In a recent issue of the e-mail newsletter Online Spin, Max Kalehoff provided the following thoughtful description of the role your company Web site must play in today’s digital marketplace.

Web Site As Brand Hub. For most businesses, the Web must become your brand hub. The Web site is the anchor for a range of critical actions in the consideration and purchase funnel. It is where search engines discover brands and where they direct prospects. It is the currency of pass-along when others wish to refer or recommend you. It is where the most engaged prospects learn about your brand, or fail to learn what they need to know in order to engage further. It is often a critical repository for collecting names, demographic information, purchase intentions and behaviors. It is a listening mechanism and interaction platform when customers do wish to engage. For many businesses, it’s where transactions actually take place, and services are rendered. It increasingly is where people turn when things go wrong, and the place where problems are corrected, or not. It is where companies have the choice to engage intimately with customers, or instill a cold, faceless façade. As the marketplace increasingly goes digital, the Web site should play a central role in leading a company’s key customer performance metrics to drive overall marketing strategy.

At Hammock, we agree that Web sites play a powerful role in building stronger relationships, but your site must be optimized for this type of interaction in order for it to be successful. We recommend the adoption and integration of social media tools such as blogs, photo or video sharing applications, and wikis to help initiate this engagement and conversation with your audience.

Want to get started but aren’t sure what to do first? Contact us. We’ll provide an assessment of your site and make recommendations for what changes are needed to transform your site into a destination online, fully optimized for this Web 2.0 world.