Portraying Your Client’s Company

When you develop a Web site for a client, you are presenting your customer’s professional image for the world to see. Your client might be selling goods or services or providing information for customers. A Web site works 24/7 and has the potential for drawing a worldwide audience. The organization portrayed on the Web site might or might not have a bricks-and-mortar location in which it does business. Even if it does have a bricks-and-mortar business, that won’t matter to an audience whose opinion of the company is defined by its Web site. Therefore, it is paramount that you paint the best portrait possible when you create a Web site for a client.

Defining your Client’s Voice

Your client’s voice encompasses many things: the manner in which your client does business, your client’s mission, the image your client portrays to his customers, and so on. When you define your client’s voice through a Web site, you are answering the question: Do I want to do business with this company or individual? In order to gain the trust of Web site visitors, the site must leave a positive impression. But more than that, the site should be unique enough to stand out against the client’s competition.

Most of your client’s competitors probably have Web sites. And it is almost a given that Web sites within a certain industry will have a common look. Therefore, the only way you can make your client’s site rise above the competition is to portray your client’s unique assets - the client’s voice, if you will. When defining the voice of a company, the message you portray on the Web should be consistent with the client’s other communications, such as printed ads, television commercials, and audio advertisements. If your client has a startup company, the Web site helps define the client’s essence. To define this intangible, you need to brainstorm with your client and consider the following:

• Audience:
  Who is the client’s intended audience? What is unique about your client’s intended audience? How do you portray your client as part of this clan? What type of message will set your client apart from his competition, in the eyes of his intended audience?
  
  
• Mission:
  What is your client’s intended mission? How does your client plan to serve the intended audience? When defining the client’s mission, steer clear of the usual cliches, such as highest quality, superior service, satisfied customers, and so on. You can reword cliches to make your client stand out from his competition. In addition to instilling confidence in your client’s intended audience, his mission statement must portray his unique core values.
  
  
• Style:
  What is your client’s style? Is she an entrepreneur? Where does the client fall in the broad spectrum of similar businesses? Is she smackdab in the middle? Or is she conservative or bold and brash?
  
  
• Customers:
  How do your client’s customers perceive her? The competitors? Do the answers to these questions match your client’s perception of herself and her business?
  
  
• Future goals:
  Where does your client see herself in five or ten years? Will the message your client portrays now be viable in five or ten years?

Armed with this information, you and your client can begin making some decisions about how you will portray the company on the Web. While you are at it, have the client distill the information into a few paragraphs that describe the company, its core values, and future vision. You can incorporate this information into an effective mission statement.

Developing your Client’s Look

After you and the client define her voice, it is time to think of how you will incorporate this with the Web site you create. In essence, you are defining your client’s look on the Web. The amount of creativity you can employ in defining your client’s look on the Web depends on whether the client has an established, bricks-and-mortar business.

If your client has an established bricks-and-mortar business, you will have to create a Web site that has a similar look and feel. The site has to incorporate the client’s logo and images that are used in corporate brochures and advertising. Your client’s presence on the Web is defined on how well you assimilate your client’s bricks-and-mortar look with your Web design. When you are designing a Web site for a client who has already established a look, ask yourself these questions:

• Does the Web site have the look and feel of the client’s bricks-andmortar business?
  When established customers visit the Web site, the site should seem like an extension of the client’s bricks-and-mortar business. The design should feel right to the client as well as his customers.
  
  
• Does the design effectively portray the client’s voice?
  The design you create needs to portray the client’s manner of doing business, his mission statement, and his style of doing business. Your design must also be consistent with the expectations of the client’s current audience and intended audience.
  
  
• Can the design be modified to fit the client’s future goals and needs?
  If your client’s long-term goals are substantially different than current goals, you will probably end up doing a complete redesign at some point in the future. However, if your client’s future goals are to grow and increase customer base with the same or similar product designs, your initial design has to be flexible enough to incorporate future expansion, such as the addition of new sections, changes in product lines, and so on.
  
  

If you are designing a site for a client that will do business only on the Web, you have considerably more leeway when developing a client’s look. With the client’s help, you can establish the client’s Web presence. If the client already has a logo, you use this as a starting point. The colors in the client’s logo help define the color palette you use to design the Web site. After deciding on the color palette, your next step is to assimilate graphics into the design. If the client is a solopreneur (runs a one-person business) or has a small business, you can make the business seem larger than life with the creative use of clip art. If your client is an aggressive businessperson, you can depict your client’s style of doing business with the creative use of color and fonts. The finished site must effectively communicate your client’s style of doing business, mission, and goals to potential customers in the most positive manner.

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