Websites and marketing
View my new website at www.doctordada.com.
Who looks after the website?
When a medium-to-large organisation decides to create its first website (or decides to formalise arrangements for an existing, ad-hoc, site) which department usually gets responsibility for it?
- IT? (After all, they understand the technology)
- Archives? (After all, they know about the classification of information)
- Education & Public Programs? (After all, they know how to communicate with different audiences)
- HR? (Well... why not?)
- or... Marketing? (After all, they know about promotion, demographics and target audiences, and a website under marketing can then become part of a promotional campaign.)
Marketing departments are usually also responsible for in-house graphic designers (you know ... those groovy, young things who know the difference between Gill Sans Light and Century Gothic, between Pantone 497 & Pantone 168), and more and more graphic designers these days are diversifying into digital and online media.
So grouping together marketing, design and website - under the banner of 'promotion' - seems only natural, doesn't it?
To answer that question, let's look at how people experience traditional promotional material on the one hand, and websites on the other:
Imagine I'm on my way to work. I'm sitting on the train reading an article in last Saturday's Good Weekend. I turn the page. Although I was neither expecting nor asking for it, I see a double-page ad for an expensive car:
Some marketing department took a chance that I might be thinking about buying a brand new, luxury car. I'm not, but that doesn't really matter; many thousands of other people, who have also been reading the same magazine, have probably already seen the same ad. The marketing people hope that enough potential buyers will see it to justify its creation and placement.
I've finished my train journey now. I get off, go through the barrier and head for the station exit. As I'm waiting at the traffic lights, a bus goes by:
On the side of the bus is a large ad for a new kind of alcoholic drink: "The Shot" (Beer+Vodka). I wasn't thinking of a drink (I mean it's only 8.50am... it's a bit early, even for me!) But there it is: a large, colourful, clever - and moving - piece of mass communication. Maybe, the next time I'm at the pub thinking of what to drink, I'll see this product; and, maybe, I'll be more inclined to buy it than something else. Again, that's what the marketing people are hoping for.
Marketing and promotion are based on ambushing people as potential customers, invading their world, and competing with all the other visual and aural stimulation that surround them.
What happens with a promotional website on the other hand?
Let's say you have one, at www.this-is-it.com. It's full of amazing graphics, state-of-the-art Flash animations and a pumping soundtrack. Everything is designed to lure people - to buy your products, use your services, visit your museum, or whatever. But how do these people get to see your website? It won't appear while they are sitting on the train reading a magazine, or travel past them in the street. It won't even appear automatically when they use their computer. In short, it won't appear unless they are specifically looking for it. (If it does appear on someone's computer without being sought, chances are, it will be regarded as 'junk'.)
Of course, there are ways to get people to visit your site:
- an article or review - hopefully a positive one - in a magazine or newspaper
- an email from a friend
- a bulk email campaign from (or on behalf of) the web-site owners
- a paid-for link on another, popular site, or
- as the result of an Internet search.
Let's deal with each option in turn:
The first two kinds of promotion - (favourable) reviews and personal email links (in other words, independent recommendations) - are probably the most effective. Unfortunately, they are also the hardest to control.
The third method is bulk email, which of course, if sent without the recipients' consent, is nothing more than 'spam'. Apart from the fact that it is unethical and probably illegal now, there is no surer way of annoying the very people you are trying to entice than to send them an email they didn't ask for. This is true even if you give them a simple way to remove themselves from your mailing list. The truth it, they shouldn't have been on it in the first place.
Next there is a paid-for link on a popular site, such as a major portal, like ninemsn. This can be very expensive. Also, the percentage of people who actually click-through could actually be very small. Then again, if it's a tiny percentage of a very large number, it may still be worth it.
Finally, there is the Internet search: By clever use of keywords and other meta-tags, your site could end up in the all-important top ten results when people use search engines like Google and AltaVista to look for particular keywords. This is probably the most cost-effective, and controllable, way to get people to visit a website for the first time.
Now, let me repeat those last four words: 'for the first time'. This is the key. Even if you manage to attract huge numbers of visitors to your site, if all you are offering is a beautiful, amazing and cool site, you have wasted your time. Why? Because all these visitors will have no need to return. They've seen your site already.
As most of us are aware, advertising makes extensive use of repetition, sometimes (usually?) to the point of annoyance. But we don't choose to see the same commercial nine times in the one movie. The advertisers do. Why would anyone keep returning to the same website if they found what they wanted the first time? Or, worse still, if they discovered the first time that this wasn't what they wanted after all.
An effective web-site is one that people will want to keep returning to, because it provides them with something they regard as truly useful. [Incidentally, this highlights why it is important for users to be able bookmark your site easily, and for the bookmark - which comes from the page title - to have a meaningful name.]
So, content is what it's all about, is it? Yes, but more than that. To be valued by its potential users, a website needs to focus on being a resource, on providing information and services that are unique or superior to those provided on other sites. To do this, it needs to be:
- Clear and uncluttered
- Fast-loading
- Easy to navigate
- Accurate, and
- Up-to-date
Does that mean that large, complex graphics and tricky animation techniques have no place on a website? Not at all, but they should never be used on the primary pages, certainly not on a web-site's front (or 'home') page.
An exception is where a site is experimental and/or created as an artwork (e.g. Joshua Davis' site Once upon a forest or Yugo Nakamura's site surface.yugop.com).
Splash Pages
Let me say right now that splash pages are a waste of time (at least for regular, permanent web-sites). If the purpose is to "create the mood" for the site, you'll probably find that the only mood you create is one of annoyance. Even if the purpose is to display a simple introductory page while elements of your front page load in the background, this just means that your front page is too complex.
Most programs that reside on your hard disk have the option of bypassing the splash screen, because software companies know that people don't like to be delayed, even for a second. Yet countless web developers think it's OK to make users wait for up to thirty seconds for an animated sequence to finish, just so they can click a button that says... "Enter". At the very least, a website should provide a "Skip" link that takes the user straight to the front page. The best kind of "skip" link is text rather than a graphic. The next best kind is a small graphic with an "ALT" tag, so that it loads almost immediately.)
If large, complex graphics and advanced animation techniques have no place on any primary pages, can they be used at all? Sure, as long as you provide a link that allows users to anticipate the delays and possible browser incompatibilities before they click. After all, no one said that a website should be dry, like a reference book (although there are circumstances where that may be appropriate).
Websites needn't be always 'left-brain' (verbal, analytical, logical). They can also be 'right-brain' (spatial, expressive, intuitive). The most valuable websites are those that combine the visitor's own experience (and those of fellow visitors) with pre-existing content, to create a new, surprising experience. (E.g. the Art Gallery of NSW's myVirtualGallery)
The Tail Wagging the Dog
If some marketing people misuse the web, it's usually because they don't understand it. After all, the Internet isn't their primary area of expertise. But having a website controlled by people that 'understand' the Internet doesn't guarantee its effectiveness either. Content and use, not available technology, must always drive development. Too often, a web developer gets hold of a new piece of software, or an upgraded version of existing software, or learns a new skill, and feels this technology must be used as soon as possible on a public web-site. If the purpose of the site were to showcase (advanced) web techniques, then this would be entirely appropriate. If however, its purpose is to be the online presence of a company or organisation, then it would not.
A situation that makes things very tricky is when a web design company creates a website as a form of sponsorship-in-kind. When no money is involved, it can be difficult to answer the question: what is the purpose of the site? Is it an extension of the organisation's function, or a showcase for the web designers? This is why I would strongly advise against this kind of cashless sponsorship.
Summary
- While websites can be used as part of marketing strategies, they are not primarily marketing tools.
- Effective websites provide services and fulfil needs.
- Developing a website requires that its purpose be understood so that content and function, not technology, will drive it.
Conclusion
The vast majority of people who use the web either ...
- know exactly what they want and wish to find it as quickly as possible, or else ...
- don't know exactly what they want, but wish to navigate their way through pages in a way that is logical and consistent.
Only websites that cater for both these needs have a chance of succeeding.