From the first blog in this series, if you answer “YES, my site should exist even if it doesn’t generate revenue!”, how do you define a site strategy and measure its performance? What does a success story look like if it’s not directly tied to revenue?
What is a Standalone Corporate Site?
A standalone site is typically focused on specific products or corporate interests, with little effort made to associate the site with other corporate site(s) or product site(s).
The primary purpose of a standalone corporate site is to sustain the brand. Its audience are those with corporate interests such as investors, employee, prospects, etc.
Pros
- Clear and concise messaging not diluted by an effort to speak to multiple audiences
- Fewer restrictions on technology platform as the site is very focused on few user actions
Cons
- Frustrated customers or corporate audience who cannot find the information they are looking for
- Limited opportunity to use general brand awareness to grow the business
A good example of a standalone corporate site is www.pepsico.com. The focus is on corporate interests to tell the story of who Pepsico is to the user, provide investors related content and media related content. Links off the site are to the brands (products) owned by Pepsico have their own distinct product branded sites, with little or no-association back to Pepsico.
The Good: this strategy works for Pepsico as the products have strong brand recognition. The corporate standalone site focuses on the corporate needs without making it complex for the diverse brand offerings and customer segments.
The Bad: limited opportunity to develop the corporate brand (Pepsico) as the product brands are standalone and have strong name recognition.
Another example is Berkshire Hathaway, a simple site focused on corporate and legal obligations. Links off the site are provided to its brands (products) that are owned. There is little synergy back to Berkshire Hathaway from these other sites.
Measurement for Success
With a site purpose to sustain the brand, success of a standalone corporate site starts with the defined objectives for each of the corporate site segments. For example, if one of the objectives for the newsroom is increase engagements with video content, how well does this content perform? Be sure to define what success looks like for engagements with video content.
Measurement is focused on the content that impacts the brand as well as where the corporate site user engages with the content (sign-ups, media interactions, etc.).
It’s not just about site measurement either, with the core purpose of brand sustainment, perpetual brand awareness studies complements a standalone corporate site measurement. Combined the qualitative and quantitative data can help to evaluate the overall success of a corporate standalone site.
In the Series
