Burson-Marsteller Website Benchmarking

How well does your website serve your stakeholders?Every organisation has a broad spectrum of stakeholders ranging from customers or clients, suppliers and employees to regulators and the media. How they perceive and respond to your organisation and its products and/or services depends on the range of "touch points" they are exposed to.

It is important to understand the sheer volume of contact the average individual has with a company or organisation on an average day. Recent research shows that consumers experience up to 25 different ‘connection’ points with major brands in just 24 hours. And the level of control over those connection points can vary enormously. Paid-for advertising is just one of many possible sources of information for any stakeholder. Others include chats with friends, families and colleagues, articles in newspapers, what competitors say and so on. However, in most cases, it is now the internet that is the primary point of contact for your stakeholders. They will visit a corporate website for investor information, press releases or career opportunities. They will review products and services with fellow buyers on comparison or social networking sites. And there will nearly always be one or more blogs which will endorse their experience or perception of your organisation and its products or services.

All this affects their attitudes towards you, their purchasing behaviour as well as their involvement in key initiatives.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression and that goes for your website in particular.

But how do you make sure that your site really meets the needs of all your stakeholders? And does it stack up against the sites of your competitors or does it suffer by comparison?

What is website benchmarking?Burson-Marsteller has developed a website benchmarking process that clearly shows:

• How your website compares to the sites of your direct competitors as well as other businesses in your industry or other organisations in your area of expertise

• Whether your website is as good as it can be and whether it is doing everything it could

• Who is getting things right so that we can identify best practice which can be adopted or adapted

How we go about website benchmarkingYour website has to answer the needs of various stakeholders, whether they are customers, employment candidates, investors, media or others. Competitive benchmarking looks at how well your website and others serve these different groups of information seekers by:

Considering corporate communications and behavioural criteria that go beyond technological features

Recruiting a team of analysts to surf the website and assess its performance based on their own individual perspectives. The make-up of this team will reflect the spectrum of your key stakeholders and could comprise for example, a student, a journalist, a customer, a non-native speaker, a supplier and a sponsor. etc..

Each member of the team is assigned a range of specific tasks depending on which stakeholder group they belong to, for example:

• Find and download the annual report• Submit a CV/résumé• Locate a press contact• Check out specific product information and purchase options.

They will then compile a report that assesses how successfully the different sites enabled them to fulfil these tasks, looking particularly at both high scores and flaws in terms of design, navigation, content, usability and functionality.

Combining our extensive knowledge of the digital universe and your organisation's corporate communication objectives to provide relevant analysis and deliver a set of conclusions and recommendations.

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2

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• Branding

• Content

• Architecture/Navigation

• Design

• Functionality

• Issues Management (if applicable)

• User Experience

Visual PresentationLogo Usage

Tone & VoiceThoroughness of InformationTransparency / BalanceFrequency of UpdatesSearch Engine Optimization

Ease of useTopics coveredRelationship to External SitesFamily of Sites

AestheticUsabilityAppropriateness

Interactive FeaturesConsumer-generated Features CRM Features, Viral FeaturesContact Features Standard ToolsNotable, Technology

Issues AddressedResources, Sources of Credibility

Overall, Consumers CriticsEmployeesJob SeekersGovernment / NGO InvestorsMediaCSRAccessibility

What we look for

What does the Burson-Marsteller Website Benchmarking look like?The Website Benchmarking report summarises the findings of the process and provides you with a report card and plan of action to improve your positioning, perception and communications performance in the digital world.

Visual charts enable you to see at a glance how your site performs against the sites of your competitors and peers on each of the criteria we have examined. You will quickly identify areas for improvement and we highlight best practices that can be adapted or adopted for your website.

BHP Biliton offers a wealth of information in a well-organised and easily-navigated layout. Like most other websites, there is an effective search system in place.

Visual Charts

Serving information seekersGE provides a clearly laid out contact directory for both products and services and worldwide informaton

Branding

Content

Architecture/Navigation

Design

Functionality

Issues Management (if applicable)

User Experience

Company1

Company2

Company3

Company4

Company5

Company6

Company7

Most importantly, we will provide you with a set of actionable recommendations so that the research can trigger a programme of updates and changes that will create better interaction with your various stakeholders.

“Company X scored above average in terms of how well it serves information seekers, investors, customers and other businesses providing a good breadth and depth of content and an award-winning customer portal. Useful tools and applications help to bring data to life and are easy to print, including Company X interactive graph which (where possible) compares its competitors’ share price over different periods of time, making it easy for investors to have an overview of the market.

In terms of construction, content and messaging, Company X does well against its competitors. Branding is consistent across all sites, local sites are translated, the editorial is well-written and presented, messaging is presented clearly across the site visually, and the design is attractive, light and modern. “

Beyond Website BenchmarkingThe Burson-Marsteller Website Benchmarking is just one component of a broader assessment that we call the Burson-Marsteller Digital Check-up. This assessment is designed to help you and your organisation determine your overall online health and positioning. The Digital Check-up provides you with the essential information you need to integrate digital communications strategically into your marketing and communications mix, stay ahead of competitors and protect your corporate/brand reputation.

In addition to the Website Benchmarking discussed above, the Digital Check-up includes:

• Monitoring of blogs, discussion forums and chat rooms, and mapping of blog influences (Consumer Generated Media)

• Assessment of search engine performance, optimization and strategy• Review of social media (social networks) and opportunities for development

Digital check up

- Highly influencial- Highly searchable- Considered a “recommendation”

- Your side of the story- First impression- Critical for influencer audiences- Used to confirm impressions

- Increase visibility- Protect corporate reputation- Stakeholder engagement- Generate leads

- Opportunity for engagement- Influencial chatter

Blogs | CGM

CorporateWebsite

Search

SocialNetworks

For more information, contact:Stéphanie Bonnet: +44 20 7300 6139 stephanie.bonnet@bm.comDesirée Collier: +44 20 7300 6388 desiree.collier@bm.com