Category: Missed Content Opportunities
Don’t Keep Your Web Visitors Waiting and Guessing: A Video Company Website That Communicates Poorly
It's Not Visual. It's Doesn't Get Quickly to the Point. It Doesn't Show How It Can Help.
When much of the web was experimental and Web surfing was still recreational, it might have been okay to have a website that was creative for its own sake--even when it was unclear about its purpose. Not so today.
We face three key realities that must shape our thinking about a good versus bad website
- Websites are our most important marketing tool. They will increasingly replace most traditional marketing. Therefore, you have to get it right.
- Your prospective online buyers are pressed for time and won't waste it trying to figure how they will benefit from what you do.
- You have just one chance to influence your prospective buyer. If they are not impressed, they will mosey on down the Internet.
Why Does this BMW Dealer eNewsletter Talk So Little About Cars?
How To Put the Brakes on Their Five Major Marketing Mistakes
[Please note that I have made a few changes to the initial post based on constructive feedback, particularly to clarify that this is a dealer enewsletter,not a BMW corporate effort ]
If you were to imagine an eNewsletter from your local BMW dealer, you would probably expect it to lead off with a picture something like the one to the right.
As a BMW owner, you tend to be a certain kind of person. The folks at BMW have understood your persona well over decades in the United States. That's why I'm mystified at the June 2009 eNewsletter from Germain BMW of Naples.
I love my BMW. I think Germain BMW is a terrific dealership. But, I hate their eNewsletter. Why? Because it has almost nothing to do with the BMW brand promise: BMW—The Ultimate Driving Machine.
Call me crazy but when I get an eNewsletter that has something to do with BMW, I expect that it would deliver on that ‘ultimate driving machine’ brand promise. Instead here's what the eNewsletter delivers by way of core content after stripping away the header and some dealer specific webpage links:
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10 Top Public Relations Pratfalls of 2008
Check Out These Gigantic Goofs So You Can Avoid Them in 2009
We all love top 10 lists, whether they are of the wonderful or of the woeful variety. We can learn from both.
In that educational spirit and with thanks to the folks at Fineman PR, who put together this hall of shame, here is the list of really awful public relations gaffs from a year that is happily almost over.
1. AIG All-Expense-Paid Retreats ... Paid By YOU
Mere days after receiving an $85 billion federal bailout package, American International Group Inc. dropped nearly half a million dollars on an executive retreat to the posh St. Regis resort, complete with "spa treatments, banquets and golf outings," according to the Associated Press. Public reaction, as many watched 401(k) and other investments deflate, was heated. Ousted AIG CEO Robert Willumstad condemned the fete as "very inappropriate" when questioned by Congress, and presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said participating executives "should be fired" during a debate with Sen. John McCain. AIG compounded the damage when it proceeded with an $86,000 New England hunting retreat. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo promptly launched a fraud probe, saying "our message to AIG today is simple: The party is over."
Read MoreBad B2B Ad Endangers This Polar Bear
Avoid the
5 Perilous Print Advertising Mistakes It Commits
"Print Advertising is dead," says a very smart small business owner friend. Although print advertising may be more endangered than all those ice-loving polar bears some folks worry about, you can still create effective print ads that prompt customers to take action.
Unfortunately, this advertisement isn't one of them.
The actual print version of this ad is a half page in an 8 1/2" by 11" trade publication that is aimed at the book industry. That's big enough to make a difference if the ad were not so flawed.
This polar bear ad certainly answered one classic and vital advertising objective--the dominant image of the polar bear does grab your attention. That's great. But, in five important respects, the ad fails both in communicating a brand message and in inspiring action.
Read MoreContent Marketing Goof Up: Why Isn’t the iTunes eNewsletter Showing Me the Love?
Rare Apple Misstep Sends Weekly News about Music You May Hate
If you are one of the millions of iTunes fans, you appreciate the brilliant work they do in aggregating music creatively. This includes pre-constructed sets of music from different eras, different artists or different styles in the iTunes store. In November, it launched the 'Genius Bar' which enables you to create new playlists from your stored music or to discover new tunes that you're likely to love based on a song that you have chosen from your own iTunes collection.
The iTunes folks excel at enabling you to choose,to organize, and to discover all sorts of music that you love. Of course, you've probably bought quite a few more iTunes selections than you should have thanks to their terrifically targeted musical content. iTunes is brilliant at offering you what you don't even know you want.
That's why I'm astonished at how far off the mark they are with their weekly new music eNewsletter.
Read More8 Vital Lessons to Learn from This Expensive Marketing Misstep!
Big bucks squandered to insert content free DVD in magazine
You can be sure that an advertising sales rep did a great job convincing the Harding Poorman Group to insert a DVD in the October 2008 issue of Book Business.
While conceding that they do show off their packaging technology, they blew the opportunity to demonstrate to their prospects the kind of rich content that DVD could and should contain. In other words, it all boils down to a missed content marketing opportunity. Prospects are likely to say, "I loved your packaging, but you don't show me why I should invest big bucks to put a DVD in a magazine."
Read More5 Secrets to Transforming a Seriously Outdated Law Firm Site Into a Powerful Content Marketing Rainmaker
First-generation website in desperate need of an essential but easy overhaul.
Based on copyright information displayed on their website, this law firm was probably an online pioneer back in the mid-1990s. Moreover, it's obvious that they understood the need to put meaningful content on the site that would be relevant to prospective clients. It even has a short and cool website address, WWLaw.com.
The bad news is that the site is as dated as a flower power Volkswagen minibus. The good news is that it would be very easy to fix so that it reinforces the strengths and skills of the law firm in question.
Here's my advice on what they need to do:
Read MoreHow Not to Prove You’re an Expert in Your Field: Put up a Website Almost Bereft of Content
Ironically, Morris Rosenthal's website led me to the content-challenged online home of an intellectual property lawyer who specializes in publishing issues. It's ironic because Morris is a genuine king of content. [this is a correction; I initially made the wrong attribution to Aaron Shepard who is also a fabulous content marketer.]
He has written extensively on the nuts and bolts issue that neophyte publishers like me need to know to succeed. He has written an excellent book on self-publishing: Print-on-Demand Book Publishing. In addition, he provides a wealth of articles on his site about specific issues such as how to deal with a big-time publisher if you are an author. At the conclusion of that particular article he refers his readers to zickrubin.com. Based on Morris' ability to deliver so much great content, I expected to find something similar on the website of the law firm he recommended.
Read MoreFinally, a Great Way to Evaluate Your Website–and Your Competitors’!
Websitegrader.com from HubSpot might make you humble, but it will also make you a lot smarter about how you present yourself on the web.
Since I'm in the content marketing business, I spent a lot of time looking at websites to assess what kind of job they do in presenting content that is relevant and valuable for their likely target customers. Of course, the success of a website depends both on the quality of content and on the quality of its visitor friendly design. Moreover, it's important that visitors can find it in the first place.
Now, a great new tool, websitegrader.com, delivers a meaningful score from zero to 100 --with 100 being perfect--for the marketing effectiveness any website on the net.
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