stratplanning.com

We killed our website. Now we’re happy.

We just switched off our website at BEHP (that’s the full service agency where Stratplanning resides). Honest we did – all the evidence is here www.behp.co.za. In its place is a blogsite. The reason is quite simple: the website makes us look big; the blogsite makes us look good. And since I last checked, clients want to work with good people, not necessarily big people.

Make no mistake, websites are a crucial channel in the communications arsenal, serving as the silent salesman available 24/7 to anyone who wants to enter the domain. In our case, we (or maybe just me) felt that we needed to set an example to prospective clients – ‘look how great our website is – we can make one for you as well’. That’s admirable, but not necessarily correct.

To be quite honest, I was against the idea of culling the website - gone was my Linus blanket of our great site (and it was a great site). When I was shown the new site, I gasped in horror and sulked for what must have been at least 12 hours. “It’s so linear,” I cried in horror. But fortunately the proponents of the blogsite appreciated that I needed to be granted the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference. Clearly I needed help on the latter.

But I have come to know the difference. The blogsite works for us on a number of levels:

It is simple to add content.

The people who create the work like to display it, so they do.

It is current – you get an idea of what we’re doing.

It still has the most important piece of information: our phone number.

As organizations we all tend to collect communication channels, simply because they’re available and everyone’s doing it. Take Facebook for example. This is a social medium where we celebrate our lives in the company of others. Friends, not customers. Yes, a brand can serve as a friend, and many do have successful Facebook pages. But Facebook is not the free storefront we bought into. So if you have a Facebook page giving you the same angst as the gym membership you bought but never use, perhaps you need to put it down. I’m saying that as a friend.

Reference: The Facebook comment was motivated by this article in the RSW/US ezine which I thoroughly enjoyed.