The Digital Trinity
There’s certainly no shortage of websites today — Netcraft’s September 2012 Web Server Survey showed more than 190 million active sites, and VeriSign reported recently that
the total number of domain names has surpassed a record-breaking 240 million. Whichever way you look
at those numbers, that’s a lot of competition from which your Web business will need to stand out.
To become a “premier” digital destination (those which
control the majority share of voice or are a well-known
and dominant market provider), enterprises need to
do everything right, very little wrong and stay a few
steps ahead of the competition. This is achievable
through the use of innovative technologies and by
leveraging the many “best practice” techniques to remain
top of mind and ultimately become revenue rich.
Based on Website Magazine’s eight-year history in
this industry, these are the only ways we’ve encountered
to become one of the elite digital brands. If you
know of another, do let us know.
To actually achieve the illustrious status of being a
“premier” website (perhaps the top 10 in your niche,
for example), businesses must 1) provide a reliable infrastructure
and maintain a high level of performance
within their software applications, 2) master customer
acquisition and retention — through promotional
channels (including organic search, social media,
advertising and email) and 3) continually work to understand
the user experience to optimize conversions
— through improvements to offers or on design and
usability, and focus on enabling analytics solutions to
power and inform any future improvements and critical
business decisions.
Few enterprises, even those few established or
emerging elite brands that earned the respect of, and
investment from, the digital business community, are
able to consistently provide a digital experience that
simultaneously meets or exceeds the expectations of
companies and consumers alike. Make no mistake, it
most certainly happens and as a Web worker you’re
well aware of what you could learn from the most successful
enterprises on the ‘Net.
For this reason, Website Magazine is producing an
extensive guide to the Web’s premier digital destinations
in its upcoming Web 100 Guide (available January
2013). It addresses what makes these brands and companies so successful; what they are
doing “right” currently in their own
words; and where they expect to grow
their businesses and improve their digital
campaigns in the future, as well as how
they plan on getting there.
Website Magazine’s Web 100 is a profile
of 100 companies in six categories including
finance, lifestyle, retail/consumer
goods, news and media, technology and
service providers. When developing a
project of this scope, it’s important to have baseline
criteria, a virtual philosophy if you will, for determining
what makes a premier Web destination. So what
does it actually take to reach those lofty heights?
Infrastructure Reliability & Software Performance
To become a premier website, high reliability and optimal
performance should take center stage. Without,
the general experience provided to users is not one
that warrants a return visit much less a conversion.
Do enterprise-level sites worry about downtime?
Of course! Infrastructure and general performance
problems impact every business — regardless of size.
But big companies stand to lose the most. GoDaddy’s
recent DNS outage, which impacted millions of its
clients, was certainly not an anomaly in the world of
tech. Amazon’s high-profile S3 failure in early spring
left many noteworthy companies struggling to regain
their presence and full functionality — and further,
encouraged them to seek out solutions to the problem
should it arise again. A quick ping of the top
websites reveals quite a bit about their infrastructure
choices — from their use of content delivery networks
and server frameworks to which Web hosting
company or solution they’ve entrusted to ensure reliability
and performance.
Software performance is another area where enterprises
can differentiate themselves from the competition.
Software bloat is a very real and pervasive
problem, but those enterprises that stay focused on
creating the optimal experiences, removing unnecessary
features and optimizing the on-site engagement,
are those that routinely receive kudos for their
Web properties.
Customer Acquisition & Retention
It’s impossible to become a premier site without mastering
the art and science of customer acquisition and
retention. Big sites receive big traffic (another reason
for infrastructure reliability) and are willing to spend
big money (and resources) to get it and to keep those
users they’ve brought into its digital fold and maintain
a relationship that increases their lifetime spend
and builds brand advocates rather than detractors.
The top sites receive millions of visitors from organic
listings on Google and Bing. In some instances,
spend millions of dollars monthly to attract users
from the countless advertising opportunities available
— paid search and display — and lest we forget,
invest their remaining resources into social. They’ll
even use email as a foundation of their acquisition
and retention efforts.
The point here is that the best brands on the Web
understand the importance of continually bringing in
new users and make efforts to keep them in the
proverbial stable. It’s certainly not easy to do, but it’s
much more difficult if you’re not continually exploring
new opportunities — the channels and formats
and devices that capture our collective attention —
and working doggedly to prove to users why your
brand is better than the rest.
Analysis & Optimization
Making continual improvements to digital properties is part and parcel of the fast-paced industry you’re involved in. Web workers can know within minutes exactly what is and what is not working, making adjustments on the fly for the benefit of their campaigns and their business. Or at least, it could happen that way. What’s unique about the top brands listed in our upcoming Web 100 Guide is that you will nary find one that does not admit to the importance of analytics within their campaigns and broader digital efforts and doesn’t optimize their ’Net business’s presence with the information they’ve found.
The Digital Trinity in Focus
You’ll also be hard pressed to find a company/brand in Website Magazine’s upcoming Web 100 Guide that, knowingly or not, doesn’t abide by the Digital Trinity. You likely won’t even find any that only focus on one or two alone. The reason, and it’s the focus of this publication, is that without balance between these elements (harmony if you will) you’re missing out on something very important to the success of your enterprise. For example, if your site or applications are unavailable, what use is it to acquire customers or initiate retention campaigns for your best customers? Not much. The Digital Trinity can be seen in the top destinations on the Web, and you’ll see it all in action in January 2013 with the release of Website Magazine’s inaugural Web 100 Guide.


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