigation to these pages/sections should be easy and, at each stop, they should understand why you're sharing this information, what value it is to them and what to do next.


Give them a reason to return and/or become an ambassador for your brand

See if you can create relevant, interesting and involving self-assessments, puzzles, surveys or tests that will make their experience educational and interactive -- and that relate to your products and/or services.

Keeping them involved will keep them at your site longer. And if it costs nothing and is fun, they'll probably return and/or send others.

Add delight to your site, and build a brand that's right!

© 2007 Allan Gorman All rights reserved. Allan Gorman is author of the book: Briefs for Building Better Brands -- Tips Parables and Insights for Market Leaders and a frequent contributor to Diversity Plus Magazine. His company, Brandspa, is a Montclair, NJ based advertising agency and brand marketing consultancy that helps transform brands from commonplace to cool. http://www.brandspa.net