Has this happened to you? You go online to research something on a prospect and you type in that company’s URL. You wait. The homepage comes up and you can’t believe the image that unfolds before your eyes. Its design is static, flat and rigid. You say to yourself, but my prospect seems dynamic, strategic and forward-thinking! As you stare at the site longer, you notice obscure writing, typos or incorrect grammar. If you didn’t know this prospect, you’d probably jump ship at this point, but since you do you might give him the benefit of the doubt and just wonder how he could be satisfied with poor craftsmanship.

Like it or not, we are evaluated by our web sites, just as we are by our voice mail messages, letters and every other communication we produce. So shouldn’t we make sure we are intentional about the way we build key relationships instead of inviting unfavorable impressions about our work?

A web site is far more than a marketing tool. It opens a window to our character, particularly our ability to serve, and that’s why we must see it as an opportunity far beyond a ’sales pitch.’

What are the assumptions that prospects can make about us if our site isn’t up to par? I think the biggest ones are that we don’t care about quality, we don’t value our client’s needs over our own by inviting opinion and listening, and we aren’t very open, ‘real’ and flexible folks to work with.

To avoid this scenario, I’d like to suggest that when you rebuild your site you take part in the creative process so that the splash you make to your prospects is intentional, accurate, inviting, and compelling.

To do this, you will need to write the first draft of the content, help design the navigation and clarify the marketing and mission concepts that need to be conveyed about your organization.

In writing your draft, tackle the About, Services, Products and Mission pages by keeping this tip in mind: write more from the perspective of prospects in your various audiences and less from your desire to explain yourself. That may sound backwards, and it is hard to do. But I really believe that if you answer questions your visitors might have about their own markets that they will have a clearer notion about whether you can help them and you will be doing more to motivate them to do business with you than if you tell them solely what you want them to know about you. You need to build trust by demonstrating your commitment, certainly, but it doesn’t come across best through a lecture or a defense. You want to define your mission but not at the expense of narrowing your boundaries. Take yourself less seriously than you take the needs and wishes of your prospect.

And don’t forget to make the experience fun for surfers. You don’t have to make the site completely interactive and state of the art. Your design can be very simple and clean and still be smashing but help prospects find the hope, the dream, the “fit” they came for, easily and painlessly. They should feel your excitement about your mission. They should have evidence that you enjoy getting up in the morning and going to work. Don’t chase them away with boredom or ambiguity.

Fiction and advertising writers know that before they start writing they need to be able to picture each of their characters. For example, we have a guy eating breakfast with his bowl of Wheaties. Writers need to know how old he is, what he is wearing, what mood he is in, what he is thinking and what he is feeling. But we don’t always say he is happy or sad or old. We illustrate those details through action and description because it is stronger than using declarative statements. It also avoids having to brag about our business or organization, which is a turn off and therefore ineffective.

Web sites demand the same thorough scrutiny and knowledge of our intent before we start trying to spell these things out to our visitors. So clarifying for yourself what you are about before you try to make sense to your viewers is a huge advantage. Do this little exercise and write your content. You may think you know everything that is important to you and what you want to say but trust me, you will learn a great deal more about yourself and your organization by going through this process. You can hire someone later to rewrite or edit but you are the one that needs to do this homework initially.

As you select your web designer and content person, choose people whose work you love and who are good communicators. If they don’t return e-mails or phone calls promptly, you know what to expect when you need a question answered right before the site goes live. Web design can be an intense process – perhaps as challenging as renovating a house while living in it - and you need to do a great deal of communicating back and forth about likes and dislikes, staying the course and making sure the end result is what you want.

Even when you follow these steps, you will find that your new site is outdated the day it is finished. It happens every time, if we are lucky, because we have moved so far ahead in defining what we want our next directions to be. I knew as soon as I finished each of my revisions what I wanted my next site to be.

My favorite sites are listed below. I wish I could show you, in some cases, the sites just before these current ones because I liked the sidebars and varying font sizes (8 and 10). But these revisions are still outstanding. Notice the clarity and depth on the homepage. Can you find your information clearly? Do you feel a new and exciting universe opening up?

Here they are:

http://www.harvard.edu  – Superb in layout and clarity of mission, which is hard to do because Harvard’s offerings are huge.

http://www.ifaw.org  – Great depth, photography, clarity and mission; pleasing, functional and helpful.

http://www.dailycandy.org  – Fantastic graphics, like The New Yorker, easy to navigate, an overall delightful experience.

http://www.littlefrog.com  – I worked on this one during two revisions so I’m biased but I feel it presents a good number of options about meticulous subject matter in a way that is interesting, functional and artistically lyrical.

http://www.seagullwriting.com – My site receives compliments but not on the color which I can now see is very bright, thanks to my new laptop without frayed wires. I’d feel more comfortable with more subtle color and web pages that are shorter, more focused to clients and less serious. But I’m waiting to turn it into an e-commerce site. Why am I waiting you ask? You’ve listened!

Now, get out that laptop or legal pad and start making notes! You will energize yourself as you energize your clients, I promise.

And take note. Once your new web pages are up, all you have to do is flip that same content and you have a dynamite brochure, mission statement, case statement, capabilities statement, bio, lead generating letter, annual fund-raising appeal and more! See why investing in your web site is a worth while adventure? Need I remind you, too, that adventures can be fun? They are! Especially when they save us time and money and bring in more business.