Example: the conceptual model for a website which just isn't working (See 'Fix or not' in 'Have your say' section). Ask yourself the following: is our website an exhibition stand? If so what sort of exhibition stand? What is the outcome we want from this exhibition... sales, brand, dealership relationships? What are outcomes we don't want? So what would the visitor want from the experience? What would they want to hear? How would they want to be treated? How much time would they want to spend with us? How would we handle objections?

You can define a conceptual model around a relationship, an experience, an interview or an occasion, but you have to have understood a lot about your consumer or customer first. The options they have, the state of mind they are in and their relationship with you at the point of contact. Defining it doesn't have to be a long process, but it does have to be rigorous, and we have a number of tools that help.

When you've agreed what the conceptual model is you then need to stay loyal to it throughout the visitor journey and make it work hard for gathering data, delivering messages and encouraging the visitor to venture to the next level of awareness, interest, demand and action (in the case of a sales oriented site), or satisfaction and loyalty in the CRM field.

Martin McInnes, The Church Agency