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Does Your Web Site Sound Like You?
February 29, 2008
Three expert tips for marketers and Web designers to
make corporate Web sites tell a better sounding story
By Arthur Germain
Your company web site has just gone through a major overhaul. You've refreshed the 70's-era logo that the founder's wife loved, updated your colors and typeface and your Web design team has integrated some Java applets to enable interactive features for site visitors. All in all, your Web site now reflects the corporate image you want to portray—it looks like you.
But does your web site sound like you?
What I mean is, does the content on your web site reflect your brand story today? Or is it just a reflowed version of the content that existed on your old brochures? Are you greeting your site visitors with a tone that reflects your corporate personality? Are you using terms that are "in-house" or your-department-lingo?
It may be that content was not the top priority during your branding initiative. And when visitors come to your site, chances are they'll discover content that hasn't been updated to reflect the real you.
Here are three expert tips for marketers and Web designers to make corporate Web sites tell a better sounding story:
Tip No. 1: Sell it the way your customer wants to buy it.
You may like calling your product an "air and brush-driven consumer cleaning technology" but your customers call it a vacuum. Use the names they're looking for when they come to your Web site. Ask a customer what they think about your content. Better yet, conduct a focus group of customers or potential customers and don't tell the participants who your company is, just provide them with copy to review. You may be surprised at the results.
Tip No. 2: Skip the jargon.
Technology companies are notorious for using TLAs (three letter acronyms), industry terms and jargon when describing their products and services. Other industries aren't much better, especially non-profits and government agencies. They love to spend time thinking up words whose initials form a longer term—for example, SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives) or OPAL (in NY state, Online Permit Assistance and Licensing). No one is immune to jargon. So, what to do? Use terms that your customers understand and can remember. Need to use a term? Explain it. An acronym? Spell it out the first time you use it.
Tip No. 3: Use your voice to show you care.
If your organization makes a product for executives, make sure your site copy reflects the professional language that you would use in a corporate office setting. But, if you're building a site for teens, rethink about using the "cool" slang language. Groups, especially teens, know when a certain language is forced. Such usage has more of a negative effect than a positive one. Instead, use "brand identity attributes." These are adjectives that help creatively articulate all the ways you express your brand—through content, graphics, interactive and physical—to express that intangible, yet unmistakable, character of your brand's persona. Make a list of the words that reflect your company's brand and see how to best use these words in your site copy.
Try these tips and you’ll be building a better sounding site in no time.
Arthur Germain is principal and chief brandteller at Communication Strategy Group (www.GoCSG.com), a strategic brand marketing agency, where he helps brands become remembered, repeated and rewarded. He can be reached at info@gocsg.com or 631-239-6335.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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