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We quiz four operators who have very specific ideas about how they want their web strategies to work for them.
The current Wincanton website is four years old, and, although it has been regularly updated, the business has changed so much that the company is planning a complete redesign for next year. Holly Porter, group marketing director, says: “Websites need to be designed from the outside in to make sure customers or investors find what they are looking for. So we have started by researching thoroughly, looking at best-practice examples of business-to-business sites and asking customers and investors what they want on there.”
Porter says the new site will be much more “a business tool than a shop window”, and aims to build in more interactivity, including feedback mechanisms, data capture about who is looking at what and functionality, such as blogging and podcasting, which may be used in the future. News releases are important, explains Porter: “Wincanton has a growth strategy, and it is imperative we reflect that. It is so important that companies have a content management system where they can update their sites – we will update ours every day or two. If you can’t, it doesn’t reflect the brand.”
Wincanton must also address the ‘global versus local debate’. Porter says: “In France, there is a high emphasis on e-commerce, in Germany multimodal – their customers want different information.” The site will be built on an IBM internet portal platform. Porter is coy about price, but says: “You can pay an agency between £5,000 and £50,000 for a site depending on functionality. We will invest accordingly.” She expects the site to take three months to complete.
Key advice: First impressions count. Accurately convey the values of the company brand.
The Pallet Network (TPN) IT assistant Rob Kneller has recently brought the website in-house because of the cost and difficulty of updating it through an agency. “If something went wrong with our website before, we had to contact one person who was paying another who was paying another. There was no central, immediate point of contact.”
The website was originally set up to attract hauliers to join the network. “We still get emails from companies asking if we have a vacancy, but mostly our geographical coverage is complete now,” says Kneller. “The website is still used by the members, but is also about winning business from freight customers.” Some things have changed: TPN has decided that its member database, once freely available by postcode search, should no longer be on the internet. “Customers are given a phone number to find out their nearest depot,” says Kneller. “Otherwise, it is too easy for other networks to search for the postcodes they want and approach your members.”
The site is still under construction, but Kneller hopes to search optimise it and has created RSS feeds for company news.
Key advice: In-house control is better than outsourcing.
Fleet operator Denby’s website has been in existence five years. It was originally designed by an agency to a close spec from the company, and managing director Peter Denby says it has served its role well. The company has recently invited another developer to look at the site and refresh the look and feel, as well as emphasising those elements the company feels work well and losing some of the less useful features.
“It will be broadly similar,” says Denby. “We’re looking for a clean design with better navigation, but we will still have pictures of trucks and trailers because that’s what we do.
“Our site is search-optimised for people looking for Denby services and that works well. One of the elements we want to discourage is job applications. They are often unsolicited and people expect a response even when we haven’t advertised vacancies.”
The site is aimed squarely at freight customers. He explains: “It’s fair to say that when you want to do business with a company, the first port of call is the website to learn about them, so we need a lot of general information on there. Much of it is introduction pages about our services, but there is always then a discussion with the customer to follow. But it serves the purpose of a brochure, which you would use to start the discussion.”
So does the website perform better than a brochure or direct-mail campaign? “We don’t necessarily get more unsolicited queries from the web than from [other marketing campaigns], but they are of better quality,” says Denby.
While the company doesn’t set a formal budget for the website every year, “resource is allocated as and when it needs it” and the relaunched site will come firmly under the sales department’s remit. “Part of the strategy is to make sure we can easily update it in-house,” says Denby.
Key advice: Keep it simple. Customers don’t want complexity.
Sales, marketing and IT manager Donal Keane created Palletline member WH Barley’s current website a year ago. “The previous site was substandard, from a template and not search optimised,” he says. “Information was jumbled and needed breaking out into a clear map with different services in different sections. It is vital that customers can find info easily. Anything below the ‘fold’ (i.e. the bottom of the screen) will be ignored.”
Keane monitors the website’s success carefully, how customers use it, who calls the freephone number and where the company ranks on search engines. He ensures the site has plenty of links to other organisations, forums and social network sites.
“Every link gives you kudos,” he explains. “If Google sees it as an authority, then by extension you’re an authority.”
Keane also monitors the success of keywords, making sure page descriptions, tags and body text are working hard to make the site visible. “Tweak and revise your metatags on an ongoing basis to make sure they reflect search terms and services,” he advises. For instance, Keane has listed all the towns in which the company operates its pallet distribution business so that Google will pick up regional searches.
“Link basing is very easy and very clever,” he adds. “Make valid comments on forums and add the html code with your search term, for example, pallet distribution. Trace backs and ping backs are very effective tools.”
Key advice: Link like crazy.
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