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Opinion
Talking back! - relationship building on the web
Vanessa Lanham, managing director of Surrey's CProject, looks at the increasing opportunities for companies eager to integrate the marketing of their services through the internet.
For any expanding business, there is no more exciting phrase than 'unfulfilled potential'. And even now, those words go hand-in-hand with the internet.
Over the last few years the job of communications professionals has been to encourage businesses to recognise the potential of the internet by taking important first steps. Now, with the medium well and truly established as mainstream, the opportunity has changed.
The question is no longer: "Are we on the web?" but: "Why are we on the web?"
In reality, most company websites are still largely static; just e-versions of their existing print-based marketing materials — a passive, lifeless approach which serves only to satisfy their own need to feel part of the electronic revolution. A website that presents basic information is no more effective as a marketing tool than a business card in a huge shop window. The time has come for every firm to fully exploit the investment they have made in their website.
I run the risk of teaching my peers — if not my Grandmother — to suck eggs if I use this opportunity to describe some sort of formulaic approach to creating an instantly sparkling and interactive site. There's no single simple solution and, to coin a well-hackneyed phrase, every client's needs are different and so too should every website be.
However, there are some guiding principles that are worth restating.
Something for everyone
Not least of these is to understand that websites attract visitors for a truly wide range of reasons. From the first steps of a potential client needing to know if you can provide what they need, to well-known contacts simply looking for a direct email link, or a set of directions to your office.
For sure, one audience may predominate in terms of objectives and strategy — and I've yet to come across a business that doesn't want their site to create new business — but to fail to meet the expectations of multiple audiences is really to miss the point. This is the only medium I know where there can genuinely be something for everyone — the challenge is to meet all of these needs fast and effectively.
Which brings me on to creating an effective approach to navigation. Modern architecture in the construction industry works on the principle of 'intuitive way finding' and websites should function in the same manner. Simplicity is genius. Your users should be provided with such clear links that deciding where to go next is almost instinctive. And, unlike a building, the internet allows people to get wherever they need to be in a second, straight from the front door.
Selling potential
If we ignore the needs of e-commerce, or providing back office database customer support, we can concentrate on the needs of the site as a marketing tool. From my experience, this is the area where clients need the most support in realising the opportunities available to them. Throughout my working life my brand of communications has been about helping clients get a specific message, to a specific audience — or audiences — at a specific time. Corporate publishing in its printed form is a superb tool for just this.
Yet, when it comes to the web, clients often have little ambition other than to create a site essentially just giving their corporate brochure online. This is a passive response, and the client loses all control of the audience, the message and the timing. What do we do — just sit back and wait for the search engines to do their job?
Of course everyone acknowledges the need for a news section — but all too rarely the need to have a system in place which is kept up to date! — and there is also the inevitable newsletter PDF download option. But this only scratches the surface and results in a largely passive site that, once visited, offers little reason for return.
The site should be an end in itself and not just an electronic middleman. Indeed, more than that, the site should be at the very centre of your communications strategy — the most powerful tool in the box. I believe websites should be highly proactive, by blending core information — background to the company that rarely changes — with a major focus on fluid areas that are constantly being reviewed and updated.
This gives the website real purpose by making it a vehicle for sharing what your company stands for; opinions, news, features, speaker notes, conference materials, industry news, technical studies. It should be a Pandora's box full of treasures and resources your audience will value; not just an opportunity to shout about how great you are — the equivalent of a company rep shouting at the world with a megaphone!
My personal aim at CProject has been to eradicate two specific phrases from my clients' and contacts' repertoires; 'I didn't know you did that' and 'if only you'd called last week'.
For anyone involved in new business development this should be music to your ears. Your website can provide 101 good reasons to talk to your clients and contacts, without having to revert to making those dreadful 'just keeping in contact' calls; we all know you hate making them and your contacts hate receiving them. How much better to be able to say, 'I thought you'd be interested in seeing our latest article on XYZ — I think it fits exactly with what you are trying to achieve...'
I certainly don't intend to sit and wait for clients to come and visit my company site. There is a clear responsibility to maintain a high level of interesting content — the exit option will soon look all too appealing if we fail to offer editorial value to our readers, rather like filing a poor company newsletter or magazine in the bin.
Ongoing management
Critical to this whole approach is commitment to ongoing editorial update and management. Having a great website on launch day is key. But having an even more exciting website one or two years down the line is the greater challenge.
Consider the practicalities of drawing together regular changing content; opinion pieces, editorial, competitions, press and news — how many sites have you seen recently where the last 'news' item was dated April 2001? Few clients have the time or skills in-house to ensure the website is maintained at a 100% level all year round and this is where a proactive client-agency partnership works most effectively, with communications professionals having the responsibility to keep their eye on the ball full time.
This positive relationship enables client and agency to combine expertise and to plan a long-term web strategy in the context of a total communications picture.
So, egg sucking aside, let's work together to debunk the mystique of internet communications. The internet has come of age and has earned its place as a reliable, plannable and incredibly dynamic part of the mainstream marketing and communications armoury.
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Vanessa Lanham is managing director of CProject. She can be contacted on: (01483) 862604 or vanessa@cproject.co.uk
