Defero's website must be thought of and designed in harmony with all other marketing and branding aspects. According to Website Guide for Small and Medium Sized Businesses by Snap Technologies, "The look and feel of your website is an extension of your corporate brand. It should be representative of your company and be consistent with other marketing materials."
Illustrated below is an example of what the defero homepage could look like:
There is a brief introduction, an overview of services, links to several communication options and a news section, and feedback from current clients. The logo and slogan from the ad campaign are prominently featured, and these should also be used as a header throughout each page in the site. The details and specifics of all this can be further refined by your design team in the coming year.
While the visual design of a website is important, the content within the site is perhaps the most important aspect. As stated again in Website Guide for Small and Medium Sized Businesses, "Having a great looking website is not very effective if the content is confusing, poorly written, and/or incomplete." It is essential that defero creates engaging content for the website that will continue to maintain and enhance its "brand name." In Web 2.0 for Designers, Richard Macmanus and Joshua Porter explain, "Web design in Web 2.0 is about building event-driven experiences, rather than sites...Web designers must now think beyond sites and figure out how to brand the content itself." I recommend the defero web design team familiarize themselves with this article and other key and current Web 2.0 design concepts before developing the company website.
Usability is another critical aspect to the effectiveness of a web site. Defero's site must be easily navigated, with the homepage designed to allow easy access to all other areas and pages. Intuitive navigation will not only demonstrate defero's strength and mastery of online communication, it will make the client more likely to stay on the site and continue browsing. Below is a diagram of how the website homepage and congruent pages could function:
As seen in the diagram (click here to see a larger image), the visitor will get an overview of the company first and then can easily move on to more detailed information in some of the following areas:
- direct link to the company blog
- following defero using one or more of the social networking site links
- learning more about defero's services and product lines
- contacting defero via live chat or appointment setting options
- finding defero at an upcoming event
Maintaining a sense of openness and accessibility is key to inviting consumer interest in defero's services. Information must be kept transparent and the user must be feel that they can easily contact the defero team should they have any questions or comments. As mentioned before, a key function of the website will be to provide an avenue to the corporate blog and social networking accounts, which together will further defero's online engagement with their potential client base.
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