As I watch my partners and competitors engage in battles of marketing will, I’m amused by the way they turn the super strategic, high level actions into their own raison d’etre. The belief seems to be that creating these massive partnerships, awesome viral campaigns, and strategic alliances will help you even when your basic product is horribly flawed. I’m thinking we need Moses or Charlton Heston (either or … ) to add the 11th Commandment: “Well built products and sites don’t need fancy marketing, but fancy marketing doesn’t save a shitty product.”
Here’s an example: A former client spent all kinds of time and money building an impressive site which is ultimately built around a widget. The theory is, use the widget to help build your music career. It’s a reasonable widget, which works moderately well, but … no matter how much he tweets and talks to people, he’s breaking the 11th Commandment. While he’s got a decent widget, his site lacks the obvious things that web designers (and not developers…) will tell you to have. Worse, the site is rarely (ever?) updated, so it looks dead in the virtual water.
Generally speaking, no one wants to build their treehouse in a dead tree. Why work with a site that shows no signs of life? Add a contest! Update a blog! Show that you’re paying attention where it matters. And more than that, make your site look like a welcoming, useful destination.
Lack of usability doesn’t sell your product – brilliant though it may (or may not?) be. And no amount of fragrant profundity covers the stench of true crap.
