Let’s talk Websites…
We are at the end of 2013, and yet I am still shocked at many ‘digital marketing agencies’ attempts at logos and websites. I decided I would Google the first couple of pages under the term and compare… After all, if I am comparing as a prospect employee, imagine what potential clients are thinking when viewing the sites!
Now, when I searched, I searched without quotations or additives, digital marketing agency. (And I admit, I use Bing! not Google; typically…). Within moments I had at my disposal 20,100,000 websites. That said, those that appear on the first couple of pages, are obviously doing some clever SEO work to appear, so you would assume they are all high quality.
WRONG!
Responsive Websites: Again people, we are closing in on 2014. People view websites from more than their “PC”. Tablets, phones, laptops… It is essential to have a website built with a responsive page design. You want to be appealing towards your potential client, not having them struggle to even view your website.
Social Media: Every business should have a presence on the web, and more importantly on major social media platforms. Certainly you should be having accessibly links to your pages on your website… ESPECIALLY AS A FREAKING DIGITAL MARKETING AGENCY. And yet… so many companies failed at this… WHAT THE FLIP??? HOUSTON YOU’VE GOT A BIG PROBLEM!!!
Content: I again remind you these are companies claiming they will help build and manage your online brand, and yet they can’t even do so for themselves? That should make any and all potential client run straight for the damn hills (AKA any other agency!)
There were websites I loved, SO SO SO MUCH SO, I wanted to beg and plead they hire me right then and there just based off their website!(Let me reiterate ‘this SO MUCH’… HI RANKPOP! You love me too right??!!) There were websites that scattered information in such an awful moving style mixed with the circus colors they chose, I honestly almost threw up from the vertigo it created. There were websites that took nine years to load… Websites I swear were from “Angelfire” in 1996. However, the majority of websites fell into one of the following categories…:
- Good Content, Boring Webpage Design
- Good Webpage Design, Lamest Logo Ever
- Poor Display of Good Things
So enough of that, you obviously want to see my opinions right?
Remember when I said one website was so information and movement overload, I was suddenly running to the toilet from the nausea? Yeah, case in point. NetMax, while you have a responsive site, there is seriously waaaaaay too much going on, on the main page.
And then… It happened. One of the very first page results showed that 1996 ain’t over yet… #ENOUGHSAID
Then was the site of the agency with ‘Simple’ in their name… And yet, all I could see was … cluster(insert naughty word)…
There were the sites who had fine content, but the logo design made me yawn…
The site who had nothing and left me what the flip SEO was done to get it to rank…
The agency with a cool site, best LINKEDIN executive’s profile photo I’ve seen, and yet the logo left me sleepy…
The site that never stopped ‘loading’ (More like belslow)…
There were a couple that entered the ‘fine’ crowd… Nothing awful, but nothing to remember…
And then… there were the ‘SWOOOOOOOON’ ones. The hello, your innovation made my geekiness explode with jealousy!
(Hey SPINX, I believe in the BIG IDEA too!)
And then it happened… I even admit this didn’t show up in my results, I had received a message from an employee, checked out their site… and done. Fell.In.Love.
Hip? check. Modern? check. Clever? check. Killer Content? check.
Hire me now, please?? Check!
With that all said, what are your thoughts? Share some of your favorite agency websites (or some of the most awful you’ve come across)!
XoXo,
Blair Pettrey // +Blair Pettrey
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Blair Pettrey - Inbound Marketing Frederick, Maryland 
Hi Blair,
Firstly I’d like to say I’m humbled to hear that our website fell under your “SWOOOOOOOON” list – how awfully kind of you.
Let me reflect a little on your article – please keep in mind that I’m from Cape Town so I’m writing from that point of view.
1. Our website lacks a responsive version or even a redirect (ack) to a mobile version of the site. We’re aware of this, the problem is time. Our efforts this year have gone into our wonderful clients, but on top of this our analytical data suggests that a mobile version is not going to bring us a return on the investment. Of course, that’s us, I cannot comment on why other agencies haven’t done this.
2. Looking at the majority of the awards given at this year’s Bookmark Awards, I feel that the level of output isn’t all that impressive. Sure, there are some stellar productions, but a lot of them seemed rather, well, average. At the very least, I’d expect a great deal more from the big agencies who are winning the awards – in comparison to International standards I feel that South Africa does have a lot of room to grow, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I should add though, there’s a lot of movement in my opinion between digital and traditional marketing. Recently I’ve seen big companies investing into traditional marketing again and I fear this is because of the position of the economy, there aren’t massive budgets for digital campaigns so agencies are more than likely working within a budget that doesn’t allow for the next Facebook if you catch my drift.
3. Social media is an interesting one – I spent a few months driving my following up on Twitter to 6,000 odd followers (I think) and I tested all sorts of tactics to determine what sort of return I could get – the end result: the effort to build wasn’t worth the return. In a B2B sense it’s even harder and I’m not convinced that digital marketing agencies are getting leads through social – my statistics certainly don’t show a great return. With that being said, I feel that a healthy and frequent presence is very important though.
Those are some of my comments and thoughts, it would be interesting to see what the others say.
Take care,
Christopher