Engineering Inc. - September/October 2019 - 27

include supplying numerous opportunities to involve potential
leads in email marketing campaigns; nurturing leads with
an offer of free case studies, video how-tos, white papers,
e-newsletters or blog update notifications; baking into every
page some call to action, whether it is signing up for more
info or calling the firm; and making sure to display contact
information at the same spot on every page, so visitors do not
have to search to find it.
8. CREATE AN ENGAGING
VALUE PROPOSITION HEADLINE

HOMEPIXEL / ISTOCK / GETTY IMAGES

You have less than five seconds to capture
someone's attention before they leave your
website, according to Portman. Therefore,
boiling down your entire organization's value
proposition to a short mission statement that
is memorable and effectively explains to visitors what services your engineering firm offers
before they lose interest is critical.
This can be five to 15 words that accurately
describe your business. "Website visitors typically reward tasteful creativity in this area," says
Portman.
9. MAKE SECURITY AND RELIABILITY
HALLMARKS OF THE WEBSITE

Websites not only need to look nice and include interesting and
informational content, they also need to be reliable and secure.
"The complexity of reliability and security needs will vary
depending on your firm and how the site is used," says Rick
Nystrom, director of IT at Degenkolb Engineers. "An e-commerce website that captures and stores customer information
will need a much more robust level of reliability and security
than an informational site."
If the website has a form to collect data such as contact information, Nystrom recommends the use of a Captcha to filter out
bots and cut down on phishing emails.
10. BE DYNAMIC AND ALLOW FOR INTERACTION

"In concert with the move to mobile, we have also seen websites
becoming far more interactive and dynamic," says Portman.
It is now common for organizations to incorporate animations
and even 3D elements that change perspective when the user
interacts with them, according to Portman. "Searchable pages
also now load search results using asynchronous scripts that do
not require the page to reload, and results can even update on
each key press if the search is text or keyword based," he says.
In the future, Portman expects to see broad adoption of frontend JavaScript libraries such as React, Angular and Vue in nearly
all modern websites. Websites built with these frameworks are
capable of much faster page load speeds than traditional websites, he adds.
"These libraries can pre-load content in the background, use
the web visitor's CPU power to do more heavy lifting and make
a very snappy impact when contrasted against sites with two-tofive second page load times," says Portman.
The visual dynamic of the website should accurately convey

"While your firm may
not have employed a
cookie-cutter design
template to create its
web presence, did you
differentiate yourself
from competing firms?"
BRIAN BYER
VICE PRESIDENT, GENERAL MANAGER
BLUE FOUNTAIN MEDIA

the energy and culture of the firm and the language has to
set a professional and personal tone, according to Jeffrey
Essmann, marketing communications website and staff writer at
engineering firm Jaros, Baum & Bolles.
"Of course, it has to distinguish itself from the hundreds
and thousands of other dynamic websites in the same industry
competing for attention," says Essmann. "But the dynamic of
a firm is not determined so much by its philosophy or by its
success as by its personality. The trick is to somehow capture
that personality and let it guide the potential client or employee
through the site." n
Bob Violino is a business and technology writer based in Massapequa
Park, New York.

SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2019

ENGINEERING INC.

Engineering Inc. - September/October 2019

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