Is Your Web Site “You?”

March On Branding

Is Your Web Site “You?”

Your company Web site has just gone through a major overhaul. You’ve refreshed the ’70s-era logo that the founder’s wife loved, updated 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?

Does the content on your Web site reflect your brand story? 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. So here are a few expert tips to make your Web site tell a better story:

1. Sell the way your customers want to buy. You may like calling your product an “air and brush-driven consumer cleaning technology,” but your customers call it a vacuum. Use terms customers expect to see 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.

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 with initials that form a longer term—SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives), OPAL (in New York, Online Permit Assistance and Licensing). No one is immune to jargon. Use terms your customers understand and can remember. Need to use a term? Explain it. An acronym? Spell it out the first time you use it.

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. Brand identity attributes are adjectives and other descriptive language that help creatively articulate all the ways you express your brand—through content, graphics, interactive and physical (like your building and the logo in front of it).These attributes can help you 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—and avoid using others—in your site’s copy.

Try these tips and you’ll be building a better sounding site in no time!

Arthur Germain (www.GoCSG.com) is principal at the Communication Strategy Group.


Carrier Connection: Frontline Homeowners Insurance

When Frontline Homeowners Insurance launched a massive re-branding effort in 2008, it looked to the very core of its operations—its independent agents—for feedback.

The Florida-based company hired an outside consulting firm to lead focus groups of Frontline agents who provided valuable insight into both the message being sent to customers and the ease of doing business with Frontline.

“We spent the time to get to know who our clients are, and we’ve definitely gotten a lot out of our effort,” says Tom Poppell, vice president of sales for Frontline Insurance. “The focus groups revealed that it’s impossible for us to brand ourselves individually and that branding through our independent agents was the way to go.”

Since it came under its current management, which includes many independent agents, the company’s branding has stemmed from its tagline, “The Florida homeowners insurance company owned by more independent agents than any other company.” According to Poppell, Frontline is wants to build on this agent centered message as it grows and expands its operations into new states.

The Trusted Choice^© brand has helped Frontline do just that; shortly before launching its new branding initiative, Frontline became the only Florida domiciled homeowners insurance company to join Trusted Choice^©.

“We were looking for something that would separate our company from many similar competitors and to re-affirm our dedication to the independent agency system. Trusted Choice^© seemed to be the perfect solution,” says Poppell.

—Veronica DeVore