Overview of the article series: Why your website is more than just a “digital business card”
Having your own website up and running is a given for most companies and has long since ceased to be anything new. However, the importance attributed to the website varies greatly. It is often understood as a “digital business card” which, once created, no longer requires much attention. This strongly suggests that the various possibilities and potential that a website offers are not fully recognized.
In the digital age, and especially for service providers, the website is of particular importance. In this article series, we will help you recognize the potential of a targeted, user-friendly, and brand-compliant website for your company and its brand.
- In the first part, the often underestimated importance of a professional website is highlighted and placed in the often misunderstood context of digital transformation. You will also learn the difference between digitization and digital transformation.
- The second part helps you recognize why your website is far more than just a “digital business card” and what potential a professional website truly offers for business and brand.
- In the third part, possible reasons why websites are still frequently underestimated are examined. We also present ten ideas on how you can use your website profitably.
Websites are rarely seen for what they could be, but only for what they have always been
At the beginning of the internet, the technology itself was the primary focus. The internet generated enthusiasm among people through new networking possibilities and productivity gains for organizations.
In the course of digital transformation, as we saw in the first part, it is much more about the effective use, handling, and meaningful combination of available technologies than about the technology itself. Simply digitizing is no longer enough.
And yet, with the latest developments in artificial intelligence, we are experiencing the same thing again: ChatGPT, Midjourney, and other novel tools attract attention but are rarely considered within the broader societal context.
Until a few years ago, websites primarily served the purpose of providing information about a company or organization and offering interested parties a way to get in touch.
Today, however, websites fulfill many additional functions. For example, they can function as online shops, enabling customers to purchase products and services directly via the website. With the help of a website, it is therefore possible to digitally map and expand your own business model.
Websites are now also used as marketing and communication tools to stay in contact with customers and business partners and to share news and offers in an appealing way.
The purpose of a website has therefore changed significantly over the past 20 years. However, with many technologies that have been available to us for some time, only the potential that was part of the original innovation is often recognized.
How the innovation has evolved over time and what possibilities arise for using the technology often remains unconsidered. As a result, websites are frequently only seen for what they suggested 20 or even 30 years ago.
Under these circumstances, it is clear: The website is and remains just a "digital business card" that can be created quickly and does not require much attention as long as it fulfills this function.
What additional potential your website holds for business and brand is explained in the following sections.
#1 Your website: one of the most important assets of your company
Unlike most digital communication channels, having your own website offers the advantage of independence. This means that, within legal boundaries, no one can dictate or prevent how you use your website. No one can throw you out or change the rules. You have full control over the design, content, and functionalities offered through your website. A website can and should therefore be considered a digital asset that increases in value over time—if you know what you are doing.
An asset is an investment good that has monetary value and that one can own or control. A website represents value derived from its ability to generate additional revenue for the company or organization that owns it.
The value of a website also increases over time as it spreads and gains credibility—and thus visibility—in search engines. Concretely, this means that the probability increases that potential customers, employees, and partners will come across the site in the future. Your own website ensures discoverability and visibility when it is optimized accordingly for search engines.
We conclude: The website is an essential component of the foundation of any business in the digital age.
And this is only the beginning. As we will see in the following sections, a website can be used to strengthen both the business and the brand in order to attract more ideal customers and increase the material as well as immaterial value of the company.
#2 Your website: brand stage instead of “digital business card”
A business card primarily serves to convey contact details in a handy and reusable format. The available space and design possibilities at this touchpoint are very limited and usually static.
A website, on the other hand, offers the possibility to present further information, such as your company’s offerings, in an appealing way and to make this information available to significantly more people at lower cost.
In that sense, a website can indeed serve as an extended digital business card and provide important information for various stakeholders. Most companies have already understood and implemented this. They are discoverable online and communicate what they consider the most important information. But is that really all that 30 years of technological development have to offer for business and brand?
Given the design freedom that web technologies offer today, there should be more to it than just publishing polished data points.
Your own website gives you the opportunity to strengthen the trust of potential customers and possible business partners in your company and your offerings by creating emotional impressions in line with the brand and making relevant information accessible.
Nowhere else can we communicate the identity of the brand so effectively—before the actual services are even used—and make it tangible for others. The website thus becomes a place that attracts suitable customers, employees, and partners and encourages them to stay because of the experiences offered. If the website provides real value, there is a high probability that the user will visit the site again.
If the website appears in a brand-compliant light and not only provides information but also generates appropriate emotions, it becomes an effective touchpoint between the user and the company. A business card obviously cannot compete here.
Instead of comparing your website to a business card, you should view it as a brand stage that
- allows you to position the brand and your offerings as you see fit, and
- allows users to independently form an impression of what might later await them as a customer, employee, or partner.
The website can be used to gain the attention of specific people, awaken their need for our offerings, and deliberately create expectations in them.
The prerequisite for this is radical customer centricity: Only if we put ourselves in the position of the people in whom expectations and associations are to be created can we design the website based on brand identity and with the company’s goals in mind so that it meets the needs of the target groups.
And that is exactly how brand building works: First, emotional expectations must be created that are aligned with the identity and at the same time match the needs of the stakeholders. Only when we actually fulfill—and ideally exceed—these expectations through our offerings, our behavior, and our communication does a brand (reputation) emerge in the minds of individuals.
In this context, user experience (UX)—the experience of the user when interacting with the website—plays a decisive role. If the website is not easy to use, users will leave it after a short time. Negative experiences are associated by the user with the company and with what can be expected from its services. The brand (reputation) suffers.
If, on the other hand, great importance is placed on ensuring a user-friendly design and the website appears in a brand-compliant light, it actively contributes to building and strengthening the brand. A user-centered website also ensures that users stay on the site much longer and engage more intensively with the content and impressions offered. Over time (and with an appropriate marketing strategy), the website creates a pull effect that attracts your ideal customers, employees, and partners.
It then provides you with valuable business opportunities and contributes significantly to ensuring that the company remains memorable.
#3 Your website: business platform instead of “digital business card”
By now it should be clear: The website is more than a digital version of a business card.
Rather, it enables you to communicate all relevant information in a way that makes resonance between the communicated identity of the company and that of the user likely. This resonance ideally leads to action or at least to a positive memory for the user.
Far beyond the functionality of a paper card, the website provides numerous opportunities to secure a place in the memory of the right people and to be associated with positive impressions.
However, the brand only forms in our favor if the value promise is fulfilled again and again. This means regularly meeting—and occasionally exceeding—the expectations of customers that we ideally helped create.
This is where the idea of your own—and thus largely independent—“business platform” comes into play. Instead of viewing the website exclusively as a communication channel, it should be understood as a central platform through which not only information offers but also interaction offers can be provided.
Even a fillable contact form, which is already found on most “digital business cards,” represents such an interaction offer. But is that really all that 30 years of technological development have to offer for business and brand?
To create websites that make a noticeable difference for business and brand, we must escape the mental model of the "digital business card." Only when we focus on the entire value chain or customer journey do we find answers to the question of how the brand promise can be fulfilled even more effectively.
Of course, it is also about the question of which existing approaches can be further optimized (efficiency). This includes in particular optimizing loading time, improving search engine discoverability, and other performance-driven aspects. However, even more important than search engine ranking or Lighthouse rating should be developing solutions that offer even greater value to the customer (effectiveness) and thus secure the competitiveness of the company (innovation).
If we view our website as a business platform, we can think about how we can use it to make value creation more effective and exceed customer expectations.
Concretely, this means: Your own website can be used to provide customers (as well as employees and partners) with valuable functionalities (such as a video portal, a members’ area, or an online shop). In this way, the business model is digitally expanded and the website gains value.
A website can therefore do far more than digitally replicate what already exists offline (business card). On the contrary: a large part of today’s global economy would not exist without functional websites. This should make you aware: A website offers numerous design and development possibilities that can serve different purposes. It can therefore provide valuable answers to the question of how to respond to the changing needs of target groups in the digital age.
From the possibilities of a digital business platform, against the backdrop of customer needs and demands, a meaningful realignment of your own business may emerge. Complementary and new values can be created and thus generate value for the company.
So ask yourself: How can we design our own communication and interaction platform so that new types of value arise for customers, employees, and partners?
For the resulting innovation projects to have a chance of success, an integrated digital strategy is required—one that is continuously developed with the involvement of all stakeholders and that ensures the healthy development of the organization in the digital age on the basis of a shared identity.
Your website: brand stage and business platform in your own ownership
A targeted, user-friendly, and brand-compliant website offers you many opportunities to make your company’s identity tangible to others, build trust with your target groups, and communicate your offerings in an appealing way. Beyond that, the website can also serve as a platform to provide interaction possibilities. The business model can be digitally expanded with the help of the website in order to increase value for customers, employees, or partners. Modern web technologies offer us a high degree of creative freedom and ensure that the return on all our efforts flows into our own “account” and continues to work for us.
What about you: What potential can you already recognize for your business and its brand now that you have broadened your perspective on the topic of websites?
As part of our Brand & Web Audit, we take a closer look and jointly identify the biggest bottlenecks and potentials of your brand as well as your website. At the end of the process, you will not only know what matters in brand building and website design, but also how you can use them concretely for your business success. You can find initial ideas in the third part of this article series.
Feel free to contact us if you would like to discuss the possibilities in your context.
