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Mausoleum web sites and “set it and forget it” marketing

January 25, 2008 by Kathryn Hendershot Leave a Comment

How long has it been since you’ve reviewed your marketing materials?  Has it been weeks… or months… or perhaps years? 

Small business web sites are notorious for acting more like mausoleums than powerful marketing tools.  Indeed, most small business web sites are nothing more than elaborate tombs for marketing copy that was dead the day it was laid to rest, ehm… I mean posted to the web page.

During the past year, I’ve been working with clients on creating a NEW kind of web presence… one that is vital and alive! 

A few have told me up front that they plan to use their Acumen Web Services web site "just like a traditional web site".  When they say that, I know that what they mean is that they have NO INTENTION of updating their marketing content on a regular basis, but at least the Word Press blog format allows them the option of doing so when they finally decide they’re serious about promoting their business.  

On the other hand, I’ve had others who have jumped feet first into creating alive and vibrant web sites.  While they are not by any means "bloggers" in the traditional sense… they don’t post content every week, let alone every day…  but by using the blog format, they do keep a regular stream of "fresh" marketing content on their web site.  The result?   One client, who averages a whopping 28 visitors to his blog each month during the past six months recently reported that he got his first client via his blog.  If 1/2 of his 28 blog visitors become clients, his practice will be full to overflowing.  Another bonus, the lifetime value of that new client is many times his investment in the launch and maintenance of the blog!

I get it.   I understand the appeal of a "set it and forget it" web site.  I’m human too.  I like "leisure" as much as the next person.  (OK… that’s OBVIOUSLY not true or I’d be at the beach instead of at my computer.)  These "set it and forget it"  web sites are SUCH a struggle to create… with clients going over them with a fine toothed comb to make sure every character is in order and that there’s only a single space after each period instead of two.  After weeks of this intense scrutiny, the site it launched and ACK!  A typo!  There, on the About" page!  FIX IT!!  QUICK!!!  IF WE DON’T THE WEB SITE WON’T "WORK"!

Revisit the site six months later and it’s exactly the same as it was the day it was launched… except for that typon on the "About" page which has now been fixed.  A quick look at the log files shows… yep, no one is coming.  Nobody cares.  The web site owner doesn’t care… he/she hasn’t updated it in six months… yet somehow, potential customers are supposed to be so enthralled with the presentation that they quickly whip out their credit card and begin snapping up products and services.

You don’t need a blog to have a successful web site.  (If you’re making a Major Sale however, then I strongly recommend launching a blog.  Read more about the Major Sale in my book Beyond the Niche.)  However, you do have to have a target audience in mind and a way to communicate with that target audience.  Communication that is alive and vibrant.  If you haven’t had "time" to review your marketing materials then hopefully, you don’t need to do the review.  See, you either have an abundance of time or money…. if you don’t have either, you’re spending BOTH your time AND YOUR MONEY on the wrong activities.

A few people may find it interesting to roam around a cemetery and read the epitaphs on the tombstones…. but you don’t see anyone setting up a hot dog stand to capitalize upon the crowds and very few of those people make a daily habit of repeatedly reading a few well chosen words on a tombstone. 

Instead of carving your marketing content into stone, instead try write your marketing content in the sand!  You’d be surprised how many more people go to the beach than to the cemetery on a sunny day!

 

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