Some 15 years after its debut, the web medium as a communication, sales and brand force in B-2-B marketing remains keenly important. That’s because now, as then, the web medium has arguably been the single most important marketing tool ever embraced by B-2-B marketers.
Important concepts such as search engine optimization, inbound marketing and social media development may have never seen their birth had the “interactive,” visitor controlled experience of Web browsing not appeared. Shifting partial control of message consumption from the dictates of the seller to those of the buyer may be one of the most fundamental shifts in commercial communication since the invention of modern advertising.
The web as a B-2-B business communications tool is a titan, the largest, most important tool
in an ever-growing marketing tool box. Which is why I can’t help wondering if B-2-B companies pay enough attention to the very website that is the cornerstone of their web presence?
In the beginning all websites are well-intended; vessels of brand and benefit information that trumpets one business option as better than the competition. But once completed, marketing attention rightly shifts to field tactics to attract visitors. Visitor flow ensues, data is captured, conversion begins and the entire cycle sustains itself.
But all the while how do we ensure the fundamental goals of what is desired from commercial web communication are maintained? As an example, any website can easily yield basic “dashboard” indicators about whom, from where and how long visitors attend to a given website. Yet how frequently are such indicators assessed and then considered in guiding web content management? Or when and with what intensity are marketers really picking apart what their prized visitors are encountering when first landing at their website? Is that issue managed with the same fluid or dynamic quality as virtually all other tactics that are part of modern marketing?
My non-scientific analysis suggests that too often websites are developed and largely forgotten save for minimal content updates. In the context of the power that is the Web, this seems a missed opportunity. Perhaps our collective zeal for the tools meant to heighten the Web experience has become more prized than the Web itself? If so this seems backward. Marketing communication would be improved if we let the tools serve the medium and not the other way around.
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John Durante is marketing services director for WordWrite Communications.
