Using your Website to Shape Corporate Identity
Written by Smartt Team on August 15, 2009
Corporate identity is a tricky concept. It’s not just about your logo, banners, marketing techniques and the way you present yourself to the world. In fact, it’s much more than that. It’s about the way your customers perceive you and what they think of your company as a whole. In this regard, corporate identity is something that is not fully within your control.
However, it’s not completely out of your control either. There are certain actions you can take online to help shape the perception of your company.
Your website is the most important space your company has on the web. It’s where customers go to evaluate your business and your products and to find out more about you. Your website is your face on the web and as such it’s important that you let it work for you and not against you.
These days having a website is more important than ever. In fact, your customers expect you to have a website. It’s no longer an option, it’s a necessity. Having a well designed site will no longer wow your customers, it’s just expected that you will have a professional site. On the flip side, not having a website will hurt you and your corporate image. You will be perceived as unprofessional and untrustworthy in the eyes of your customers.
A well structured site that contains lots of useful and informative information gives the impression that your company cares about its customers and wants to help them. People like businesses that are helpful and that they can trust. Using your website as a hub for information will help shape that perception that you care about your customers and their needs. Providing useful information related to your industry is the best way to get people to trust you.
People who visit corporate websites want to find the information they need quickly and easily. Product information and content should never be hidden deep within the site. As a good rule of thumb, customers should be able to find whatever information they’re looking for in three clicks or less.
Once you’ve mastered the basics, you can begin to utilize your website to further shape your corporate identity. A website that effectively expresses your corporate identity to your clients includes the following aspects:
- Easy to understand presentation of information. The web has brought about many changes in the way people read and understand information. No longer do people have the patience to read long, drawn-out paragraphs and pages like those found in books. People want short, snappy sentences that are easy to understand. When writing for the web, it’s a good rule of thumb to imagine you’re writing for an eight-year old child. This way, customers won’t get lost in frivolous and hard to understand language. Instead they can focus on what it is you’re really saying.
- Use white space. White space simply refers to the areas of your website where there isn’t any text or images. Keeping paragraphs short and skipping lines between paragraphs creates lots of white space and helps keep people focused. Headings, bullets and numbered lists are also excellent ways to add white space to your pages.
- Create a look and feel that expresses your company’s personality. If your company is fun, vibrant and lively, create a website that reflects that. No matter what look you’re going for, the best websites are clean, simple and to the point. Cluttered sites that contain too much information or too many links leave customers feeling uneasy.
6 Ways to Generate Leads Online
Written by Smartt Team on August 4, 2009
1. Blogs
A blog is like an online opinion column where the author writes about a topic he or she has specialized knowledge about. It’s generally written by one person and it’s understood that a blog is that person’s own point-of-view. Blogs are one of the best ways to reach your customers because they contain lots of information. People like reading them because they take an informal tone while at the same time provide useful information and advice. What’s even better, blogs tend to rank well on the search engines which improves your SEO and boosts your rankings. Blogs become an entrance point to your website and are a great gateway for introducing visitors to your company.
2. Videos
People love watching videos. If you need proof, just take a look at YouTube. Millions of viewers watch millions of videos every day. Videos are a great way for people to learn and a great way for you to attract potential customers to your site.
To use video for lead generation, the first thing you need to do is make a video. Make your video something instructional that provides useful information to your clients. The trick with these videos is to make it “useful, but incomplete.” That way, people feel like they’re learning something, but they still don’t have quite enough information to do it themselves. The next step in this process is to direct your customers to your website where they will find more informational articles or videos along with information about the product or service you offer.
3. Quizzes
Quizzes are a fun way to get customers interested in what you have to offer. To use this technique, create a quiz centered around your product or service. Make it interactive and relative to your customers. For example a weight loss company might create a quiz about the nutritional value of certain foods. After the quiz has been completed, provide advice and information related to the topics covered and make suggestions for how that person can improve.
4. Forums
Making use of forums in your industry is an excellent way to stay connected with your customer base, to scope out the competition and to generate leads. Find a popular forum within your industry and create an account. Right away, join in the discussion, making comments wherever you have something useful to say. Once in a while (but not too often because people will start to think you’re spamming and you’ll lose credibility) comment about one of your own products and services and link to your website. Make sure your comments are relevant to the discussion and not just there to give yourself some traffic.
5. Articles
Writing articles and creating article writing campaigns is a great way to connect with people from all over. Use a distribution site to send out your articles and they will get picked up by bloggers and article writers all over. Make sure to include a short bio about yourself at the end of the article and a link to your website. This way, when readers are finished with the article, they can visit your site for more information and to look at your products and services.
6. Social Marketing
Social marketing is all the buzz these days. If you want to get in on the action, choose two or three sites you want to get involved with and then make your presence known. Before making your decision, be sure to check out the demographics of each site so as to ensure that you are reaching your target audience. Once you’ve decided on your sites, create a page for yourself and fill it with content related to your business. Update it regularly with useful content related to your industry and relevant links. Don’t always direct people to your own website; be sure to include links to other sources as well. This way you’ll gain credibility and people won’t see you as abusing the system.
