The Sound of Business

The Sound of Business

Article written by Jerry Bader, Partner MRPwebmedia
info@mrpwebmedia.com, Telephone: 905.764.1246

PART I
BREAKING THE LIQUID CRYSTAL BARRIER

The Web is an emotionally remote hinterland delivered to us through an impenetrable liquid crystal barrier. How then, can you as a business owner, entrepreneur, or marketing executive connect to a target audience that requires emotional reassurance in order to do business?

Willy Loman is Dead

Gone are the days when we sent out phalanxes of sales representatives pounding the pavement, beating the bushes, and generally getting in the face of prospects. Too expensive, way too expensive, have you seen the price of gas? Enough said.

Hot Shots Are Us

So you hire some hot shot Web designer who isn't as old as the shoes you're wearing. If you spent some money on your site, and you didn't fall into the trap of having your brother-in-law's cousin design the thing, you probably got a technically proficient website. Unfortunately, when they teach these 'wunderkind' the ways of the Web at the local community college, they don't teach them anything about business, especially anything about marketing.

Now if you're one of those people who think websites are IT projects then good luck, have a nice life, stop reading, because the rest of what I have to say will mean nothing to you. On the other hand, if you believe websites are about marketing, let's talk.

A Manifesto for the Web

A bunch of guys a whole lot smarter than me wrote a neat little screed called the 'The Cluetrain Manifesto' - very clever stuff. What they said was 'markets are conversations consisting of human beings, and the Internet enables these conversations.' Now here's the critical part, 'conversations among human beings sound human. They are conducted in a human voice.' Now does that sound like the Web you know? Does your website speak with a human voice? Does your website connect in a human way to your customers? I think not.

So what does this really mean, this so called conversation? Well we are all aware of Email, Blogs, RSS, and the Instant Messenger technologies that have enabled this conversation to take place. But with these informal conversations comes a danger - sloppy thinking and misunderstood intent.

Someone sends you an email, and you quickly respond dashing off an email reply without carefully thinking about how, or what, you are saying. Even if the basic intent and content is what you wanted to say, have you really said it in a way that your conversation partner will understand, or will they misconstrue your meaning?

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