1. Establish a positioning statement. A succinct positioning statement (brand statement) should help guide your messaging, design and content. A positioning statement should be a benefit-oriented phrase unique to your organization. Don’t think of it as a mission statement–it’s a precise phrase that sums up your company’s notable characteristics to the public.
2. Enhance usability. Too often site owners approach web site organization and navigation through their own eyes rather than looking at how end users will use the the site. Why are users coming to your site? What are the core goals of the site? How do you most efficiently drive users to those goals? Improving usability may not sound that creative or exciting but it can directly improve web performance.
3. Think of first impressions. Depending on your enterprise, your web site may well be the public’s initial introduction to your brand. Web sites often act as qualifiers and if you can make a striking first impression, web users will take the next step to interact with your organization.
4. Sync up your image. Compare your web site to your other offline marketing efforts to make sure your brand is consistent across all media types. The site shouldn’t copy your print materials but it should have the same tone, design sensibility and messaging. Again, a well-defined positioning statement should guide all of your marketing efforts.
5. Add credibility. How do you build trust online? There are many ways to create confidence and warm up web users to your organization or products. First, make sure to tell your story. Give users background about you and your organization and talk about your philosophy and process. Another easy way to bring credibility to your site is to ask current customers to provide testimonials or product reviews. You can also list accreditations, affiliations, and awards. If you’re in the e-commerce business, make sure industry security logos are placed near your product checkout buttons.