I've just finished reading a post from marketing consultant Mayra Ruiz at the Marketing Misfit blog. It seems she's in a quandary regarding a client of hers whose CEO is slowly (but inadvertantly) killing his business by sinking every online marketing effort she and the company's marketing manager have made - and is thisclose to killing their website completely and going back to a "brochureware" approach, complete with an entirely offline marketing strategy. Read Mayra's post here to get the full picture.
The whole story saddens me and has brought up some painful memories of frustrating attempts at explaining web 2.0 and content marketing to bottom-line focused C-levels. It amazes me how many CEOs can have such "pie in the sky" aspirations while still having such a narrow-minded view of sales and marketing. I could go on a long rant here, but I won't. Instead, I want to address some of the points of contention that she brought up.
Here are some particularly mind-boggling reasons the CEO came up with for killing their website budget (which Mayra listed in her post), followed by my own commentary:
- Most people only visit the site once or twice. Why, dear readers, do you think that is? Because there's nothing of value offered on the site. It seems to me that the CEO has the mindset that his product in all its feature-laden glory should be valuable enough for his visitors. Now, I haven't seen the website myself, so I don't know how the product is described; but none of his prospective customers are going to care enough about his product to visit the site more than a couple of times.
- Most of those people don’t covert to actual leads, just general traffic vs. actual qualified leads. Again, I haven't seen the website myself and don't have any clue to the marketing copy (features vs. benefits-driven). It's obvious, though, that there is no value proposition enough to pull visitors through the conversion funnel. Or the traffic is really untargeted.
- No point in adding new content all the time - there are plenty of other places on the web to get research, data. What would you like to bet that a good chunk of those "other places" are their competitors? Why doesn't the CEO want his website to be one of those go-to places for research and data related to his product? Why doesn't he want his company to be an authority in its industry? They have an incredible opportunity to build trust and authority around their product through content - they just have to create an effective content marketing strategy and stick with it.
- Most people just want to learn about the product(s) and don’t have time for the “extra” stuff. How did he make this assumption? From his prospects and customers? No, they don't. Prospects have to go through the research phase of the buying funnel - they're looking for the what, when, where, why, and how and gathering as much information as they can (all that "extra stuff") in order to draw up a well-researched short-list of options. It's imperative to provide them with all of this information to give them the full 360 view, impart valuable knowledge, and instill trust in their own product.
- Website seems to be more trouble than it’s worth; constant upkeep and maintenance incurring costs...and perhaps that money could be allocated to other marketing activities like direct mailings, magazine advertisements and trade shows. Offline marketing activities are all well and good; but this is the 21st century. Prospects expect a website - no matter how many mailers you send out, how large your print ad is, or how much you spend on your double-decker state-of-the-art trade show display. Offline marketing efforts won't be nearly as effective on their own without a tandem online strategy to help keep your sales leads warm. Kill your website, and I guarantee you'll be killing your new business.
Jonathan Betts also wrote an excellent, thorough response to Mayra's predicament on his blog, The Bettsonian, which covers the CEO's reluctance to invest in a viable marketing plan and branding strategy.
All in all, it seems to me like the CEO is not really in tune with his audience, has a lack of understanding of online marketing in general (not just web 2.0), and does not want to put the time and effort into a content marketing strategy to not only generate leads, but nurture them through the sales process. Perhaps if he were to see successful examples of blogs or other content used by either his competitors in his space, or comparable non-competitive products, he might be saved from the primordial goo of web 1.0.
What would you do in this situation? Leave a comment with your thoughts and help a fellow marketer out!
