A unique role for the corporate site in supporting sales
Jonathan Holt
Your corporate website can play a key role in converting potential customers and even non-customers into active customers.
Of all the audience groups who visit corporate digital channels, customers are the most likely to report a failed journey and worse brand perception as a result of their visit, according to data from over one million survey responses that we have collected on prominent corporate websites over the past 11 years.
The most obvious explanation for this is that customers’ needs have often simply been overlooked. So, what do they need?
The answer for existing customers is most often clear routes to helpful customer service, but among potential customers, aggregated survey data suggests that more than half are looking for either specific product information or information about the company – or both.
This speaks to an important role for the corporate website: explaining the products or services and the company in a holistic way that no other part of the digital estate is likely to do.
On estates that are structured around a decentralised, or subsidiaries, model, where brand- or business-level websites provide most of the marketing information, the big-picture view of the customer offering can be entirely overlooked. In the worst, most fragmented cases, this can mean missed opportunities to cross-promote the company’s wares.
Best practice
Nestlé’s Brands section is one example of a company doing the big picture well, particularly in categories – Coffee, for example – that have been recently refreshed. Not only can you easily see all the things Nestlé does, but there is good context around the category and also the flagship brands, including ESG-related signposts and facts.
In other words, there is a very appropriate blending of marketing and corporate communications.
Non-customers and those who are potential customers but have come to the site with a different hat on (as jobseekers, investors etc) will also benefit by gaining a better understanding of what the company does. And some of them may even be tempted to discover new products or brands as a result.
