Mais conteúdo relacionado 10 Key Ingredients of a Modern Brand Website1. THE 10 KEY INGREDIENTS OF A
MODERN BRAND WEBSITE
IQ Agency
December 2013
Copyright © 2012 by IQ Agency
Copyright © 2013 by IQ Agency
2. YOUR BRAND WEBSITE IS MORE
THAN EVER THE HEART OF YOUR
BRAND ECOSYSTEM
Copyright © 2013 by IQ Agency
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3. “Brand websites are now the second most
trusted form of advertising, second only
to recommendations from people I know”
!
2013 “Trust in Advertising” report from Nielsen
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!
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This is a clarion call to all marketers to get their website up-to-scratch or
risk becoming irrelevant to the modern consumer.
!
Here then is a list of the 10 most important ingredients that an effective
brand website today must have.
!
!
Copyright © 2013 by IQ Agency
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4. KNOW WHAT YOU
ARE GOING TO DO
AND WHY IT IS
GOING TO WORK,
BEFORE YOU START.
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5. !
1. STRATEGY
A website only works if it’s built on strategy. Good strategy sets clear
expectations for what a website can and should achieve. It is the
foundational work which connects and directs all tactics.
!
Strategy should bring together a comprehensive understanding of the
brand, the competition and the consumer. It is only in understanding
how all these forces influence sales that you can know how to convert
prospects and grow customers.
!
The brand website is the heart of todays complex Consumer Decision
Journey*. It is the one place where a brand can completely control the
presentation of a value proposition and make it’s most compelling case.
!
!
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*McKinsey & Company
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7. 2. FOCUSED USER EXPERIENCE (UX)
Technology and supply chain efficiency used to be areas where brands could
beat their competition. Today they are basic expectations. Now the
battlefield is the experience consumers have with your brand at every
interaction.
!
Consumers come to your site with expectations. The challenge is to identify
what they are and then exceed them. This is where good strategy work will
have given you the insights you need to craft the right experience.
!
Whether someone comes to your site to explore or accomplish a task, your
job is to make the experience easy and valuable. That’s why the science and
art of user experience (UX) is essential. It helps design a site that unfolds
effortlessly in a compelling, relevant, personalized experience. That’s what it
takes today to convert prospects and strengthen bonds with existing
customers.
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8. Copyright © 2013 by IQ Agency
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JOIN THE
CONVERSATION.
IT’S GOING TO
HAPPEN ANYWAY
9. 3. SOCIAL INTEGRATION
Social interactions and content bring your brand credibility, activate your
community and amplify your brand. They attract search through SEO and
include everything social from simple integrations to ratings & reviews.
!
Companies used to shy away from the associated risks of exposing and
enabling consumers to talk. But today the risk of not doing it far outweighs
any risks involved. Not only does lack of transparency set up potential trust
issues, but if you are not influencing the conversation, your competition is.
!
Your brand website should be where you not only enable conversations, but
inspire them with relevant, compelling content. Combined with good SEO
this will make your website a magnet for interested consumers.
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10. PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR
ANSWERS. MAKE SURE YOURS
ARE EASY TO FIND.
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11. 4. SEO
Search Engine Optimization makes your website, and more importantly the
content within it, findable. It’s an art and a science. Every page and every
piece of content needs to be optimized to your maximum advantage. That
means keeping up with the latest search engine developments like Google
Hummingbird, which recently changed the game again.
!
SEO is the cheapest marketing when compared to just about everything else
you can do. So remember every time someone discovers your content
through SEO, it is one ad or cost-per-click you don’t have to buy.
!
For SEO to be truly valuable you have to have content on your site that
people will be searching for. That means investing in compelling content that
will attract viewers and that people will share.
!
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13. 5. ANALYTICS
The days of not knowing which half of your advertising is working are gone.
Now you need to gather and understand as much data as you can. Analytics
don’t replace inspiration or insights, instead they create them.
!
It’s important to understand that analytics are not the same as metrics.
Metrics tell you how you’ve already done, but analytics tell you what to do
next. The many analytics software packages available, such as Google
analytics, will actually feed you metrics, albeit in an easy to consume form.
!
What they don’t do is tell you what those metrics mean, and what you should
do as a result of them. This is the work of analysts. An analyst works with a
strategy team to figure out what past performance says about where to go
next. Good analytics insights reveal actionable consumer insights that might
have been hidden and competitive opportunities that suddenly appear.
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14. YOU WANT A MARKETING
MACHINE? COMING UP...
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15. 6. MARKETING AUTOMATION
Every company has dreamed of marketing and sales having the same
predictability as their other business processes. Marketing automation
software takes that a big step closer.
!
The software integrates with your website and other digital marketing
channels. It allows you to track the activity of individual customers, and in
many cases prospects, not only on your website, but also across the entire
digital spectrum, including email, blogs, search and social media. It is
especially valuable if you have a large database of customers and prospects
with email addresses. It enables personalized, automated email marketing
and integrates with many CRM systems.
!
These systems are very powerful and can be enormously effective when
integrated into a website. However they are dependent on the on-going flow
of compelling content and smart management of the system.
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17. 7. LANDING PAGES
A website shouldn’t live alone. It should always be part of an integrated
marketing strategy. The idea is that other marketing, both digital and
traditional should drive consumers to the site, where you can present your
most compelling value proposition.
!
Every time someone clicks to go to the site from another location, such as an
ad or an email, they should go to a landing page instead of your home page.
This is because landing pages allow you to tailor a visitor’s first impression
based on what you already know about them, such as their point of origin.
!
Landing pages are part of a user experience strategy focused on personal
relevance, which is one of the key elements of persuasion. Tailored landing
pages are how you begin a compelling personalized experience.
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19. 8. MOBILE
Soon, most people will view your site on a mobile device of some kind. Your
site should therefore be designed to work optimally on every mobile device.
This means you have to navigate whether to use Responsive Web Design,
which creates a web experience that adapts to the device it is being viewed
on, or to create native apps for different device platforms.
!
Unlike Responsive websites, native apps allow you to use the built-in
capabilities of the phone, such as the location services. Either way you need
to offer a flawless mobile experience that fits what the user will be doing.
!
As with most of the other choices a brand is faced with as they design their
website, the answers come out of a comprehensive strategy process.
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21. 9. CUSTOMER SERVICE
The experience of your website should reflect your brand’s attitude towards
customer service, which is a key consideration for consumers. You are either
an easy brand to work with or you’re not. If your website is difficult and
unfriendly you can understand why people might think doing business with
you is the same.
!
Customer service capabilities should therefore be built into your site. These
include everything from instant chat, fast call backs, intuitive search, and
email contact. You probably have many of these already. But understanding
the evaluation process prospects go through and the tasks customers are
trying to accomplish will help you choose which how to shape the nature of
the customer experience with each of the tools at your disposal.
!
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22. CONTENT DOES ALL
THE REAL WORK.
EVERYTHING ELSE
JUST DELIVERS IT.
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23. 10. CONTENT
Last but not least comes content. Content is the lynchpin of modern
marketing in digital channels, and your website is just a vehicle for
organizing and presenting it.
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Consumers have figured out that they are no longer a captive audience for
advertising. So instead they are looking for content that makes them smarter
and/or entertains them. That content can be a video, an article, or even an
interactive tool.
!
In the end, however, it is how you are being judged. There’s already a lot of
content out there, so if yours is not original, engaging and valuable, people
will ignore it. Even if everything else on your website is perfect, content will
still be the difference between success and failure. It is what search engines
will value and it will activate your social networks. It will be the basis of a
relationship started and the trust that is cultivated.
!
Once you have the infrastructure of your marketing ecosystem in place, of
which your website is a key piece, an ongoing flow of content will become the
fuel that ignites the brand engine and keeps it running.
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24. IQ IS AN AWARD-WINNING DIGITAL AGENCY
We develop the strategies that result in truly integrated marketing. We
then execute those strategies with everything from websites, to mobile
apps, content creation, advertising or whatever else is required.
!
Our mission is to first understand the best way to achieve our clients
goals. Only then do we turn to tactics. Strategy is the underpinnings of
everything we do because we believe that unless you have the right
strategy, it doesn’t matter how good your tactics are.
For more information please call
Kevin Smith at 678-449-2014
or visit www.iqagency.com
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