View event presentation – the evolution of the corporate website
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The corporate website is evolving as communications landscapes change. Technological advancements, ease of access to information, and shifts in stakeholder expectations are driving this evolution. Early corporate websites focused on information but now must manage reputation, crisis situations, recruitment, and reporting while wearing many digital hats. The future may see corporate websites become more customer-focused and integrated with digital strategies that emphasize outreach across channels, brand advocacy, content customization, and thought leadership.
View event presentation – the evolution of the corporate website
- 2. The evolving communications landscape What is driving the evolution? • Technological advancements • Ease of accessibility to information • Shifts in stakeholder expectations What does this mean for the humble corporate website?
- 3. The corporate website - keeping up! “Website effectiveness” – the holy grail! • Many are leading the pack • Many striving to keep up • Many are confused!
- 4. The early days In the early days, the corporate website was mostly about… BP’s 1996 website
- 5. Refining our understanding As the corporate website grew, so did understanding of the different stakeholders needs. BP’s 2003 website
- 6. Focus on content And content became the focus in a world of social networking
- 7. The digital ‘landscape’ Today's corporate website wears many hats • Reputation management • Crisis management • Recruitment vehicle BP’s current website • Reporting tools
- 8. So what is next?
- 10. From corporate to customer The evolution of the Thames Water website Presentation by: Andy Freeman Digital Communications Manager, Thames Water
- 11. A little bit about us… We are the UK's largest water and sewerage company, serving London and the Thames Valley. Some key facts: • 13.8 million wastewater customers and 8.7 million clean water customers • We supply 2,600 million litres of drinking water every day • We treat 2,800 million litres of sewage every day • Regulated business – equivalent to a FTSE100 • Spending £5bn between 2010-2015 on upgrading our network • Take over 250,000 calls a month • Working in over 500 streets at any one time • Nearly 5,000 employees
- 12. 2007…
- 14. Key challenges 1. Manage expectation and build relationships across the business with senior managers and directors 2. Define the purpose of the website 3. Secure funding 4. Communicate the online vision to employees
- 15. Our vision Vision If customers had a choice, they would choose Thames Water. Our desired customer experience, informed by our customers is: • They can trust us • We’re easy to deal with, and • We really care
- 16. Where we are today…
- 17. Current website Our website is independently ranked top in the Uk utilities industry for usability – hitting the highest ever score Highlights: • Traffic up 20% • Self-service up 30% • Return visitors up 60% • Crisis management tool • Three awards • Digital now established as a key channel
- 18. The past 12 months: Planning for the future • Networking – internal and external • Focus groups • Developing our online vision and strategy • Securing significant investment • Aligning the digital strategy to the business strategy
- 19. So, to the future…
- 26. The evolution of the corporate website Mark Smith, Creative Director 15th October 2010
- 27. The changing digital landscape • Twitter grew by 752% during 2008 with 4.43 million unique visitors in the US alone last year • YouTube has 200 million unique users every month • Blogs received 77.7 million unique visitors in 2008 • FaceBook has 150 million active users
- 28. Think bigger picture • Align your digital communications with your other marketing assets and the wider business goals • Understand your audiences, where they spend their time online and what they are saying about you • Identify a series of prioritised deliverables, a ‘roadmap’ for digital success • Formulate a digital strategy
- 29. Building a successful digital strategy • Digital outreach • Brand advocacy • Channel convergence • Customisation • Thought leadership
- 30. Digital outreach • Conversations about your brand are no longer confined to your website • Understand where your audience is, where its going and what its saying • Proactively manage and protect your reputation through social media channels • Accept some loss of control and become part of the experience and conversation
- 31. The IT crowd Dell Computers taps into its own customers as a source of talent and innovation. Customers can submit ideas for new products or improvements to existing services and vote on ideas they would most like to see developed.
- 32. Brand advocacy • Identify the human face of your organisation • Influence the influencers • Enable and encourage brand ambassadors to represent your brand outside the confines of the corporate website • Establish trust and build equity by leveraging your stakeholders social networks
- 33. Come fly with me Virgin America have partnered with Klout, an analytics service that tracks users’ influence on Twitter (based on variables such as the quality and number of followers and retweets), to offer flights to influencers in Toronto.
- 34. Channel convergence • Communication, not technology led • Appropriate channel, appropriate message • Don’t just deliver the same unimaginative message through a different channel • Integrate social content and discussion back into your website.
- 35. Channel hopping Ernst & Young followed the ‘joiner’ demographic and constructed a graduate recruitment campaign entirely through social media channels, using FaceBook as the hub to ‘share the EY experience’.
- 36. Content customisation • Deliver the right content to the right audience • Customise, not personalise • Develop targeted content • ‘Dashboard’ relevant content and functionality • Keep it simple!
- 37. Getting personal A new wave of personalisation technologies combines aggregation with customised content, without compromising an individuals privacy. DailyPerfect analyses publicly available browsing data and information to build profiles of individuals and push content to them accordingly.
- 38. Thought leadership • Build a thought leadership culture • Sharing knowledge will build credibility • Repackage what you already have • Meaningful thought leadership, not empty PR speak • Invite your stakeholders to participate
- 39. Bright ideas GE’s ‘innovation experiment’ where businesses, entrepreneurs, innovators and students are invited to share their ideas on how to build the next-generation power grid - and the best ones win venture capital funding.
- 40. Summary • True interaction now takes place way beyond the corporate website • Your website still has an important role to play, but think about the bigger picture • Extend your online presence outside of your corporate website, where appropriate • Use other channels, but don’t forget to innovate on your corporate website • Understand, follow and, ultimately participate in social media, but not at the expense of your corporate website
- 41. The evolution of the corporate website Jason Ross, CEO 15th October 2010
- 42. Corporate Digital trends 3D TV Interactive TV Video search
- 43. Website effectiveness • Website effectiveness – is the term passé? • Not so much about the holy grail • Think digital strategy - roadmap