PHYSICAL SECURITY VENDORS WEB DIAGNOSTIC W W W. H A R T L E Y - S T O N E. C O M

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1 PHYSICAL SECURITY VENDORS WEB DIAGNOSTIC W W W. H A R T L E Y - S T O N E. C O M

2 PHYSICAL SECURITY VENDORS WEBSITE DIAGNOSTIC CONTENTS WHY? 2 ABOUT HARTLEY-STONE 2 THE DIAGNOSTIC METHODOLOGY 3 PHYSICAL SECURITY VENDORS 5 MARKET OVERVIEW 6 REPORT FINDINGS 7 1. VISUAL DESIGN 7 2. CONTENT 9 3. IMAGERY NAVIGATION CALL TO ACTION CREDIBILITY SOCIAL SEO 21 APPENDIX: WEBSITE DIAGNOSTIC RATINGS Hartley-Stone

3 WHY? A company s website has become an increasingly important part of the marketing mix. Prospects and existing clients are using it to access information about a company whether that is; learning more about them, their products, services and solutions, case studies, accessing content and advice, or simply to find out how to contact them. They are using your site as part of their decision-making / information gathering process. They want to establish whether you are the right partner for their organisation. As such, whilst companies must deliver the above criteria, they must also recognise that their website should be a hub to drive their prospect and client marketing. A website must be part of your demand generation strategy. Therefore, it has to be easy for prospects and existing clients to engage with you through your site. Your site should be key in generating leads that develop into opportunities. ABOUT HARTLEY-STONE Hartley-Stone is a leading Marketing and Digital Transformation Agency. We work with organisations to create, engage and nurture relationships, all across channels, that maximise sales and build long-term partnerships with their clients. Hartley-Stone is undertaking a programme of Diagnostic Analysis of websites in key industry sectors; reviewing organisations web presence across its channels. Our report looks at the output from a Diagnostic Analysis on Websites in the Physical Security sector. Hartley-Stone

4 THE DIAGNOSTIC METHODOLOGY A website is critical to the marketing mix. It needs to communicate the company brand, ethos, promote products, services and solution and be a hub for a company s content and case studies. It needs to do this in an intuitive way, answering the questions clients and prospects will want answers to, in a way that mirrors how they think, satisfying their search for information quickly and succinctly as possible, across devices, and then promoting direct communication with a view to establishing a two-way relationship. The Diagnostic Methodology analyses the effectiveness of a website against 8 key criteria: Across the 8 key criteria there are 35 key factors that each site is measured against. These factors are rated 1 to 5, on the basis of: 5 = Excellent 4 = Good 3 = Average 2 = Poor 1 = Bad A maximum score of 175 was possible as part of this research. These scores were then converted to percentages, for ease of understanding. A website scoring over 80% was considered to be good or above % was considered average and less than 60% poor or bad. Hartley-Stone

5 The Diagnostic Methodology has been created by Hartley-Stone and used by an expert panel drawn from specialists across: Design Creative Technical Copywriting Customer Experience The expert panel provides an independent and thorough analysis of each site and its effectiveness. Hartley-Stone

6 PHYSICAL SECURITY VENDORS A total of 11 companies were selected for the Diagnostic Analysis as part of this research. These included: Hartley-Stone

7 MARKET OVERVIEW It is evident from the Website Diagnostic Analysis that the Physical Security sector websites are generally not achieving their full potential, either as a lead generator or providing the right visitor experience. Of the 11 company websites analysed only four (overall) were scored as average, whereas the remaining seven were deemed as poor or bad. No website was considered as good or excellent. Overall there is significant improvement required across nearly all the websites analysed for them to reach their potential. Hartley-Stone

8 1. VISUAL DESIGN First impressions matter. An impactful design engenders trust and a willingness of a customer or prospect to use and access a website for information. Visual design incorporates logo, brand personality, colour, font/typeface, spacing, readability, responsiveness, load speed, consistency, theme/layout and simplicity. VISUAL DESIGN Findings Axis, Canon, Dallmeier, IDIS, Pelco, Samsung, Vanderbilt Bosch, CSL Dualcom, Panasonic, Tyco Visual Design was the category where companies' websites were rated higher. This maybe due to good visual criteria being easier to recognise, and most professionals spend enough time on websites to have an esthetic appreciation. Hartley-Stone

9 The panel highlighted the following areas: Lack of brand personality across the majority of websites, highlighted a lack of differentiation in the 11 companies analysed. Only four sites were found to have responsive websites. Fonts and typefaces used were found to be average or above for nine sites, however, often too many fonts were used either together or on sub pages, which detracted from the Visual Design of the site. Load speed was at least average across all sites. Templates and colours used were in a number of cases detracting from the design and making sites feel cluttered and less engaging. Hartley-Stone

10 2. CONTENT The importance of good quality content on a website cannot be understated. Content should engage with customers and prospects in their own language. Users want to find information quickly and intuitively and in a way that highlights the benefits and relevance to them. CONTENT Also, search engines look at the quality and relevance of content to list on their pages when users search for relevant keywords, and to set your ranking. Content criteria include headlines, benefits, relevance, readability, up-to-date, volume, length, quality and organisation. Findings Axis, Canon, Dallmeier, IDIS, Pelco, Samsung, Bosch, CSL Dualcom, Panasonic, Tyco, Vanderbilt Content of the sites varied greatly. Sites that rated higher did so because they addressed each of the factors within content, listed above. Hartley-Stone

11 The panel highlighted the following areas: The use of headlines and sub headlines need to be stronger and tailored to the visitor. Most focused on the product, not how it would benefit the visitor. Headlines were often too descriptive and lacked focused. Content needed to be benefit led. Whilst it was evident that some companies had made progress in this area, the consistency across all pages let many of them down. Too much of the content was technical/brochure led rather than benefits led. Where the former was seen, the content was invariably long and not easy to read, result in a lack of engagement. Significant improvement is required in ensuring the content remains fresh and up to date. Only one company was identified as having been good at maintaining this. Four were deemed average the remaining six as poor or bad. This was highlighted by out of date news and product information on some sites. Hartley-Stone

12 3. IMAGERY Images have the ability to capture an audience s attention. They can set esthetic standards, improve communications, boost engagement and enhance social media take-up. Images can help tell a brand or product story or explain new features and products. IMAGES High quality images provide a better, more professional impression of an organisation and can foster trust. Good images should reflect and support text content. Imagery criteria include hero image, variety, quality, logos, icons, custom imagery and video media. Findings Axis, Canon, Dallmeier, IDIS, Pelco, Samsung, Vanderbilt Bosch, Canon, Panasonic, Tyco Imagery was widely used across all sites analysed, however, more emphasis needs to be made on type and the quality of the imagery used. Hartley-Stone

13 The panel highlighted the following areas: Strong hero images were only found on one site, whereas other hero images were either not impactful or confusing. In some cases the rotation of hero images was found to be too fast. Whilst eight of the 11 sites were deemed average for the use of imagery, the consistency of quality, variety and type of image used could be improved. Such images failed to capture the attention of the user and in turn resulted in them disengaging from the content. The use of video media was surprisingly under-represented on all sites analysed. Only three sites were considered average for the use of video media, whereas eight were deemed poor or bad. Hartley-Stone

14 4. NAVIGATION Navigation should help a visitor develop a 'neural map' through the different areas and information contained within a website. To be effective, navigation must be clear, easy and simple to use, so that users can obtain or explore the information they want quickly and easily. NAVIGATION Navigation must be consistent across the site and include relevant tabs that a customer or prospect would expect to see. Navigation includes presence of buttons or bars, clear, simple, search functionality and page grouping. Findings Axis, Canon, Dallmeier, Pelco, Samsung Bosch, CSL Dualcom, IDIS, Panasonic, Tyco, Vanderbilt Hartley-Stone

15 The panel highlighted the following areas: Navigation, on a number of sites, was found not be easy to use. The descriptions used were often not intuitive and on occasions confusing to the visitor to find the information they were looking for. Most sites had grouped pages appropriately and intuitively, however, finding subpages was often difficult owing to poor or tricky navigation. Website search functionality was rated fair/average or above for eight sites. However, more work needs to be done to provide relevant and appropriate results for the terms searched. Hartley-Stone

16 5. CALL TO ACTION (CTA) A Call To Action is a specific request for a visitor (customer or prospect) to take action as a result of engaging with the website. A Call To Action is more than just a Contact Us form. It allows an organisation to provide access to information that may CALL TO ACTION not be readily available on the website, for a customer or prospect to provide their contact details. It is a softer sell, but allows an organisation to start a lead nurturing communication process. Call To Action performance criteria include placement and inclusion of an obvious CTA action, compelling language, size and colour. Findings Axis, Dallmeier Bosch, Canon, CSL Dualcom, IDIS, Panasonic, Pelco, Samsung, Tyco, Vanderbilt Hartley-Stone

17 The panel highlighted the following areas: Call to Action is an area that all sites can improve significantly. In the majority cases there were no calls to action on the sites analysed. Limited or no effort has been made to incentivise visitors to register their contact details e.g. by giving access to reports or whitepapers that are only available once a visitor has registered. Whilst some had a web form, most did not feature it prominently or encourage visitors to register. Companies are missing opportunities to build, engage and nurture relationships with clients and prospects via their websites. The ability to track web behavioural data would greatly enhance marketing and sales communications. Hartley-Stone

18 6. CREDIBILITY An organisation s website needs to demonstrate that it is trustworthy and knowledgeable. Credibility criteria includes links to external websites that reference its organisation, About Us pages, easy to contact the company, showcasing case studies and exhibiting good grammar and spelling. CREDIBILITY Findings Axis, Canon, CSL Dualcom, Dallmeier, Samsung, Vanderbilt Bosch, IDIS, Panasonic, Pelco, Tyco The panel highlighted the following areas: About Us pages can be improved across all sites analysed. In many cases the pages were not easy to read and the information presented disengaging. Company contact information in eight sites was rated as poor or bad. Most had too little contact information or made it difficult to contact the company via the users Hartley-Stone

19 channel of choice e.g. , telephone or social. For one site it took five clicks to find relevant contact information. The three sites that rated fair/average for contact info need to make them more prominent or easier to find. Case studies were rated fair/average on five sites with the remainder been deemed as poor or bad. Consistency of branding and accessibility to relevant case studies were highlighted as particular issues in this area. Hartley-Stone

20 7. SOCIAL The influence and impact of the Social channel on the research and buying cycle in B2B is growing rapidly. Customers and prospects now expect brands to have a social presence and to be actively sharing content and engaging with their audiences. SOCIAL A website and social profiles are not silo channels. Rather they must be integrated with all marketing communication channels. Social includes the presence of social icons on the website, relevance to the audience, profiles and the ability to socially share content. Findings Axis, Canon, CSL Dualcom, Dallmeier, IDIS, Samsung Bosch, Panasonic, Pelco, Tyco, Vanderbilt Hartley-Stone

21 The panel highlighted the following area: Social icons were available on some sites however not all of them linked to a company s social profiles. Instead they were social share buttons (masked as social profiles) and included on pages where the sharing of content was irrelevant e.g. contact us details. Social activity and frequency varied widely across all organisations analysed. The panel felt that most organisations lacked a coherent strategy in the social channel. Hartley-Stone

22 8. SEO Websites need to be optimised for search engines to help improve their search engine rankings. That in turn leads to higher placement when a search engine returns the possible suggestions to a user s request, often ahead of the competition. To do this effectively a website must have the right keywords, which help a site appear when that keyword is searched for. SEO Also meta-tags must be included in the code of a website to compare against the keywords of the site. Findings Axis, Bosch, Canon, CSL Dualcom, Dallmeier, IDIS, Panasonic, Pelco, Samsung, Tyco, Vanderbilt Hartley-Stone

23 The panel highlighted the following areas: SEO was rated as either poor or bad for all the sites. Whilst four were rated as fair/average for meta-tags and keywords it is evident that no company owns the key search terms. Most sites did not appear high up the search engine rankings for the key terms used by prospect visitors. Hartley-Stone

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