Welcome to the latest Directions Supplement. Our focus in this edition is digital. We believe that investing in a major project that takes 18 months to launch is not always the right way to approach your digital communications. Breaking it into bite-sized chunks, simplifying the process into smaller projects will not only lead to results faster, but it can also add real benefits to your users right now. So here we look at effective projects you can do right now to improve and grow your online communications.

1. DIRECTIONS
SUPPLEMENT
JULY/AUGUST 10
PROJECTS
THAT GROW
YOUR ONLIN
E
PRESENCE
NOW

2. Directions Supplement
July 10
Why growing your online
presence incrementally
is smarter
At salterbaxter, we believe that investing in a
major project that takes 18 months to launch is
not always the right way to approach your digital
communications. Breaking it into bite-sized chunks,
simplifying the process into smaller projects will not
only lead to results faster, but it can also add real
benefits to your users right now.
Management requirements, imposed In corporate communications it’s sometimes
deadlines and budget constraints hard to decipher which channels and
sometimes mean you need to improve technologies are relevant. Making sense of
your digital communications quickly and the speed with which digital moves combined
efficiently, without looking at every area with effectively communicating what your
that needs improvement. strategy is, financial performance, annual
report/review, sustainability programme
Mel McVeigh
The beauty and strength of digital media or employee engagement programme can
Head of Digital
is that it doesn’t have to be perfect when be challenging.
mmcveigh@salterbaxter.com
you launch. As long as you are committed
to evolving it over time, responding to user Where do we start? What is the impact on
needs, developing new content and features your online communications strategy and
and always building on a strong foundation. how can you create improvements without
Follow us on twitter @salterbaxter This ensures you see results faster, which breaking the bank? How do we stop
contributes to fulfilling your strategy. technology becoming a barrier to making
Read our recent Directions
change happen? Which areas should you
reports and supplements on
This Directions Supplement looks at be investing in?
Slideshare – http://www.slideshare.
simple and effective projects to improve
net/salterbaxter
and enhance your existing online It’s easy to just throw your hands up and,
Check out our latest photos communications, now. go it’s all just too hard, let’s just start again.
on Flickr – http://www.flickr.com/
photos/salterbaxter What we are proposing is neither rocket This supplement is about showing how you
science nor a radical new approach to online can break your strategy into bite-sized and
communications. However, sometimes working manageable projects. These projects you
in the online industry it is easy to forget the can do right now without having to start
basics. We all get excited about the latest from scratch. This proven approach will
and greatest technology. Who doesn’t? see results quickly and grow your presence
more effectively.

3. Directions Supplement
July 10
Effective projects you can do now to improve your
online communications.
You have a digital strategy, your vision and objectives are clear. But you don’t know
where to start or which projects are the most important. Creating a road map helps
you to understand the end goal by breaking it down into smaller projects, implemented
incrementally to ensure a targeted approach to your digital communications.
At every stage you can then measure its success and adapt your requirements for
the next project and focus on what your users need. What we illustrate is that change
and improvement do not always involve a full redesign of your website and smaller
projects and approaches can have a major impact to your online communications.
Option 1. Design a better home page
A great home page provides multiple results, they want to read the latest strategic
entry points into content without providing direction. They may want to know your
too much information. It must explain position on sustainability?
your business quickly and provide links
to relevant content and links based on Kingfisher have created a great home page.
user tasks and needs. The user is instantly given a strong sense of
the organisation. There is a clear positioning
If it doesn’t, it isn’t working hard enough. statement and content targeted to key users
interested in product, innovations, reports,
The Antofagasta home page is an example and quick links and key features. They have
of a one-click wonder. Although all the content maximized the page design and answered
is within the navigation, there is no option the key questions of their audience.
to highlight key information relevant to the
users. The only link is news and is that
enough to draw your users into the site? Key insights
On the flip side, beware of providing too – Ensuring all relevant content is visible
much information. Using the Cobham home is key
as an example, overwhelming a user with – Think about what your users need
too much content or links with no hierarchy to see and structure accordingly
will only confuse a user. They won’t know – Provide links to multiple sources
where to click. of content
– Bring engaging content to the surface
Put yourself in the user’s shoes and present like videos and photo galleries
information that matters to them. Think – Use headings/caption smartly
about why someone visits your website. to focus on user goals and needs
They may be interested in the latest Annual
www.antofagasta.co.uk www.cobham.com www.kingfisher.co.uk
the only action for a user so much information, clear positioning
is to click on news. where is a user meant statement, quick links,
to click? financials.

4. Option 2. Do more than
communicate. Also aggregate
Online communications can get fragmented
pretty quickly. Being in many places is
important. This may include Twitter, LinkedIn
Groups, Forums, Facebook, blogs etc. That is
on top of all the micro-sites that you create
and your users have to find and navigate.
So make it easy for users to understand where
you are on the web and aggregate all your
channels into one place for easy access.
Key insight www.thecoca-colacompany.com
– Audit all the online communications Social conversations featured
you have on the home page.
– Can they all be found easily from
your primary site?
– Create hubs, a page or areas on the
www.ihgplc.com
page where all your communications
Social channels linked direct
can be profiled and found
from the home page.
Visit 2009 Annual Report
Option 3. Make search work for you http://www.barclaysannualreports.com/
ar2009/
You created this great website but no one And there in the menu is a link to
is using it. Barclays Annual Reporting Centre
– There it is.
Organisations often invest time and effort to
build a channel or microsite but it is almost If you use the corporate website search:
impossible to find once the news link has gone type Barclays Annual Report Centre
from the home page. Users won’t visit your – no results but you do get 2007 as
site if they don’t know it exists. Therefore, you the top listing (not 2009?).
need a strategy to ensure findability and it
needs to be consistent and visible. Go to Google and type in Barclays Annual
Report Centre. Yes, it can be found, but
As an example, let’s try and find the this assumes you know what you’re www.barclaysannual
Barclays Annual Report Centre. looking for, which is not intuitive. reports.com
If you create a new channel,
This site is actually quite good. But unless make sure it can be found.
you know it exists it is impossible to find.
Key insight
Via the corporate website,
http://group.barclays.com/Home – Understand the way people find your site
– there is no mention. – Understand key terms people search for
– Ensure it works if you search in Google
Visit the Investor Centre – Ensure it can be found using the website global search
http://group.barclays.com/Investor-Relations – – Ensure the relevant links are on key landing pages,
– there is no mention so you can be found
– Ensure appropriate signposting on the corporate
Visit latest Annual Reports page site in relevant areas/pages
http://group.barclays.com/Investor-Relations/ – Ensure it works from your corporate website in a
Shareholder-information/Annual-Reports. few clicks
– there is no mention

5. Option 4. Reskin can improve
your user experience
Sometimes we don’t have time to do a
full redesign that includes improving
the information architecture and
underlying technology.
Looking at the visual design, the hierarchy
of elements on the page, connecting tasks
and information will greatly improve your
online experience.
Key insight Before
– Design a visual hierarchy and structure
that can be applied across templates www.reedelsevier.com
– Connect related tasks and features so The new Reed Elsevier
they are easy to find website takes the existing
– Ensure messaging is simple yet bold structure and re-skins
– Make it easy for a user to scan the page the content in a more
but breaking it up into smaller elements meaningful and engaging
way for the user. After
A client perspective: Reed Elsevier Corporate Website
The appointment of a new CEO in early We recognised that achieving this objective
2009 prompted us to review the development could come via a number of options:
strategy for our corporate website, improvements to the site SEO, refreshing
www.reedelsevier.com elements of the design, improving the
overall IA, introducing social and rich media.
Having partnered with Salterbaxter on a
major project to migrate to a new SharePoint By breaking down these options into their
environment in 2007/8, we were keen not component parts, we could take a step back
Piers Thornewill to have to go back to the drawing board for a from the whole and better prioritise what
Corporate Communications wholesale rethink of the site this time around. we needed to do first. We were able to
Manager So a strategy of incremental, focussed and pinpoint what needed fixing, allowing us to
Reed Elsevier effective enhancements, over time, to grow implement key changes to the site. Once the
our online presence and constantly engage fixes were made, we could then focus our
our audiences held a great deal of appeal. efforts on analysing feedback post
implementation, and tweaking and
Two benefits of this approach became
improving as necessary.
immediately apparent. It tied in with our
available budget, and meant that we could There were challenges to working this
deliver tangible improvements to the site way, mostly in adapting to the shorter
within the inevitably tight timescales that development timescales and having to
would be required. Taking one element of take quicker decisions to overcome
the site in isolation, we could focus on how unforeseen issues.
to make it work harder for our audiences,
We opted to refresh the existing look and
and turn it around as part of a short, sharp,
feel of the homepage and improve some
impactful mini-project.
of the tired old site templates. Within three
But where to start? We undertook a review months we had successfully produced a
of the site including information architecture, truly refreshed site that was almost
template design, page styles, content unrecognisable from the old design,
appropriateness and homepage design, without breaking the bank.
whilst ensuring that our core objective
We are now looking at the next improvement
was always at the forefront of our thinking:
phase – integrating social media into the site
to showcase the value of our products,
– with a similar turnaround time, and with the
through innovation and our customers.
expectation of similar success.

6. About us
Contact:
Nigel Salter We are creative communications and
nsalter@salterbaxter.com
Tel: +44 (0)20 7229 5720 strategy advisers to Europe’s largest
Melissa McVeigh
mmcveigh@salterbaxter.com and most exciting organisations.
Tel: +44 (0)20 7229 5720
We’re passionate about interactive
design and build user-friendly websites
that drive engagement and value
to your organisation.
About Directions Whether you are looking to get more value from your existing technology,
Directions is a series of research need to promote a new product or service, or want to engage your customers
and insight pieces covering in a dialogue for change, we can help you navigate the digital world.
the full range of corporate
We design and deliver websites, multi-channel platforms and applications
communications issues. These
and social media channels that engage audiences and provide effective,
supplements support the interactive and enriching experiences.
main annual Directions report
which focuses on corporate Our expertise covers strategic consultancy, social media strategy,
responsibility. If you’d like to user experience and research, analytics, SEO, design and build.
contribute please get in touch. Specifically we deliver corporate websites, social media experiences
directions@salterbaxter.com and applications, intranets, online annual reports, corporate responsibility
sites and reports.
We apply a user-centric mindset to all digital projects. Our creative and
technical approach starts with putting your target audience and their
needs at the heart of the project and making sure these complement
and maximise your business and communications requirements.
Our clients include:
Adidas Group Hammerson
Ashurst LLP HSBC
Allen & Overy ING Group
ArcelorMittal International Power
Bacardi LEGO Group
202 Kensington Church Street BAE Systems Marine Harvest
London W8 4DP British Land Millicom/Tigo
Tel +44 (0)20 7229 5720 BSkyB Morrisons
Fax +44 (0)20 7229 5721 Camelot Nokia
www.salterbaxter.com Carlsberg Group Northern Foods
Coca-Cola Orkla
Daily Mail & General Trust Provident Financial
DLA Piper Reed Elsevier
E.ON (Group and UK) Rolls-Royce
Fortum Telefónica O2 Europe
H&M (Hennes & Mauritz) Tullow Oil
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