An Uncommon Site

Does your institution's
website provide an
open door to prospective
consumers and their families? Is the site attractive, informative, and interesting? Is it convenient to use? Does your website help consumers compare their needs and interests to the organization's facilities and programs?

With more and more people using the internet to make their initial investigations, your website is now as important to the consumer's decision process as your printed materials. But does your website do the job it is intended to do?

If you haven't done it already, round up two or three twelve-year olds and a similar number of fifty-year olds, have them find your website and answer three questions for you:

• What is unique and interesting about this organization? Can your subjects tell from looking at the website what would make them want involvement with your organization? The best sites tell not only facts about the institution's services, honors, and accomplishments, but also about the quality of life and the social and professional community the organization provides.
• Who can you talk to about the organization and its programs? Is there the name, picture, and phone number of a real person that a prospective consumer can connect with? Do you try to attract inquiries with a blank "contact us" email form? Speaking with a human being is, and probably always will be, your best marketing strategy. The website is only a door into your organization; there needs to be a person inside to greet your guests!
• How does the process work? The more clearly potential consumers understand you and your process, the more likely they are to initiate it. Does your website ask prospective consumers to submit on-line applications or personal information without giving them timelines or explaining how data will be processed? This may seem to them that you are asking them to take the risk of being evaluated by you, without allowing them the same advantage.

If your test subjects can find your website easily, navigate around it comfortably, and find the information they need swiftly, you have a good tool for enhancing the consumer process. If they find the website unappealing, difficult to use, slow loading, uninformative, or burdened with too many links before the needed information can be accessed, you might want to consider a redesign.