Here’s one for my colleagues in the marketing industry: I know with Web 2.0 everyone’s drinking the dynamic web kool-aid. (Frankly, the success of the business I work for depends on it.) We all want fancy sites with live demos and streaming this and interactive that. But for the love of pete, please don’t kill your brochure site components entirely!
There’s still a place for the Static Web
I’m currently hunting for some vendors for a number of products and services for work and am noticing a distinct lack of plain old “this is who we are and what we do” content. There are lots of headlines, and “teaser” segments enticing me to “sign up for a live demo” or “sit in on our webinar” or “interact with a specialist (aka salesperson)” – but no actual content I can read to gauge in 3-6 minutes whether or not it’s worth 30-60 minutes of my time to do so.
All I’m asking is a page or two, clearly marked and dedicated to answering the 5 W’s. And hey, then when I do sign up for your dynamic advertising “value-added content”, your salespeople will have some clue that I’m actually qualified. That way they aren’t wasting their time and mine calling me because you left me no choice but to enter my information just to find out what exactly it is that you do.
Tell me about it. I’m constantly having to force my clients to clearly articulate what they do (or make) on their website.
Without blowing my own horn (er, too late), I’m reasonably happy about how simply and clearly we articulated what PutPlace does: http://putplace.com/.
OMG yes. Flash this, AJAX that, how about a mailing address? Fancy website will magically hypnotize people into opening their wallets…
On a related note, I had to write to an organization once because I didn’t know what their acronym stood for. It was everywhere on their site, mixed in among their tastefully-chosen stock photos and graphics, but NOWHERE did their site actually mention who their members were or what the acronym was short for. Nice website, otherwise…