UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging

Chapter 24. Your Web Site—Old School versus New School

THE HUB OF most businesses—the web site—is the most poorly done thing of them all. After reviewing countless sites, most were guilty of the same old school mistakes.

Brochure versus Hub

More than half of the web sites I reviewed had nothing to give, only to buy. No information to learn, the sites were simply digital brochures. Where are you aiming on that pyramid? If it's just to sell stuff, keep doing this. Buy or good-bye. Your web site should be the hub of your business—the place where people can go to learn about you and to learn content.

Give away some knowledge. People fear that if they give it away, people won't need to hire or buy from them. If everything you know about your industry can be explained in a few articles, you don't know much. It's not just knowledge that people buy from you, it's the application of the knowledge for their specific situation. This is why a blog-driven site comes in handy. The nature of a blog is the sharing of knowledge unconditionally. You don't have to post every day or even every week. Although frequency helps, consistent quality content is more important. I would rather you write three great posts in a month than 10 mediocre ones.

Pitch versus Authenticity Newsletters

I see people doing this all the time. I sign up for their "newsletter" and all I get are pitches for products. I want to learn from you, that's why I signed up. I made this mistake years ago myself. I built a newsletter up to ...