Creating and Establishing Company Identity or Brand Awareness
Another objective might be to create and establish company identity or brand awareness. To “brand” your product, a memorable name and an eye-appealing product logo are necessities. Also, the graphics developed for your Web site must be top-notch and reflect the colors associated with the product logo. A catchy slogan further promotes brand identity. The same branding techniques are also applicable to establishing corporate identity. If building and reinforcing corporate and brand identity are important to you, your Web site must have a consistent look and feel. Likewise, all offline promotional campaigns and materials must be consistent with your online presence.
Based on the success of companies such as America Online, Yahoo!, Travelocity, Amazon.com, and eBay, it is apparent that branding a company or product on the Web can occur swiftly. It is amazing how quickly these relative newcomers to the business world have achieved megabrand status. Although they all had significant financial resources, each company used a combination of online and offline advertising to meet their objectives. Each of their sites features a prominent logo, consistent imagery, and a consistent color scheme. Check out the sites of these upstarts that have become big online players if branding is your goal. There is a lot we can learn from them.
Other Primary Objectives
Brainstorm with all the stakeholders in your organization to come up with other primary objectives for your organization. This process is critical to the organization’s online success. Everything else revolves around your objectives—the elements included on your site and the Internet marketing techniques you use. If you were building a new office, you would want to include the input of all people working in your office to ensure that their needs were taken into consideration and the office was designed appropriately. The same is true when building a Web site, everyone must be included in the brainstorming session. As much time should be spent in the planning stage as in the construction phase. By going through this process, you will be able to develop the best blueprint for your proposed Web site.
Other Things to Consider Up Front
Although setting your primary objectives is vital, it is just as important to identify your secondary objectives. By setting appropriate secondary objectives, you will be more prepared to achieve all your online goals. Many companies identify only primary objectives for their Web site and completely neglect secondary objectives that can help them succeed online. Following are some common secondary objectives for online businesses to consider:
Another objective might be to create and establish company identity or brand awareness. To “brand” your product, a memorable name and an eye-appealing product logo are necessities. Also, the graphics developed for your Web site must be top-notch and reflect the colors associated with the product logo. A catchy slogan further promotes brand identity. The same branding techniques are also applicable to establishing corporate identity. If building and reinforcing corporate and brand identity are important to you, your Web site must have a consistent look and feel. Likewise, all offline promotional campaigns and materials must be consistent with your online presence.
Based on the success of companies such as America Online, Yahoo!, Travelocity, Amazon.com, and eBay, it is apparent that branding a company or product on the Web can occur swiftly. It is amazing how quickly these relative newcomers to the business world have achieved megabrand status. Although they all had significant financial resources, each company used a combination of online and offline advertising to meet their objectives. Each of their sites features a prominent logo, consistent imagery, and a consistent color scheme. Check out the sites of these upstarts that have become big online players if branding is your goal. There is a lot we can learn from them.
Other Primary Objectives
Brainstorm with all the stakeholders in your organization to come up with other primary objectives for your organization. This process is critical to the organization’s online success. Everything else revolves around your objectives—the elements included on your site and the Internet marketing techniques you use. If you were building a new office, you would want to include the input of all people working in your office to ensure that their needs were taken into consideration and the office was designed appropriately. The same is true when building a Web site, everyone must be included in the brainstorming session. As much time should be spent in the planning stage as in the construction phase. By going through this process, you will be able to develop the best blueprint for your proposed Web site.
Other Things to Consider Up Front
Although setting your primary objectives is vital, it is just as important to identify your secondary objectives. By setting appropriate secondary objectives, you will be more prepared to achieve all your online goals. Many companies identify only primary objectives for their Web site and completely neglect secondary objectives that can help them succeed online. Following are some common secondary objectives for online businesses to consider:
- The site should be designed to be search engine friendly.
- The site should be designed to encourage repeat traffic.
- The site should have viral marketing elements that encourage visitors to recommend your products or services to others.
- The site should include elements to leverage its sales force.
- The site should incorporate permission marketing, where visitors are encouraged to give you permission to send them e-mail on a regular basis.
- The site should be designed to encourage customer loyalty.
- The site should incorporate stickiness, encouraging visitors to stay a while and visit many areas of the site.
