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This article is part of our series on Four Essential Questions to Ask When Building a Successful Website, specifically part of question one: What is your site for?

At its core, a website exists for humans — and to some degree businesses — to solve problems. So, taking the time to look closely at what those problems are is going to help you figure out how to solve them successfully. Similarly, knowing that the problem we’re solving is one of brand awareness, sales journey, information distribution, or inspiring knowledge leadership (or something else) is going to help focus your efforts when planning and executing the work. 

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What is an Introductory or Enticement site?

An introductory or enticement site is a typical brand or marketing site. Think home page, about, products, maybe some resources or news, and a way to get in touch. We used to call these guys brochure sites, but no website should ever be a flat brochure in 2023, so we don’t refer to them that way anymore. 

Generally, these are sites that address things like who the company is, what a product’s features or benefits are, what they sell (but they don’t usually have a strong e-commerce component), and what the vibe or story of the brand is. 

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The goal of an introductory or enticement site is to introduce a brand and/or entice a person to connect with it.  

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For example: Say you’re a Nike gal rather than a FILA person. You could make that decision because of purely functional things like how their shoes feel or the technology, but more likely than not, you’re connecting with a brand because of the story it allows you to be a part of. The style story. The story of what the company believes in and stands for. The club aligning yourself with that brand allows you to belong to. 

The classic example of this is Apple. You know if you’re an Apple person or a PC. And while Apple’s site is a bit of a hybrid (they do have a store and a strong goal of selling), everything about their site is about showing off their brand. So, enticement.   

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What is the goal of this type of site?

The whole reason for this type of site existing is to get people to know the brand, love it, understand what it stands for, and connect with it. These are sites that appeal to a searcher type of web user — someone who is looking around to see what they can learn or be excited by.  They’re there for a good time, but not a long time. So, their expectations are to be entertained, lightly educated, or inspired. 

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What should you focus on when creating an enticement or introductory site?

The purpose of this type of site is almost always to connect directly with the company or to get a person into their funnel so they can physically connect through directly purchasing a product or being targeted with marketing until they do. 

So what you should spend your time on when you're creating this kind of site is storytelling, and sizzle. animation, graphics, beautiful design, interesting interactions, and, in many cases, lead capture, email, or otherwise.

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This ESPN microsite featuring the tennis player Carlos Alacaraz is story-driven, carefully designed, and reels in the user.

So, for an introductory or enticement site:

• You put your effort into visual and verbal brand 
• You focus on a concept for the experience
• You spend more time on design, voice, and tone
• You put energy into brand alignment so that everything from brand strategy to the last pixel sings the same song

TLDR: If we are creating that kind of site, we're putting more emphasis on the design process. We're putting more emphasis on the tone of voice and the writing. On the concept behind what we're presenting as it aligns with the brand. And we’re acknowledging that there will always be technical things, integrations, and the build itself, but in this case, you can turn the dial down on complicated technologies and up on softer creative things. 

Wait — aren’t there other types of sites too? Indeed. Check out the master article here.

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