Positioning the Homepage Marketing Message

A major difficulty in trying to implement marketing strategies on the web is the lack of focus when establishing the main "message" of the site. A company's home page needs to address several groups of people, each with their own set of needs and expectations. Additionally, a company will want to communicate information this is important to its own branding and positioning. The attempt to address all of these needs on one home page ultimately decreases the effectiveness of any of the messages to make an impact.

In contrast, when utilizing other forms of marketing media, the audience and purpose for a particular marketing piece is narrower. For example, a brochure may be developed to respond to inquiries for product information. An advertisement may be created to appeal to a specific niche in a trade publication. A pamphlet may be designed for use in recruiting staff. In each of these examples the focus and content of the piece is specific to its intended purpose.

On the web all of these purposes and more need to be addressed with a single site. This causes struggles and confusion most clearly seen on the home page. Every department has its own purposes and desires attention on the home page. Deciding what is of most importance and how to weigh and position all of the information is both a political struggle and an information design struggle. Unfortunately many of these struggles don't manifest themselves until after much of the design and programming of a website has been completed. When the "beta site" is released to the company, many managers and department heads weigh in on what they feel is most important and what they want on the homepage. Of course changes in focus and weight at this stage will cause significant changes to the site. These changes can impact the budget, and launch date of the site. They also tend to dilute the overall message of the site and the integrity of the original design.

While there are some technical approaches to web development that can help focus the message of a website to various audiences, a website still has to address many more concerns than other forms of marketing media. When developing a website, the team needs to give attention to defining and "weighting" all of the site's goals and purposes from the beginning.

Again, grayscreen prototyping allows for effective communication with clients thereby overcoming the many barriers inherent to web development. This method helps identify the relationships between the various types of content assigning each the appropriate weight and position. Because the grayscreen prototype is an inclusive, team-centered process, many people can have input at the early stages of development. Political struggles can be overcome and diverse needs can be addressed through this process.

When developing with grayscreen the first round of prototyping might focus on the overall information architecture, namely the main-site categories and subcategories. Other site features, functions, or special sections are identified. This process is similar to developing a well worked-out site map, but the HTML prototype is more explicit and presents the ideas in more detail, in relationship to how other types of content would be handled. For example, the main sections of a site might be represented as "about us," "our products," "news," "partnerships," and "investors." A different navigation section containing site utilities such as "home," "contact," "search," and "site map" can be distinguished from the main site categories.

There might be other distinct content on the site, such as a special offer for signing up for a newsletter. This offer, though it might be important to the goals of the site, might not need to be included as a main category in the navigation bar. Instead we might call attention to it in the prototype on the home page. The prototype would represent this intention by showing the offer in a simple table cell box near the body copy on the home page. The categorization and prioritization of these items represents the information in a way that allows the client to see and react to the "weight" assigned them and the relationships between them. The client can then provide input, correction, or approval.

Because a website addresses the needs of so many audiences, it must be developed in an environment of careful communication. Grayscreen prototyping provides the opportunity to communicate about these subtleties early on in the development process when changes and adjustments can most easily be made.

Conclusion
Being aware of some of the potential problems when developing a web site is the first step in avoiding them. By using a process like grayscreen prototyping, that overcomes these barriers, we can turn potential negative experiences into positive ones. The results will be successful websites that meet and exceed the needs of our clients.