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If one more business owner tells me their website sucks because they're just "too darn busy to deal with it", I'm gonna hurl. That's like saying, "I'm walking around town in my dirty underwear because I'm just too darn busy to get dressed." Realize it or not, your website (or lack thereof) is often the first impression a key prospect or peer will have of you.
Most websites are informative, but deadly dull. In part, that's because the Internet today is similar to the way TV was in the early 50's when that was "the new media". Back then it seemed totally exciting just to have a radio announcer propped in front of a TV camera holding the package of soap, or toothpaste, and talking about something that you could actually see. Of course, that wasn't exciting for long.
I see a parallel today with the Internet.
Bill Bernbach, a great leader of that last creative evolution, stated;
"You can say the right thing about a product and
nobody will listen. You've got to say it in such a
way that people will feel it in their gut. Because
if they don't feel it, nothing will happen. That's
where the creativity comes in."
Applied to the Internet Bernbach's words resonate more than ever. Your audience needs to immediately feel something exciting and relevant when they log on your site.
So, what makes a website effective and creatively exciting? A techie may say it's all about blogs. A designer may say it's about flash animation or the right color scheme. But have you ever clicked on a site you're eager to see only to have to sit through a self-indulgent 30-second flash intro? The point is that if the thinking behind the design and technology doesn't engage and excite the person viewing it, it doesn't matter how cool or technologically advanced it is.
An exciting, creative, effective website begins with a clear understanding of the target audience and the marketing objectives you're trying to reach. Only then does it take a fresh, simple, memorable creative approach that touches and moves that audience on an emotional level. And that takes strategically smart, creative talent.
So, the bottom line is that if you don't have it, find it. Because The Evolution has begun.
© 2008 John Follis. All rights reserved. 
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