B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

Why an Advertising Agency Probably Shouldn’t Build Your Website

February 7th, 2008 Posted by: Bill Gadless

While we couldn’t agree more, fortunately we didn’t have to say it; David Meerman Scott did, in his recent RainToday article.

David acknowledges off the top that his premise is a fairly sweeping generalization …but one based on his personal review of more than 1,000 websites. By and large, he says, agencies are conditioned by their print-ad DNA to make two key errors:

Focus on design to the exclusion of content (or, in David’s phrase, aesthetics over information). By now most B2Bs realize that their visitors (including search engine bots) come for content. If your site lacks relevant and meaty content, or makes it too hard to find, your visitors won’t stay long and will be even less likely to return …no matter how glitzy your site’s design.

Focus on the wrong end of the sales cycle. For a hundred years or so, advertising firms have specialized in attracting eyeballs and inducing them to read a compelling message about your firm or product. That’s a great first step, and certainly one that your homepage needs to provide. But your website as a whole needs to satisfy your prospects’ thirst for information at all stages of the sales cycle …not to mention the needs of non-prospects such as investors, the press and employment candidates.

Award-winning? …or strategy-fulfilling?
Compounding the problem is the tendency of industry associations to hand out website awards based mainly on design considerations. Why? …because design is “out there” for all to see, and is far less complex to evaluate than functionality or efficacy.

So go ahead… let your agency quote on your next website redo; but be sure to make them compete against a full-service Web marketing consultancy (such as eMagine). When your agency tries to dazzle you with their awards, keep in mind that these are often based on their solution to a fairly small part of your overall problem. Just make sure you ask the tough questions of all of your prospective vendors:

• Which of your reference accounts will tell me how your work improved their business?
• Where can I find your thought leadership on Web strategy? (As an example, check out eMagine’s white paper “The Complete Guide to B2B Web Strategy”.)
• Besides simply designing our site, how will you help ensure that it continues to attract appropriate traffic?

Put the care into your vendor evaluation that your website deserves, and you should end up with a site that meets all of your goals …regardless of your provider’s category.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, Driving Traffic, Web Design, Internet Marketing, Lead generation, Search Engine Marketing