For many online companies, such as Expedia or Evite, the web is their brand experience because they offer online services through online channels. For other organizations, web presence is more like "brochureware"--in other words, a static marketing channel for real-world products and services. But whether your product is virtual or requires a warehouse and a forklift, the key is how you demonstrate and show your brand promise online. In this first of a two-part series, I'll introduce the concept of a brand-based web strategy. Next month, I'll provide a step-by-step guide on how to create your own web strategy.

As the front door to your prospects, your website becomes your brand's face. From the moment they land on your home page, visitors make snap judgments about the value you provide, how you're different from competitors and whether they feel an emotional connection to your brand. So it's important to consider how well your web presence communicates your value.

Smart business owners get this, but they often respond to this imperative by spending a lot of time on their site's design, colors and images. That's a good start, but design is only part of a prospect's online experience.

Equally important are:

• The type of content you have
   
• How the content is organized for each of your target users
   
• How it drives them to a deeper level of engagement with you
   
• How well it delivers on your brand promise.

For small businesses with limited resources, the website is crucial because it has to do so much work. It acts as a community outreach, sales, marketing and workflow management tool. And if you believe--as I do--that everything you do and say as a company makes up your brand promise, then your site must reflect your brand through and through. Otherwise, you'll leave customers wondering which experience they'll get the next time they call.

What Does This Mean to You?
Before you hire a designer, start by thinking of your site as an extension of your business strategy rather than just a line item in your marketing budget. And the best way to bridge from your brand to your site is with a web strategy.

A web strategy provides intention and discipline to your website development process. It ties your brand and business goals for the year to content development, management and measurement strategies that guide the brand experience you provide on the web. What goes into a web strategy? Here's an outline:

• It keeps tabs on your user profiles, allowing you to dive more deeply into who your users are and what they need from your site.
   
• It determines what the competitive landscape looks like.
   
• It audits stakeholder requirements.
   
• It maps out exactly what type of experience your site should deliver.
   
• It figures out what you should measure and how you should measure it (both via offline measurement tactics and online analytics), based on your goals and objectives.

In a nutshell, your web strategy is a lot like a website owner's manual, giving you all the tools you need to build, adapt and manage your online brand experience.

So stop and think about the front door to your company's brand experience. Make sure it looks good. But more important, make sure it opens into your organization's promise and creates customer champions.