In the hustle and bustle of business life, corporate image is often neglected, particularly over the web. Concentration is always on the client, the next sale, or the vision(s) of executive leadership. Corporations take the burnt toast while their clients get all the perks, or the perfectly toasted confections. Digital Function notices that this epidemic of “Burnt Toast” syndrome holds true for companies of all kinds, not just self-depriving housewives. The nitty gritty details of selecting and maintaining an optimal web environment are either left to employees who have little or no clue or are neglected entirely by upper management. This marketing dereliction can cost companies big bucks in the long-run. Poor web environments can turn away customers before it helps them.
Companies, including those responsible for designing and creating other companies’ sites, overlook or underbudget their own web presence, as though their site is not going to be the first interaction with their organization that potential clients, customers, and leads will experience. If 89% of business decision makers claim that vendor websites have a major impact on their decisions according to a report from Omniture, Inc, a company’s site should be the first thing on deck when it comes to branding and marketing. If decision makers cannot navigate, understand, or easily read the site, new business, as well as press coverage, may suffer.
The Center for Media Research quoted a study that reported 51% of the population trust corporate sites, the second highest-ranked medium in the study, next to TV. Combined with the aforementioned, this information justifies spending money on a fully effective, well-designed site that will not only display corporate information but do so in a way that is user-friendly in both design and functionality. If visitors will judge a company by its web design in the first 5 seconds of visiting, how many companies would pass the test?
To circumvent the problem, Digital Function created Kalibrate, the visually inspired
website management solution, that fits the brand and web design, instead of forcing a business to choose an inferior, or commonplace, template. The solution molds itself around the design of the site and is not limited in functionality. It’s the perfect hybrid of functionality and design, where one of which is usually sacrificed for websites on smaller budgets. Website management solutions are ideal for companies with employees who are not HTML coders and hardcore web programmers. They are built for non-technical administrators who want to quickly and painlessly add or change content on the site. The main benefit of a website management solution means that corporate sites never have to be neglected or overlooked.
A side effect of a “Burnt Toast” syndrome in business could be lost revenue, as potential clients may take a neglected web environment as an indication of a company’s service quality. To that end, corporate sites should always be designed and developed with the end-user in mind and structured in ways to allow for dissemination of information that makes it easy for site visitors. Businesses should be more proactive with their web environment…and their revenues. Toss the burnt toast.
