Be honest, how are you getting on with those parts of your corporate digital presence I call the satellite sites?

These are the areas of the digital estate that are supposed to speak to your company’s countries, regions or markets with one unified brand voice, and also provide an unmistakable local flavour.

You may have little to no direct control over what the people who run these satellite sites do day to day, and yet your job, from a message point of view, is to keep them from crashing into each other or spinning off into deep space.

The problems you already have with managing the main digital presence – competing demands, multiple internal stakeholders to please, disjointed content – are all magnified at local level.

It’s tempting to throw up your hands and just let them get on with it, but that’s only going to cause more issues down the line.

I want to share four strategies that the best companies in the Bowen Craggs Index use to ensure satellite sites circle the central digital presence in nice, tidy orbits.

Study the best for the right set-up

There is no one-size-fits-all governance model for managing local sites at the top of the Bowen Craggs Index, but you can also count the number of models that work well on one hand. Some companies keep control of local digital communications with every market presence on one centralised platform. Some find more success with a mix-and-match model – for example, separate sites for larger markets and smaller ones consolidated into the main presence.

Get granular with content strategy

This is where you have to invest some planning time. Decide which content sections will be fully provided from the centre, which ones will be fully localised, and you allow flexibility. Core “about” content needs to speak with one voice around the world, but does it make sense to send visitors to the global corporate pages or tailor something locally? The answers will depend on the time, level of interest and competence of the local teams. See Lilly for a sophisticated balance between centralised content about the group, with localised editorial about operations in particular countries.

Translation is always a trade-off

A few good rules of thumb here are to translate according to local needs and budgets; have clear demarcation and signposts between English and non-English content; mixing and matching is possible but needs to be handled with care. See this best practice Italy page from NXP, which is an example of effective, targeted translation.

Use your header as a hub

No matter what model you choose or the sophistication of your content sharing, you need to ensure that visitors can get to any part of the corporate digital estate from any other part. That means you need some variation on the global hub menu in the header of every corner of the global estate. See AXA for a great example to follow.

Go further with the hub by adding social media, business and brand sites, and any other “satellites” that make sense for your visitors!

To discuss how Bowen Craggs can help you address this, and other challenges, please get in touch.

    * denotes a mandatory field

    Information given here will only be used for the agreed purpose and will never be shared with anyone else and is protected by our privacy policy

    The Bowen Craggs Index Snapshot 2022

    Astra Zeneca Logo

    Client industry details

    Summary of work for client here… Vestibulum at metus a mauris porta dictum rhoncus vitae elit. Vestibulum volutpat lectus sed diam auctor, id cursus lectus consequat. Nullam tristique eu mi et rhoncus. Nam venenatis imperdiet tortor nec molestie. Sed congue egestas magna, a placerat tortor facilisis in.

    BASF Logo

    Client industry details

    Summary of work for client here… Vestibulum at metus a mauris porta dictum rhoncus vitae elit. Vestibulum volutpat lectus sed diam auctor, id cursus lectus consequat. Nullam tristique eu mi et rhoncus. Nam venenatis imperdiet tortor nec molestie. Sed congue egestas magna, a placerat tortor facilisis in.

    Aramco Logo

    Client industry details

    Summary of work for client here… Vestibulum at metus a mauris porta dictum rhoncus vitae elit. Vestibulum volutpat lectus sed diam auctor, id cursus lectus consequat. Nullam tristique eu mi et rhoncus. Nam venenatis imperdiet tortor nec molestie. Sed congue egestas magna, a placerat tortor facilisis in.

    Caterpillar Logo

    Client industry details

    Summary of work for client here… Vestibulum at metus a mauris porta dictum rhoncus vitae elit. Vestibulum volutpat lectus sed diam auctor, id cursus lectus consequat. Nullam tristique eu mi et rhoncus. Nam venenatis imperdiet tortor nec molestie. Sed congue egestas magna, a placerat tortor facilisis in.

    GSK Logo

    Client industry details

    Summary of work for client here… Vestibulum at metus a mauris porta dictum rhoncus vitae elit. Vestibulum volutpat lectus sed diam auctor, id cursus lectus consequat. Nullam tristique eu mi et rhoncus. Nam venenatis imperdiet tortor nec molestie. Sed congue egestas magna, a placerat tortor facilisis in.

    BP Logo

    Client industry details

    Summary of work for client here… Vestibulum at metus a mauris porta dictum rhoncus vitae elit. Vestibulum volutpat lectus sed diam auctor, id cursus lectus consequat. Nullam tristique eu mi et rhoncus. Nam venenatis imperdiet tortor nec molestie. Sed congue egestas magna, a placerat tortor facilisis in.

    Verizon Logo

    Client industry details

    Our Bowen Craggs Club membership has enabled us to benchmark all aspects of our digital presence against global all-sector best practice, share lessons and ideas with peers, and get both quick-win and longer term recommendations for improvement. Bowen Craggs is also providing us with valuable advice on our approach to online communications following the acquisition of G4S by Allied Universal.”
     

    Subscribe to our online effectiveness newsletter

    Our monthly email provides insights and commentary on the latest developments in corporate digital communications from the Bowen Craggs Index™

      * denotes a mandatory field

      Information given here will only be used for the agreed purpose and will never be shared with anyone else and is protected by our privacy policy