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Public relations agency Cohn & Wolfe had had it with its Web site. Its bland, static presence didn’t quite communicate C&W’s year-old messaging that touts the agency as bold and innovative. “Our site didn’t say that at all,” says Jill Tannenbaum, chief marketing officer at Cohn & Wolfe. So the New York-based agency set about a total overhaul of cohnwolfe.com, one that would make it stand out from the competition.
That’s a move that’s becoming common across industries and organizations, says Chris Gee, managing director of Proof Digital Media, the interactive arm of Burson-Marsteller.
“What’s happening is that organizations are starting to reevaluate their Web sites,” says Gee. Because while sites are still the digital centerpiece of the brand, “they are now also part of a growing complex ecosystem of digital and social properties,” he continues, which necessitates changes.
“A few years ago site visitors were encouraged to click into a site and stay there,” says Gee. “Today they may stay for a while, but they can also go join a conversation about your brand somewhere outside of the site.”
The problem for organizations, says Gee, is that while today’s social tools are easily adapted for use, making wholesale changes to a Web site, which often includes cumbersome content management and back-end systems, can be difficult.
CYBER TRENDS
In thinking about making those changes, however, it’s important to note key trends that have taken hold in the interactive world, according to Gee. They include:
• Mobile is booming. “IPads, Androids and iPhones are forcing organizations to think about how they develop Web content,” says Gee. “Before, our clients would make the Web site the No. 1 priority, with mobile second. Now they’re asking themselves if their CEO will be viewing the site on his iPad.”
• Flash may be fading. “With mobile growing, Flash is taking a big hit. There’s a seismic shift in terms of way we’ve thought about interactive and rich media content,” says Gee.
• Social is sizzling. “More sites are integrating social media, with Facebook ‘Like’ buttons, for instance,” he says. “Content like press releases and corporate blogs integrate one-click ‘chiclets’ to share that content virally. This has caused a change in mind-set, as these tools take the visitor away from the Web site.”
• Customization is king. “Sites now allow visitors to customize content, so they can dictate what they want to see, and when,” says Gee.
But for organizations like Cohn & Wolfe, a change was necessary, and a big change at that. Creativity and innovation were the hallmarks of the redo. “For that, we didn’t go to a big digital agency,” says Tannenbaum. Instead C&W turned to Sennep, a small London digital shop that has won its share of Webby awards.
Incorporating ideas from both the agency and Sennep, the new site certainly pushes the creativity envelope both in design and content, including features such as:
• Seven cheeky stop-motion animation videos.
• Playful mocking of the “sameness” of communications agencies.
• “Split personality” executive headshots revealing two sides of the agency’s culture.
“There’s really nothing on the site that’s the same as before,” says Tannenbaum. That’s because Sennep is used to pushing boundaries, says Stuart Jackson, a partner at Sennep. “Visitors to a Web site are inherently lazy—they don’t like to read much,” says Jackson. “We wanted to present content in easily digestible way to get flavor of company without making them read three graphs of text.”
NAVIGATION
Making the content easy to find is another key goal, says Mark Thomas, managing director of marketing communications at the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF). The Newtown, Conn.-based nonprofit did a stakeholder survey about the site, and found that while visitors liked the content, they couldn’t easily find it. “You launch a site, and you notice that it starts to look like a house with additions,” says Thomas.
From the research came a goal: Visitors should be able to find information in three clicks or less. The new site divides up members’ interests into four distinct quadrants, with plenty of cross links, adds Thomas. The result? Lots of compliments and numbers that tell the story (see the table for pre- and post-launch metrics).
But when do you really know when your brand’s digital face needs uplifting—or a transplant? Here are some telltale signs from Gee:
• If the bounce rate is 70% or over, you’re in trouble. “There’s no value there,” says Gee.
• If search is the most utilized navigation tool on your site.
• If most of your content is offered in Flash. “It will be invisible to search engines, indexing and mobile platforms,” says Gee. PRN
[Editor’s Note: Take the PR News/BurrellesLuce Social Media Management survey at prnewsonline.com/studies/survey/50/. For more articles on digital PR, visit the PR News Subscriber Resource Center at prnewsonline.com/subscriber_resources.html.]
CONTACT:
Jill Tannenbaum, [email protected]; Chris Gee, [email protected]; Stuart Jackson, [email protected]; Mark Thomas, [email protected]
| National Shooting Sports Foundation Web Site Makeover—Before and After | ||||||
| Year-To-Date Comparisons | Aug. 2010 | Aug. 2009 | Monthly Difference % | YTD 2010 | YTD 2009 | YTD Difference |
| Total Visits | 359,203 | 213,611 | 68.16% | 2,934,483 | 1,833,528 | 60.05% |
| Total Pages Viewed | 449,843 | 194,776 | 130.95% | 3,220,327 | 1,734,517 | 85.66% |
| Unique Visitors | 215,630 | 114,720 | 87.96% | 1,716,444 | 1,037,946 | 65.37% |
| Return Visitors | 39,265 | 24,659 | 59.23% | 321,037 | 208,158 | 54.23% |
| Average Time On Site | 0:08:47 | 0:12:43 | -30.93% | 0:11:03 | 0:11:49 | -6.49% |
| Single Page Visits | 73,624 | 43,967 | 67.45% | 491,721 | 349,198 | 40.81% |