CorpComms Magazine

When learning disabilities charity Mencap decided to modernise its website, its ultimate aim was to increase mainstream awareness of its cause. The decision paid off - Channel 4 decided to make a documentary about learning difficulties, taking inspiration from video footage on Mencap's new website. And you can't get much more mainstream than that.

Mencap, which spent 18 months on its new website, placed greater emphasis on the use of video, as it is one of the most accessible forms of content for people with learning disabilities. The first videos on the site were used to underscore the new brand and strapline The voice of learning disability but the charity also put people on video to show how they have the same aspirations and real lives as everyone else, explains Mencap's web manager Craig Melcher.

'We identified four main audiences - people with learning disabilities; families and carers; professionals; and supporters who are made up of campaigners, donors and volunteers,' he says.

'In the highly competitive charity sector, people are more discerning as supporters but once you have engaged with them, they will not just donate money but also volunteer or write to their MP. So we are really trying to build the campaigning side of our website.'

The primary funct ion of Mencap's website is to support carers and families, which led to the introduction of chat forums to allow users to exchange help and information. 'It is also important to provide that sense of community through forums and one of the strongest benefits of the website is that it gives people a voice in this way,' says Melcher.

The results have been startling. Unique visitor traffic has increased by 63 per cent since March last year, just before the new website went live. 'The website has really unified all our various channels of communication,' says Melcher. 'It is a great vehicle for bringing everyone together. The website has become the starting point for all our messages.'

LOOKING GOOD IS VITAL

No one should underestimate the importance of looking good on the web. These days the first port of call for all stakeholders in any organisation, from graduate recruits to customers, is the Internet. But there is only a limited window of opportunity to grab their attention.

'The site must be aesthetically pleasing with a very good message on page one,' says Anthony Mixides, design director at online marketing group Bond Media. 'For example, we often use video tiles - with a commentator greeting the reader - embedded on the web page because this is proven to keep people online and the longer they spend on your website, the more likely they are to buy your services.'

'There is a misconception that the impact a corporate website has on a company's bottom line is just a simple matter of revenues,' says Kate Sprague, managing director of website design firm Double D Designs. 'This couldn't be further from the truth. Your company's website is its face to world and you always want to present your best side at all times. This means that it is critical to make sure that your website has a clear design which presents the company's core brand values, corporate image and key messages.'

More than this, says Paul Honey, managing director of digital marketing agency Strange Corporation, a poor website will act as a negative force working against your brand. 'Your corporate website is the heart of your digital footprint,' he says. 'Whenever people search for you, they will start with your website. It is easy to get it wrong but if you do, you will leave visitors with the perception of Well, if you can't even get that right... A bad website will portray your company in a very negative light.'

James Frost, managing director of digital marketing agency Coast Digital, says that this could well have an unwelcome impact on your bottom line. 'If a fund manager is thinking of investing in a FTSE 250 company, the first place he looks is the website. If it doesn't feel robust, he may well move on. We all act on our perceptions.' For this reason, it is essential to put enough resources into developing a website. 'The average company still spends more on its annual report, which has at best only a 12-month lifespan - and probably really only a one-month lifespan - than its website,' says Peter Kemp, managing director of online marketing agency Global3Digital. 'I am always amazed when I find out the annual report budget. It usually comes in at an astounding figure.'

COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Many companies now hold in-depth focus groups, workshops and brainstorming meetings with key users before deciding on the approach and content of a website.

Sprague recently designed a project for Adrenalised Adventures, whose consumers are heavily weighted among younger, often very technically-minded people. 'Consumer relations are no longer passive. It's all about interaction - online corporate communication has become a two-way street,' says Sprague. 'Adrenalised Adventures were keen to harness the power of social media and consumer interaction. So we created a unique area on the site which housed all the information a consumer needs to keep in the loop with what's happening, new products and to engage in a two-way conversation with the company.

'It has dramatically increased their Twitter exposure, which tripled in less than a week. Activity on its Facebook group has increased, and there are 50 per cent more people subscribed to their RSS news feed. As a result, they are engaging better with their consumers and are better prepared to react and be more in tune with their customers' needs.'

A successful website will not force users to think too hard, says Sprague. 'By identifying who will be visiting your corporate site, why they are visiting and making it really easy for them to find what they came for, you are definitely on to a winner.'

If you can get these things right, adds Honey, you can hugely improve the efficiency of your own communications. 'You can furnish visitors with information in a way that is convenient to both you and them, such as information about the company, contacts, company performance reports etcetera so the overheads to support these functions are very efficient.'

Catering for a number of different audiences within one website is probably the greatest challenge. Energy group Centrica, which has a high number of retail investors dating back to its privatisation, placed this aim at the heart of its online strategy when it relaunched its corporate website in January last year following nine months of planning.

'Our site had been working well but as with all sites, it had become a little dated,' says Simon Henderson, director of corporate responsibility and internal communications at Centrica. 'We wanted to modernise and better meet the needs of our target audiences.'

Centrica began the process by holding in-depth discussions with its main internal stakeholders. Its human resources team, for example, wanted to use new technology in the careers section to allow people to apply for jobs through the website. As a result of this, the careers section is now Centrica's most popular website section after investor relations.

CLARIFYING INFORMATION

The site makes use of share price tools, glossaries, news, images and a calendar tool to allow users to download dates to their own diary. Centrica also attempts to engage with social media through the use of blogs in its graduate recruitment and corporate social responsibility sections. Visitors can use a Your Page option to make the site work more conveniently for them. The result of Centrica's investment in its website is 20 per cent more traffic.

Henderson believes Centrica's website has improved users' knowledge of the company. 'Overall, the website is there to help people understand the business,' he says. 'There is an awful lot more to Centrica than just British Gas, but often that's all people know about us.'

Honey believes different approaches should be used for different audiences within a website, while retaining a consistent message and style throughout. He recommends profiling each set of users by identifying their personae and what information they are likely to need, and what they are using the website for, before knitting these together through the information architecture of a site.

Coast Digital is currently working with manufacturer Morgan Crucible to consolidate the websites of 24 divisions and groups acquired by the business. Striking a balance between consistency of message and engaging with many different sets of stakeholders is the priority. Coast is currently conducting research through focus groups and workshops with its stakeholders. 

Frost says: 'There is no consistency of brand and it is all very disparate. So we are working on pulling together a coherent online strategy with them. A lot of corporates have legacy issues on the Internet or they may have bolted on a lot of stuff and it all becomes a nightmare to navigate.

'It is important that a website is engaging for all target audiences. It is therefore a good idea to have clear call outs to each target audience from a home page. This can be achieved by a drop-down select box which could say something like I am looking for with a drop-down list of options that quickly connects the user with the relevant content on the site. It's a good idea to personalise areas of your site, so for example you could have a partner area, a graduate recruitment area, and perhaps a customer area, all of which may require some form of registration to access deeper personalised content.'

While some users may expect to be able to post items to YouTube and Twitter, subscribe to an RSS news feed or even watch a cartoon, others simply will not want these things.

Sprague says: 'There is a trend towards flashy websites with music, animations and intricate design. While this looks very pretty, and clearly presents a message to the user about the company's brand, it may also annoy them. My advice is to steer clear of irritants like flash intros, Javascript pop-ups and music unless absolutely essential, and even then there must be an option to turn it off.

'Statistically users will spend less than a minute looking at your website. By adding a 30-second flashy introduction or complex navigation to your site then you are halving the amount of time they are likely to spend looking at your site - if they make it there at all. It's a bit like signing David Beckham to your local Sunday league football team and asking him to sit on the bench for the first half - pretty and flashy, but a tactical disaster.'

CONSTANTLY EVOLVE

It is vital to keep on top of a website's infrastructure or it may grow a life of its own. 'Organisations change on a monthly basis,' says Honey. 'And as things happen, the architecture of the website is altered or added-to. It can become cumbersome and badly structured.' Messages may become contradictory if information is not regularly updated.

Copy is equally important. 'Often a company puts lots of effort into its offline materials, and then just copies it up to the web,' says Honey. 'This is wrong. On the web, it should have half the word count, and use lists and clean paragraphs, so you get the information to the user as quickly as possible.'

Kemp adds: 'When the human brain consumes information online, it does it in a different way to when it consumes information in print. Readers tend to flit around the screen, so pages of heavy text are pointless.'

'Copy for websites is very different from traditional print copy,' explains Sprague. 'Every bit of copy you write should be goal-oriented. If it doesn't solve a problem and convey the solution quickly, it shouldn't be there. There have been studies which have shown that fine tuning copy on the homepage alone has increased conversion by over 40 per cent.'

It is wise to ensure logos and taglines are prominent, as well as contact details. Many people will Google a company's name to find the telephone number. It is frustrating if it is not immediately apparent. 'A search tool on a website is also vital to know what people are searching for so you can target your products,' adds Mixides.

Consider giving shareholders their own log-on facility to view corporate information in a separate section, and ensure your careers section can handle online applications. Mixides also recommends offering a news ticker with an RSS feed that people can sign up for. 'Set out your services very clearly and offer a call-back request, which is just a short form - name and number only. People often won't bother with a long registration form,' he adds. 'Some sites could benefit from a reader forum, but you must moderate it. Put in case studies and testimonials, as well as a careers page. Use send-to-a-friend links which can be very good self marketing.'

Search engine optimisation is very important. If your site doesn't come up when people search for key words relating to your business, then your efforts with your website will have been in vain. 'We try hard to get clients to understand the benefits of search engine optimisation,' says Mixides. 'It is a six-month plan and you may not see increased traffic until month four or five.'

Honey adds: 'This is a continual process, and not something you can just do once a year. You should be continually adding new keywords. Search engines are always being updated so to make sure you index well, you need to ensure you have channelled enough effort into this. Google looks for frequency of updates, for example, when indexing web pages.'

NAVIGATE USERS HOME

Don't forget that visitors could end up anywhere on your site if they use keywords in a search engine. You will have a matter of seconds to help them navigate back to the homepage and onto the pages they are interested in, before you lose their attention.

And, finally, it is essential to analyse and measure response to and traffic through your website. Honey says: 'Make sure you have defined your business objectives and that these can be measured. Otherwise you will have no way of knowing if your site is doing well.'

Mixides adds: 'It is very important to measure traffic- you need to know what your website is doing for you. We recommend Google Analytics to our clients. It monitors traffic by country, bounce rates - where a click-through results in immediate page closure - what keywords are being used to get to which pages etcetera.'

Whatever form a website takes, and however it attempts to engage with audiences, it is important to remember that it is a company's small window to the world. In this age of 24-hour information flow, there is usually only one small chance to get a message out before the world loses interest and moves on to the next thing.

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