Your Web site can be the most effective brand-building device in your business arsenal. That's because a Web site can do a much better job of building relationships than any other form of marketing communication with your customers. But what's effective on the Web? After three years of watching the "worldwide" Web branding experiment, I've developed some guidelines that can take your customer relationships to new levels.

Be True to Your Brand
Many companies use "gimmick appeal" to attract site visitors. This includes such things as games, contests, and screen savers that have no connection to what the company does or its style of doing business. These gimmicks are similar to offering coupons or discounts - they can cause a brief spike in traffic but don't deepen customer loyalty.

Be Relevant and Engaging
In general, visitors to your home page are not very interested in reading about your company structure or why you are No. 1 in the market. Instead, by identifying and clearly presenting the information they are looking for, you can provide visitors with an experience that rewards them for the time they spend on your site. They also would like to experience the unique business style or personality of your company. Does your Web site reflect your tone and manner, your point of view, and what makes you unique?

Provide Branded Interactive Value
A relevant and engaging Web site falls under the larger concept of "branded interactive value." Site visitors want to know how you are going to add value to their professional or personal lives. For instance, several companies have affiliate logo graphics placed at the bottom of their home pages that click through to the affiliate's Web page. By affiliating with other services, companies create a customer bonding opportunity. Unfortunately, most logos click to information that has little relevance to building the value of a company's brand.

A great example of an affiliation that builds a brand relationship between a company and an affiliate can be seen on the Dell Computer home page. When parents click on the GetNetWise logo at the bottom of the page, they go to useful and compelling information on safe Internet practices for kids, which includes a safety guide, how to report trouble, and sections on Web sites for kids. The "branded" in branded interactive value means that whatever you provide on your site for visitors is in alignment with your brand strengths.

Add Brand-Relevant Sponsored Content to Your Web Arsenal
"Sponsored content" offers something of value that is not directly related to your product or service. Here's how Web marketers use sponsored content to raise awareness about their brands. Miller Brewing Company turned its long-term Super Bowl sponsorship into a sponsored-content win by creating a linked site in conjunction with ESP Internet, called Superbowl.com. While the site is about the Super Bowl, it is chock-full of Miller's brand imagery. The result was 8 million unique visitors in a single month vs. the fewer than 250,000 visitors Miller received at its own Web site. Because of Miller's long-term brand association with professional sports, this site helped to reinforce the connection and encourage consumption of its product during sporting events.

Use the Real World to Enhance Your On-Site Brand
"Off-site/on-site branding" uses the real world to build Web brands. Recreational equipment retailer REI recently reported that it is selling more through its Web site than in all its stores combined. But a major source of online sales was through its in-store kiosks. healthshop.com used runners dressed in healthshop.com outfits to hand out packages of vitamin C drinks to San Francisco customers. The packages were printed with details on how customers could enter an online contest for a sweepstakes drawing. Customers could also send their friends to the same site so they could have a chance to enter too. Thirty runners delivered 125,000 packages over several days, which resulted in a response rate that far exceeded the typical 3-in-1,000 banner ad click-through rate and also helped the company build brand awareness. Off-site/on-site branding does not require a huge ad budget. Consider trading banner ad space on your site for kiosk space in your store, walking though a favorite park or busy city street with sandwich boards, or using other low-cost guerrilla advertising tactics to point people to your site and enhance their understanding of your brand. Effective online branding does not require big budgets, just an understanding of what brand attributes you are trying to build. By making every Web transaction brand-relevant and providing your customers with brand-based value, you will increase the depth and stickiness of your customer relationships.