Comments on: FOS Furniture: Lessons Learned from a Bad Website http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2007/11/14/fos-furniture-lessons-learned-from-a-bad-website/ How to turn prospects into buyers with content marketing Thu, 29 Jul 2010 13:31:36 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: William Waites http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2007/11/14/fos-furniture-lessons-learned-from-a-bad-website/comment-page-1/#comment-112 William Waites Thu, 15 Nov 2007 20:57:55 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2007/11/14/fos-furniture-lessons-learned-from-a-bad-website/#comment-112 Newt: My point was not that their furniture was unattractive or of anything less than fine quality. I don't know. It was that it doesn't matter what their products are like with this web strategy. A web site has to focus on what the searcher is looking for. Even if by dumb luck someone stumbled onto their landing page (or entered it in a browser directly) they wouldn't stick around to find out anything more about the company. It's the web equivalent of a movie set facade. No meat on those bones. (Must be more metaphors out there I can use, too. But I won't.) Newt:
My point was not that their furniture was unattractive or of anything less than fine quality. I don’t know. It was that it doesn’t matter what their products are like with this web strategy. A web site has to focus on what the searcher is looking for. Even if by dumb luck someone stumbled onto their landing page (or entered it in a browser directly) they wouldn’t stick around to find out anything more about the company. It’s the web equivalent of a movie set facade. No meat on those bones. (Must be more metaphors out there I can use, too. But I won’t.)

]]> By: Newt Barrett http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2007/11/14/fos-furniture-lessons-learned-from-a-bad-website/comment-page-1/#comment-108 Newt Barrett Wed, 14 Nov 2007 19:14:25 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2007/11/14/fos-furniture-lessons-learned-from-a-bad-website/#comment-108 Bill, Thanks for your feedback. Although they sell inexpensive furniture, they do picture nice room groupings in their newspaper ads. It wouldn't have been a big stretch to get decent images on their website. Newt Bill,
Thanks for your feedback. Although they sell inexpensive furniture, they do picture nice room groupings in their newspaper ads. It wouldn’t have been a big stretch to get decent images on their website.
Newt

]]> By: William Waites http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2007/11/14/fos-furniture-lessons-learned-from-a-bad-website/comment-page-1/#comment-104 William Waites Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:14:35 +0000 http://contentmarketingtoday.com/2007/11/14/fos-furniture-lessons-learned-from-a-bad-website/#comment-104 Further thoughts on how to make a better web site. Content isn't about what the marketer wants to say, it's about what the customer wants to know. If the search term "furniture" is entered into a search engine, will the FOS page show up anywhere? It didn't with my Google search. But then again what serious furniture buyer would enter the search term furntiture? Wouldn't they more likely enter a modified term, such as "apartment furniture" or "sofas" or "dining room tables" or "living room furniture" or bargain "furniture fort myers"? If they did, would they want to know about a Furniture Outlet Store generically? Or would they want to know about the specific subject for which they searched? We know that web searchers are both very motivated (They are looking for answers and product/services to buy) and very impatient. (The essence of the web is speed and responsiveness.) If you don't provide content that they are looking for, and provide it promptly, even if they find your site, they will leave you for some other vendor. This company seems to be stuck in the 1990s not only in web style but in marketing savvy. One hesitates to think what their furniture looks like. (Maybe that is why they don't show it. ) Further thoughts on how to make a better web site.

Content isn’t about what the marketer wants to say, it’s about what the customer wants to know. If the search term “furniture” is entered into a search engine, will the FOS page show up anywhere?

It didn’t with my Google search. But then again what serious furniture buyer would enter the search term furntiture? Wouldn’t they more likely enter a modified term, such as “apartment furniture” or “sofas” or “dining room tables” or “living room furniture” or bargain “furniture fort myers”? If they did, would they want to know about a Furniture Outlet Store generically? Or would they want to know about the specific subject for which they searched?

We know that web searchers are both very motivated (They are looking for answers and product/services to buy) and very impatient. (The essence of the web is speed and responsiveness.)

If you don’t provide content that they are looking for, and provide it promptly, even if they find your site, they will leave you for some other vendor.

This company seems to be stuck in the 1990s not only in web style but in marketing savvy. One hesitates to think what their furniture looks like. (Maybe that is why they don’t show it. )

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