1. WEB WORK
DOES YOUR BRAND
MAKE A GOOD
FIRST IMPRESSION?
INDELIBLE
3 KEYS TO
BUILDING
A BETTER
BRAND
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Website
2. “Designisa funny word.Some people
thinkdesign means howit looks.
But ofcourse,if you dig deeper,
it’sreallyhow it works.”
STEVE JOB S
3. Website is
a Bad Word
IT USED TO BE THAT YOUR WEBSITE was just a location
on the Internet that people visited for basic information. Websites
were like pamphlets, with pages and pages of static copy and
images. People navigated them based on hierarchical sitemaps
that worked like the table of contents in a book. Blogging was
about the most dynamic thing that happened online.
These days, a number of studies show that people
are about 2/3 of the way to making a decision before
they talk to a real person or step in to a meeting.
The power and complexity of how people use the
Internet is massive topic, but what we know for sure
is that it’s hard to overstate the importance of your
website. It is often your first and most frequent
impression—your best chance to show people who
you are and what you have to offer.
In short, websites are no longer simply sites.
Given all they are asked to do—branding, marketing,
ecommerce, customer service, media relations,
talent recruitment and more—they have become
rich, complex interactive experiences, like museums
or amusement parks. And with everything that users
now demand from a website, designing and building
them calls for a creative mix of art, architecture,
psychology, technology and development.
But the ultimate goal is simple: to create an experi-
ence that meets both your business goals and the
user’s needs, so you both are happy with the how
the site performs and what it delivers.
This may sound easy, but it’s not. There is a huge
gap between sites that achieve this goal and help
to transform companies, and sites that may look
nice but are essentially flashy relics of websites
past. They don’t understand the business, and they
don’t speak to the user, so they do little more than
create passing interest.
This guide will help you understand the keys to
building a website that works that works for you.
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5. Know Your
True Colors
THE FIRST QUESTIONS MOST PEOPLE
want answered when they come to your website
are: “Who are you? Why should I want to do
business with you.”
The first step to connecting with your users is to
know your brand fundamentals. For instance, how
accurately can you answer the following questions
(and will your colleagues agree with you)?
» What is your value proposition?
» What is your positioning within the marketplace?
» What is your brand personality—your style, tone,
look and feel?
» Who are your target audiences?
» What is your brand messaging?
Truly thinking through your brand identity allows
you to express it simply, precisely and coherently,
which is the only way to be compelling in the
digital landscape. This is the foundation of a
successful website.
If you don’t know your true colors, then how will
others find you interesting? Brands with a weak
or confused notion of their own identity end up
the wallflowers of the marketplace. They may
have lots to offer, but no one pays attention.
TRULY THINK THROUGH
YOUR BRAND IDENTITY.
#1#
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7. Break
the Mold
PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS OFTEN ASK
if we can build them a website based on a
template to reduce costs. This approach has
its place, but it’s not something we do.
Why not?
Companies and brands strive at every touchpoint
to distinguish themselves. Being competitive in
a crowded marketplace requires differentiation.
So why would you opt to constrain your individuality
from the start, while also building on a foundation
that was either designed for some other purpose
(like showcasing photography) or that has been
used by many others. It might seem like cheaper,
faster solution, but eventually it will cost you as
your brand falters and fails to meet expectations.
These design and branding limitations are minor
compared to the much bigger problem of providing
the user with an intuitive experience. Templates
make it very difficult to place yourself in the user’s
shoes and develop intuitive pathways—the right
sequence of content and clicks—that lead to a
desired outcome, whether that means making a
purchase, making a phone call, or just persuading
someone to think a different way.
User-centric design and development is nearly
impossible to do well based on a template. It’s like
trying to create a round peg from a square mold.
TEMPLATES MAKE IT
VERY DIFFICULT TO
PLACE YOURSELF IN
YOUR USER’S SHOES.
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8. “There’sno limit to how complicated
thingscan get,on account of one thing
alwaysleading to another.”
E.B . WHITE
9. Content First DOES YOUR CURRENT WEBSITE
seem outdated and out-of-touch? In addition
to looking old and tired, has it developed
a sort of Frankenstein feel?
Maybe things have been tacked on here or there
to accommodate a new service offering, marketing
effort or branding campaign. Possibly there’s a
languishing blog no one has time write for—or a
news section that was launched with great ambition
in 2012 but has been collecting dust ever since.
If you’re website feels a little like your grandparents’
attic, you have a content problem, and it’s surely
even worse than you think. Stale content is one
thing, but ineffective content is a much bigger
and even more common problem.
What do we mean by content? It’s funny that
people talk about content as if it’s some kind of
revelation. Is anyone surprised that a good way
to get a person’s attention is to present them with
an informative, entertaining combination of words
and pictures on a topic that interests them?
Content has always been king. And in the online
world, it’s what your user interacts with on your
webpage every step of the way. Content IS user
experience. By far and away the number one key
to a successful site is how well you develop and
structure content in a way that meets your users
needs while also achieving your business goals.
When you put content first and make it an orga-
nizing principle of website design, it can be a real
eye-opener. And the more you know about your
users, the easier it is to streamline content and
design intuitive pathways through your site that
act like treasure maps. The content you’ve created
becomes subtle sign posts, guiding your users
to a place that benefits both of you.
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10. “It doesn’t matter how beautiful yourtheory is.
Itdoesn’tmatterhowsmartyouare.Ifitdoesn’t
agree with experiment,it’s wrong.”
RICHARD P. FEYNMAN, Nobel Prize-winning physicist
11. Track and
Improve
IT’S EXCITING TO LAUNCH a website and
tempting to think that the work is done, especially
after so much time and energy is invested in such
a big undertaking. But no matter how much thought
is applied on the front end, nothing beats live learning.
Now is the time to test the analyses and assumptions
that have been made throughout the project and
continue to hone design, content and functionality
to develop better user pathways and generate
better outcomes.
The list of analytics at your disposal to diagnose
your site’s performance is long, and that’s another
topic of conversation altogether. But the larger
point is that you need to be willing to experiment
and make changes.
In every area of your business, you work hard to
stay ahead of marketplace trends and dynamics—
your website should adapt with you. This is yet
one more reason to develop a flexible site that isn’t
boxed in by a template design or a clumsy content
management system.
YOU NEED TO BE WILLING
TO EXPERIMENT.
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12. “Whenever things go a bit sour in a job
I’mdoing,Ialwaystellmyself,‘Youcan
dobetterthan this.’”
THEODOR GEIS EL, DR. SEUSS
