Posted by Jack Powers | January 30, 1997
Updated February 3, 1997
Clients: Summer Internet World 97 seminar; several commercial and corporate publishing firms.

As the Internet becomes less of an experiment and more of a corporate communications requirement, web site management is moving up the organization chart from the early adopters in computer rooms and promotion departments to senior executives with strategic technology management responsibilities. Often this means reengineering early web efforts, revising Internet expectations and carefully measuring the success of on-line communications. In recent consulting work and in a new Internet World seminar due this summer, we've been analyzing the issues in web site remodeling from many different perspectives:

• Three Generations of Web Development
• Redesigning: Upgrading the Look and Feel
• Reengineering: Sharpening the Vision
• Salvaging: Saving the Investment
• Managing Expectations, Measuring Success
• Advertising, Marketing and Publicity
• Training Staff, Customers and Prospects

  SEE ALSO

• GRLab Note on Dead Web Sites
• New Media is Cheap as Dirt
• Tempting the Click
• Developing Web Developers
• GRLab Note on Developing a Web Business Plan

Three Generations

Business use of the World Wide Web can be roughly divided into three generations of web sites:

1994 to 1995: First generation INSTITUTIONAL sites...

often produced by technical staff in IT or MIS departments, using rudimentary HTML effects and re-purposing content from existing paper documents, company brochures and annual reports.
EXAMPLES: Eli Lilly & Co. | Alliance Bank | Cherrington Drilling

1995 to 1996: Second generation PROMOTIONAL sites...

developed by marketing and sales departments pitching specific products and services combining re-purposed material with new multimedia content developed expressly for the web.
EXAMPLES: Inkspot Forms | Wellington Fragrances | SignNet

1996 and beyond: Third generation INTEGRATED BUSINESS sites...

that bring Internet connectivity into the corporate mainstream with links from every department to every customer, prospect and vendor constituency.
EXAMPLES: General Electric | Silicon Graphics | Ariston Florist

There's no inevitable progression through first, second and third generations. Each level of development is appropriate for certain firms in certain markets.

It may be that every company will need an INSTITUTIONAL site someday, just as they need business cards, brochures, 800 numbers and fax machines today.

PROMOTIONAL sites for some products and services will continue to replace traditional sales channels, but while some sites will take orders and clear credit cards others will simply advertise and generate leads.

And--at least for the next decade--only the most information-aware companies will develop INTEGRATED BUSINESS sites that transform day-to-day operations into fully wired commercial environments.

Redesigning: Upgrading the Look and Feel

The design vocabulary of a web page starts with typography, illustration and photography, adds the multimedia effects of sound, animation, video, virtual reality, and brings the new interactive benefits of data input, games, shopping and commercial transactions.

Good design for the web, like good design in any other medium, means using the available vocabulary to best effect. In redesigning web sites, sometimes this means upgrading graphic and multimedia content, other times it means trimming over designed layouts.

UPGRADING CONTENT

1. Sharpen the Copy: Get to the point. Give the reader real information on every page instead of hiding the meat of the site behind dull-witted "What's New" "What's Hot" and "Archives" buttons. Lead the reader through the narrative, pull the prospect through the pitch.
2. Check the Spelling: Be as careful with the words on-line as you are in print, and copyedit the text for style and sense.
3. Kill the Caps: Capitalized words are the least legible.
4. Quit Centering: Centered text is the hardest to read.
5. Don't Blink Text: Blinking, centered, capitalized text--in italic--is the worst.
6. Shrink the Logo: Too many home pages are mostly giant logos that say nothing and waste the reader's on-line time.
7. Answer the Email: Treat a web communication like a phone call or a fax that has to be answered today, not snail mail that can sit in the in-basket for a month.
8. Setup a Search: No matter how smart you are, you can't anticipate every reader's needs. Give them a quick search facility to get what they want.
9. Build a Community: Tempting the first click is hard; getting the readers back for a second look can be harder still. Give them forums, subscription options and news hooks to make them members, not just browsers.
10. Keep it Fresh: You wouldn't mail the same brochure month after month, so why would you offer the same web site? Plan ahead to add seasonality and timeliness to the site.

    TRIMMING DESIGN

11. Slim the GIFs: Precious few images are worth more than 30 seconds of download time. Many GIFs and JPEGs can be cropped and combined and their palettes can be condensed to make them worth their wait.
12. Proof the Code: Every JavaScript, ActiveX and Java applet is an opportunity to bomb your customer's computer, and just because it works on a Pentium 200 with a T-1 line at the ad agency doesn't mean it can be viewed by real prospects in the real world.
13. Streamline the Clicks: Be stingy with the hyperlinks so that your reader gets to the point without flipping through too many intermediate pages.
14. Organize the Index: Offer a site map so that readers can view the structure and get back to their favorite spots quickly.
15. Grab the Customers: Sign them up as members, capture their email addresses, follow-up with news and product notes, customize their pages and build them into your database.

Reengineering: Sharpening the Vision

What's the point of a web site? From first generation INSTITUTIONAL placeholders to third generation INTEGRATED BUSINESS sites, every web site has some elements that are similar to traditional communications formats:

1. Business Card: At the very least, a web site is a contact point for a company in cyberspace.
2. Brochure: Every wired customer and prospect has fast access to up-to-date company background and capabilities information.
3. Newsletter: Breaking news, the latest press releases and happy user stories add an element of timeliness.
4. Annual Report: For public companies, investors and other stakeholders get automated access to important financial data.
5. Corporate Communications: Intranets streamline internal information flow and communications between departments, divisions and regional offices.
6. Marketing Communications: Product briefs, technical specifications, regulatory documents and training materials are always available to internal and external users, both on the web site and via automated email servers.
7. TV Commercial: Flashy multimedia effects entertain and inform about new products, services and corporate directions.
8. Customer Service Desk: Automated help databases, email access to the right person, order confirmation and tracking, sales rep locators and the latest product releases let wired customers avoid telephone tag and get the answers they need on their own.
9. Event Marketing Opportunity: Interactive seminars, teleconferences, product introductions, customer training events and virtual trade shows can be mounted cheaply and targeted to specific constituencies on-line.
10. Catalog: Goods and services presented electronically facilitate "self-selling" and automate some of the expensive face-to-face sales cycle.
11. Transaction System: With a clean electronic commerce connections, the web site can take and order, check a credit card, book the sale and--if the product is digital--fulfill the order automatically.

Often, expressing a web site's goals in terms of traditional business activities helps to focus unwired managers on the very real commercial opportunities of a site. Rather than treating an Internet presence as a wholly new medium of bits and bytes, it makes interactivity a concrete part of normal business strategy, one that benefits from every employee's years of experience.

Salvaging: Saving the Investment

In the rush to the web, some companies have spent too much money, built up unreasonable expectations, and implemented incomplete Internet strategies. Sometimes the best course of action is to scale back Internet spending and make the most of more limited resources:

1. Rent the Server: With the very affordable hosting services available today, few companies--even some with major web sites--need the expense of an in-house server with all the staff and support that requires. Pull the plug and ship the files outside.
2. Fire the Developer: Some web developers seem to expect a site contract to last until their retirement. Often the cheapest way to complete an endless development cycle is to hire a new designer, cut the site specification in half, and focus on more manageable tasks. Sometimes the talent you need is already in-house--in your MIS department, desktop publishing studio or marketing group.
3. Distribute the Workload: Downsize the webmaster and break the overall maintenance of the site into smaller tasks that can be handled departmentally: updates by the newsletter editor, email by customer service, and order management by the existing 800 phone staff.
4. Automate the Coding: Buy a WYSIWYG web authoring package that makes web page making as easy as desktop publishing--even it means scaling back the complexity of the design--so that anyone can work on the pages.
5. Outsource the Upkeep: Make a deal with an outside web firm or a freelancer to keep the site fresh. Bring them in occasionally for face-to-face updates, put them on your email system, send them press releases and newsletter copy, and get a packaged price for maintenance.

Managing Expectations, Measuring Success

With all the hype about millions of Internet hits and billions of downloaded bytes, knowing what to expect from a web investment requires some critical thinking about your market and your on-line prospects. There are many different ways to calculate the benefits of a web site, and they start with accurate analysis of visits, hits and site usage:

ANALYZE THE WEB LOG

1. Measure Visit Volume: As the site develops, track the volume of unique IP visits and page views to measure the scope of activity day-to-day and week-to-week.
2. Analyze Page Popularity: Find out which elements draw the crowds, which deliver the best prospects, and which generate hits without sales.
3. Calculate Durations: Study the average visit duration, the most popular times of the day and of the week, and the effect of off-web events like trade shows and ad campaigns on site visits.
4. Chart Traffic Sources: Learn where the customers are coming from, what search target words brought them there, and which links deliver the best quality audience.
5. Estimate the CPM: Compare the Cost Per Thousand of page views from the web site with similar costs from print and broadcast media.
6. Assess the Value: Think through the difference in impact of a minute spent interacting with a web page versus a minute spent reading a printed sheet. Commission a focus group or other off-web market research to understand the relative effectiveness.

   SET SITE GOALS

7. Develop Traffic Targets: Create some goals for the way the site is used: x number of product briefs delivered, y number of email addresses captured, z number of promo ad views.
8. Displace Print: Target savings in the costs of printing displaced by delivering digital pages for marketing communications, brochures and annual reports, and catalog information.
9. Offload Customer Service: Target savings in the hours of customer service time displaced by handling customer queries electronically.
10. Generate Leads: Set goals for qualified leads from the site and compare the costs to conventional lead generation costs.
11. Book Business: Set goals for new orders handled through the transaction features of the site and compare the cost of sales to conventional sources.
12. Broaden Markets: Monitor new sources of business attracted to the site--new product orders, new regional or international customers--and target the most profitable sources.

Advertising, Marketing and Publicity

Good implementation of a web plan means getting the word out to the world, both in conventional and electronic forms:

TRADITIONAL MARKETING

1. Spread the URL: Put your URL on every piece of print and broadcast material, from business cards and letterheads to TV commercials and radio spots to the signs on the company trucks.
2. Make a Mailing: Announce the launch and significant upgrades through special mailings to clients and prospects that describe the site and the benefits of the on-line connection.
3. Run Ads: Announce the launch and describe the benefits in ads appropriate to your markets.
4. Integrate the Site: Make the site part of every department's communications activities, for example: put the human resources notices and want ads on-line, report marketing events with transcripts and photo coverage, support users groups with forums and email, and list email contacts and the URL in every press release.

   DIGITAL MARKETING

5. Spread the URL: Promo the site in everybody's email signature.
6. Make a Mailing: Announce the launch and significant upgrades through email to client and prospect lists.
7. Run Ads: Buy banner ads and sponsorships in relevant web sites.
8. Hire a PR Firm: Engage a web PR firm to polish your keywords, generate listings in major search sites and get the site noticed by on-line publications.

Training Staff, Customers and Prospects

The more important a web site is to a company, the more people need to know about it and how it works. Training employees, customers and prospects in the ways of the wired world is a key part of integrating the Internet into commercial use:

1. Teach the Sales Reps: Every sales rep must understand the marketing, customer communications and one-to-one marketing possibilities of the web site, the company's face to the wired world. They should learn how it is organized, how it can support and extend their sales efforts, and how it will evolve as the rest of the world comes on-line.
2. Teach Everybody Else: Integrating the Internet into the business means wiring everybody in and teaching them to think with a network orientation. Part of this process is simple hands-on technology training, but--especially for managers--an important part is an orientation into the culture of the web and the commercial opportunities in cyberspace.
3. Educate Customers: A well-crafted web site is an important competitive edge, and customers need to understand how it works and how it can make their lives easier.
4. Educate Prospects: Getting an effective web site up and running first often means defining the opportunities for wired companies in your market segment.

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Copyright 1997 by the Graphics Research Laboratory, Inc.
All rights reserved.