Meet Agency3, with the following self description: “A Boston web design and development firm. We build great websites and provide hosting & email marketing tools.”
I’m sure they’re great at walking the walk but they are terrible at talking:
There are 3 problems with this front page design:
- First, the company’s greeting never changes: Hi, Nice to Meet You. It’s nice to meet you too, Agency3, but if I’m a customer of yours (or a prospect) and returning to your site, you should be happy to see me, not meet me.
- Second, in today’s marketplace, websites are not necessary to compete because they are constructed as marketing copy and not conducive to enriching the customer experience, echoed by the greeting above. I’d rather be “met” by a company in a dynamic environment — such as my blog or on a wiki or online bulletin board or Twitter — and be sold on the idea of buying a product than by browsing a site on my own.
- Third, why should I subscribe to a company newsletter without a link to a sample issue? What safeguards can a firm assure me that my email address will only be used for that newsletter and no other corporate communication? Moreover, can I opt to receive it by RSS? How many web design firms that offer newsletters know about RSS?
But, wait. We have a blog!
It is true that “Business Blogging for Web Success” includes useful advice for companies to follow:
- A blog can drive more targeted traffic to their main site.
- Blogs make it easier to gain return visitors.
- Blogs allow one to easily gain expert status amongst a target audience.
- Blogs are user friendly and inexpensive to boot.
- Business blogs are easier when it comes to upkeep.
But the final bullet is where Agency3 fails:
Blogs have comment sections where readers can leave messages for you to let you know they liked what you said in a post or to add their own thoughts on the topic at hand.
If you scroll down the list of recent Agency3 blog posts this fall, you’ll see zero comments on every post — barring one, where I posted a comment last month and asked a question.
The company neither responded to my comment nor emailed me (despite requiring the input of my email address).
Agency3 is great at walking a company through web design…
But it fails horribly at talking the talk.
Maybe I’m being too harsh. What do you think? How could it improve?
About Ari Herzog
Good analysis of the problems with Agency3′s website. Can I add one to your list? The agency offers many services like web design and blog design that are content based, yet they do not offer copywriting services.
Do they really expect clients like the CPA firms they mentioned will have competent writers on staff who can churn out frequent blog posts or keep their website fresh? Or do they figure that so long as Agency3 has provided the design, the client can fend for himself with regard to copy?
I know that as a copywriter I’m biased, but it seems to me that to neglect the need for content is to limit their clients’ prospects for success.
I agree with everything you’ve said above. Especially the fact that they haven’t responded to your question. Your 2nd point is a bit harsh though… yes, interactive meeting is better, but they should also be selling via their website for people who find them in a different way.
Interesting company though… maybe they need a marketing person! I’ll have to check it out!
It’s also possible they are busy working for their clients and don’t have time to dedicate to their website. I know…I know…your whole point…need to walk the walk. But the golden rule is “do what works to bring in cash.”
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If they’re a web design company, why don’t they show design work on their homepage? Regardless of whether people should judge a book by it’s cover, they do. Why hide your product in a deeper page. When we recently redesigned my soon-to-be-former agency web site, showing design and our client list was an important selling tool.
Why is their tagline “innovative web design”? Is that to differentiate them from the companies whose tagline is “outdated web design”?
Testimonials? Who believes testimonials? Most people feel. That they are canned, if not fake.
If anyone wants to see the most cutting edge site for an interactive agency, try http://www.modernista.com
If they aren’t even monitoring comments they probably aren’t scanning for mentions of their name either. I bet they won’t even know about this article.
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Hello All.
First, A belated Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who commented here. We would have commented yesterday when the item was posted, but we took the day off to spend with friends and family.
We wanted to stop by and say thanks for the feedback and follow up on some of the comments.
Susan – We suggest all of our clients hire a professional copywriter and we refer this work out a lot. Drop us a line if you are looking for some freelance work.
Rachel – We are currently looking for great marketing people to help our clients on/off line. Drop us a line.
Dave – The shoemakers children never have new shoes
Michael – We agree that we need to add more work to our website and bring more of it to the homepage. However, all of our testimonials are 100% real and we know our clients have commented positively on them.
Kim – We managed to find it.
Thanks again and have a great weekend.
I’m sure it depends on the industry, but as far as point #2 goes, for many companies, a website IS necessary to compete. For many products I’m considering buying, I check the company website, and any company that does not have a website immediately loses credibility.
I’m in the travel business, and whenever our company is mentioned in a newspaper or magazine, the first thing interested people do is go to the company website. They want to see something that gives them confidence that Adventurous Wench is a reliable company, before they even think about spending vacation $$ here.
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Thanks, Agency3, for responding to prior comments. I couldn’t have answered them better myself. How come you chose not to respond to me?
Deanna: I agree websites can be useful but surely you’d agree when a company views its website as a “web site” aka an online version of a trifold brochure, there is little use.
Hi Ari,
We did respond to you. We said “Thanks for the feedback”.
In general, we can’t specifically disagree with anything you said. As we continue to re-design and tweak our own site we may incorporate some of your feedback. We do appreciate constructive criticism. Your comments were constructive, but we found the tone to be a bit snarky. In addition, your tone in direct messages to us on Twitter were a bit abrupt. We understand that it is the nature of twitter to be brief, but it can still be a friendly medium.
As for your blog post…
You specifically mention that we did not respond to your comment via email “despite requiring the input of my email address”. We can’t remember seeing a comment form that did not require an email address. However, the implication is that we did something out of the ordinary by asking for your email address.
In your comment on our blog you said, “Considering I was not at this meeting (nor am a CPA), I wonder why you suggest every firm should have a blog. I say it depends on the firm and their customer demographic.” This comment was in response to a post we made about a presentation we gave to the Massachusetts Society of CPA’s. In the post, we mentioned that we talked about why CPA’s should be blogging. It was probably poor wording since we actually talked about what the benefits of blogging might be for the firm. We did not suggest every CPA firm start blogging.
In the post above you pointed out that we did not respond to this comment, but we actually did. You asked us the same question in your initial direct message to us on Twitter. On Twitter you said, “why tell every CPA to blog?“. We responded to this tweet by saying, “we did not tell every CPA to blog, but we did explain what the benefits might be.” Therefore, we did respond to your question. However, your blog post implies that we ignored the comment entirely. We did not reply to it on our blog because we did respond to it via twitter. You blog post omits this fact.
So far Ari, you have questioned our judgement on Twitter, posted a argumentative comment on our blog and inaccurately portrayed us in a blog post on your blog. It begs to question, why not just pick up the phone and have a conversation with us instead of the prodding from a distance. You can reach us anytime at 866-932-2923.
Social media is not just about using new communication tools. It is about connecting with people. It helps if you take a moment to understand who they are and where they are coming from. Behind the website, we are a company of real people working hard for our real clients who are enthusiastic about working with us and happy with the work we produce for them. That is what we are all about.
For the record, Agency3, I don’t recall receiving said tweet from you. I don’t doubt you sent it, but I never saw it. There is a reason I posted a comment on your blog, for I presumed you’d respond either through a follow-up comment or by email, both of which I’ve done to you here. You commented, and I followed-up as well as emailed you. If someone emails me a question, I respond by email. If someone calls me, I call them back. I don’t mash everything up. So, I apologize for any confusion.
And I agree with you 100% that social media is about connecting with people. Which begs the question why you are writing as “Agency3″ and not as, say, John Smith?
Your comments were directed at a company, not a person. Therefore, we responded as a company.
Not sure why you don’t recall our message on Twitter. In particular this is odd because you responded to our message on Twitter. You commented, we responded and then you responded to us.
In this case we did not mash anything up. You sent us a message through two mediums and we responded through one of them. We did not feel it was necessary to respond through both mediums…we certainly did not feel it was necessary to add an email response and raise the tally to three responses.
Best regards and enjoy the rest of the weekend.