EBlog

Rethinking Brochureware Web Sites

March 7, 2008 | Posted by: Nicholas

Geoff Livingston thinks that building web sites like we have in the past is silly. I agree with him. He puts it nicely in his latest blog post, Tear Down the Web Site:

The brochure approach doesn’t work.  We know that.  So blogs, podcasts and new social content has been added to conventional web site, but the conversation is usually buried on sites as a simple link. Why bother?  Why not reverse things and make brochure content a simple link, and the social content the heart of the web page?

If we know customers want to "join the conversation" and are over-saturated with push advertising and marketing-speak, why are we still structuring web sites around the old model?

Seriously, do you really care what press releases a company has released recently? No, but it's on the home page of just about every B2B site you go to. On top of that, when was the last time you actually read a press release? I'd venture a guess that you've never just browsed PRNewsWire for the fun of it. Why? Because press releases are unreadable. Filled with quotes that no one ever actually said, all sorts of hyperbole and buzzwords, and usually on topics that no one outside of your company or industry (i.e. your customers) actually care about. ("Look honey! ABC Gadgets, Inc. just added a new board member!")

Now, think of a company blog. I bet you've read some pretty interesting blog posts recently. And imagine if you went to a company's web site and saw the latest blog posts featured on the home page. Maybe one by the CEO, one by a product manager, and one by a tech support rep - I bet you'd read every word!

Press releases are but one example, but they illustrate the point of old vs new nicely. You blog is your new press release. (Is that trademarked yet?) Your customers are your new marketing department. Your site shouldn't be the same old brochureware.