Make Sure Customers Don't Get Lost in the Web.

While thumbing through some popular magazines recently, I ran across several innovative and intriguing advertisements. The headlines were smart, the copy was catchy and I immediately wanted to know more about these companies, their products and services, culture and people. Prominently placed in each ad was the address to the company's web site. Excited, I fired up my browser to type in that now ever-present Internet suffix, ".com". With each keystorke, anticipation built toward reaching my destination and finding more information from the creative minds behind the design and approval of these companies' ads.

What I found instead were two sites "under construction" and a third that had been built in 1996, showing no obvious relation to the brand portrayed in their current print campaign. The first two left me stunned. "Gotcha!" they seemed to say. "We have so much money from our three rounds of financing that we can waste it on ads for our non-existent web site. You can come back later."

Pure bravado. I see a lot of that in my web development business.

And the active (albeit out-of-date) site I explored turned out to be difficult to navigate, with obscure section heading titles like, "Places." So where I thought I was going to find a roster of the company's branch locations, I found instead a list of other web site addresses containing arcane information that related to their business. Thoughtful? Perhaps. But, inexplicably, they made it far too simple for me to leave their site before I ever learned what I came for!

The point of all this is that I felt betrayed. I spent my time, which is very precious to me, chasing down information that either didn't exist in the place I was told it would be, or was too deeply buried to uncover easily. Site users who have similar experiences (and I suspect we are legion) become mistrustful of companies who lead us down such dead-end primrose cyber paths. It makes us wonder if the organizations that do this are universally disrespectful to potential customers, or for that matter, potential investors.

The good news is that there are lessons to be learned here and temptations to be avoided as you examine, critique and maintain your own company's web site requirements.

Lesson #1: It is critical to recognize that creating a brand-enhancing environment online is very different from creating a linear one-page ad or a 30-second commercial spot. The online experience is multi-dimensional, allowing a user to enter the site at many different places. Make sure that navigation is consistent by providing a link to the home page from every single page in the site. Also, make sure that your logo or branding message is evident on every page. Provide information in bite-size morsels - long enough to get the point across, short enough to hold the user's attention.

Lesson #2: If your site isn't ready, don't advertise that it is. Yes, I know that you wanted it up and running yesterday because everyone tells you that your competition will eat your lunch if it isn't. But false promises or faulty execution aren't worth the disappointment you'll provoke with poor first impressions. It will cost you more in the long run to get customers back again when the site actually is ready.

Lesson #3: Integrate your offline branding messages with the online experience in terms of impressions and interface opportunities. If your message is different online than offline, you run the risk of adding to the confusion that most people feel nowadays. With too much information and not enough time, many visitors to your site can be put off and frustrated by outdated information at the same time your new TV or print ad campaign is pushing your company's latest innovations or products.

Lesson #4: Make sure that your web site is creative in every aspect; accurately portraying your business from the site's front-end (design, information, graphics, headlines, language and logical user-interface) to its back-end (the technology-enabled transactions). Too many web sites look as if they emerged from a one-size-fits-all site- builder program run by the junior vice president's nephew. You've seen it before: Left side text navigation system, backgrounds with an eternally emblazoned logo overlaid with long scrolling pages of boring information. Dead links abound. Technology or the software was allowed to drive the "creative."

Lesson #5: Choose a web site developer (or development team) with experience in combining whatever means to the end is necessary to promote your particular business online...both strategically and via each critical implementation element. Make sure you're dealing with specialists who have worked with brands before and understand how to translate your offline image to the web site experience, both visually and through site architecture.

An example:

Pretend you operate a web site that sells clothing online. You hire a hot e-commerce developer and spend lots of money creating back-end systems like the transaction engine, which is neatly tied into your real-time inventory and fulfillment mechanism. If your site was built by developers who only understand how to implement technology (but not how to create an apparel-friendly environmental for customers); you'll end up with an online layout and merchandise-interface that looks like this:

A huge virtual warehouse surrounding a solid gold cash register with all the clothes packed tightly onto one rack in the middle. Probably, there will be a maze leading to the cash register, requiring too many decisions along the way, taking customers either down the wrong track or losing them altogether.

Bottom-Line Lesson: Too many companies rush into interactive storefronts and web site commerce, allowing technology to take priority over an appropriate, creative design and route to transactions. Many open up for business online without having found the right web development partner who asked the right questions before building the site.

Bottom-Line Solution: The optimum way to translate your offline brand image and message to your regularly updated web site is by starting out with creative specialists at the same time that you are developing your technology solutions. Too many companies concentrate on technology as the most important part of a site and don't consult a creative specialist until it is too late. By working with companies or individuals who specialize in strategy and creative implementation of web initiatives before (or simultaneously with) engaging a technology partner, you can save yourself enormous marketing headaches and heartaches.

As the hotel example illustrates, it's the total experience that makes the difference. The back-end may work great, but if the environment is confusing or not friendly, your customers will go someplace else that is more pleasing. And there is plenty of competition in this world fighting to capture and carry them to another domain.

Be aware that web companies have formed alliances that provide "best-of-breed" solutions, giving you many alternatives to a one-stop shop. Seek out creative and technical teams who can integrate your larger vision seamlessly. Companies large and small should investigate these alliances, knowing that technology only provides the framework for customers to conduct transactions online, and that it will be the experience of a site that keeps them coming back.

Chances are that your business already is - or soon will be - affected by the Internet. If you take the time to get ready, get set, and grow a dynamic, easy-to-navigate web site for your customers - one that supports your offline image and brand messages - there's no way you can go wrong.

Mark Levy is the CEO of Media Revolution, a Santa Monica-based web site development company.