When it comes to selling a web experience I’ve often compared the worth of a web site to that of a car. Surely your company or organization’s web site is worth as much or more to you as a nice, well built and functioning car? What about a hand-crafted, built-to-your-exact-specifications vehicle? I assure you, an assembly line method should not be used to build a web site or application.
A web site is one of your main touch points with your customers, and as such should be providing the best experience possible, should it not? Isn’t it deserving on some loving care?
As someone who’s worked on the web for years on experiences for companies and organizations of all shapes and sizes I think I can safely say that most do not invest as much as they should (time, effort, money, thinking, love, passion) into their web experiences. And it shows.
Time, effort and money
A good web experience is rarely simple. It takes time, skill, effort and more to get right. It takes passion and a solid commitment from all parties involved. Again, for many the web site is the first and primary touch-point as far as their brand goes. Even more traditional businesses know this. Still, it amazes me at how little some are willing to invest into their web experience.
Now, I’m not talking solely about money, and even then we’re not talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in most cases. Money is involved, make no mistake, but I’m also talking about effort, engagement, planning and simple TLC.
In order to provide and, more importantly keep providing, a great experience via the web people have to be involved to some degree at all times. A web site doesn’t manage itself, even with a kick-ass content management system. You can hire professionals to build you a web site and then sit back and expect the people to come visit and/or the money to come rolling in. You can’t rely on technology to run your site for you.
It’s not easy, but a commitment has to be made.
Content
Sometimes it’s not as easy as seeing that value. I can think of many, many cases where one of my stakeholders simply underestimated the effort involved. This is usually the case when it comes to content. Content is very often the hardest part of a great web experience. It takes lots of time, lots of heavy thinking and lots of effort to get right. And it’s usually something that key stakeholders on a web project simply have to be involved in.
We do our best to prepare our clients for this, but understandably it doesn’t always sink in until it’s time to get down to business.
If you want a great web experience you need to work on your content. It’s that simple. There is no avoiding it.
Passion and going the extra mile
One of the reasons I’m writing this post is because I personally have a passion for the web and for making my work as good as I can make it. To do this I need help. I’m willing to go that extra mile, but often that’s not enough to ensure that the projects I work on are the best they can be. At Blue Flavor we’ve been pretty lucky to work with lots of great clients who understand the value of their web presence and are willing to not only provide me with the resources we need to do our jobs, but willing to put the necessary elbow grease in on their end as well.
We believe in teaming. In fact, we find that it’s crucial and we find that when people understand, accept and bring the effort to the value of their web experience great things can be accomplished.
Have a web experience you need some help with? Want to talk more? Leave a comment or get in touch.
You’re bang on the money when it comes to content. I see it time and time again where people try to put up a site thinking that people will visit ‘just because’ and that’s really not the case. Content is king. It’ll get you an audience and it’ll keep an audience. Unfortunately, more often than not, people just don’t see the value in it.
Another great post.
I like your analogy comparing a website to a handcrafted vehicle built to exact specifications. I will use that comparison with a few clients, I’m sure.