Dynamic and frequently updated.

• Author: Delaney, Amy

Last July, Pacific Continental bank (assets $1.8 billion), Eugene, Ore., launched a new website that we believe more closely aligns with our identity as an experienced, knowledgeable bank for businesses.

To say that our previous online presence was in need of renovation would be an understatement. At the time of the bank's last site update in the spring of 2009, the iPhone was only in its third iteration, personal tablets were still a year away from release and mobile banking was an amenity offered by a select group of national banks.

Even then, the old site was better suited for the decade we were leaving instead of the one we were entering. It offered visitors access to essential information but was organized in a content-heavy layout. You could say that it was like a static brochure that had been placed online. Navigation was cumbersome and not intuitive. We had no way of highlighting important material or of engaging customers in anything beyond online transactional banking.

Although we had resources for our business clients to use--tools, white papers, educational material--it was not spotlighted. You had to search for it.

The old site was made for desktop-first access. But today, customers are rapidly embracing mobile browsing and banking. As time went on, it became increasingly clear that we needed to upgrade the site to keep up with advancing technology as well as clients' growing expectations.

Positioned as a collaborative partner

Pacific Continental is a 43-year-old bank. We have 12 locations in Oregon and three in Washington State. The brand says that we are the "right bank"--a premier business bank in the Pacific Northwest. We position ourselves as a collaborative partner that has both experience and expertise. We tailor our services to meet the needs of specific business-market niches, including community-based businesses, nonprofit organizations, professional service and health-care providers.

We strive to build relationships with the people we serve and help them to achieve their goals by sharing our knowledge of business and finance.

When embarking on the redesign, our goal was to more adequately represent our image and mission online and to have our website presence reflect our institutional standard of excellence. While some banks have attempted to drive customers away from the physical branches and toward Web-based amenities, our goal remained to sustain strong face-to-face relationships while supplementing these with a...