Don’t blame the messenger
I’m sure I’ve written about this before, but I still get regular comments from venue managers about our bit of Hantsweb along the lines… ’Why can’t our website be more exciting’ or ‘more interactive’ and similar requests to magically enhance the website.
The underlying message is that if the website had these things, the venue would receive more visitors through the doors. They often show me examples of the websites they’d like it to look more like. These websites may look appealing at first glance, but fall down when you actually begin to analyse how they work (or more often don’t work).
Here are two of the most common suggestions for improvement.
The first is to have a slideshow of photos on the homepage. Think about it… do you ever passively sit though the cycle of marketing images when you arrive on a website?… I doubt it… or more likely, do you find them a visual distraction?
That’s the reason we have gone for the ‘gallery’ homepage, which provides four or five images for the visitor to scroll through and learn about what is on offer if they want to… but the big difference is that the visitor is in control of the process.
I also hear the comment ‘why can’t we have more interactives for children on the website. The subtext is that games and other time-passing, quasi-educational activities on the website will bring more children/families to the venue. There can be no direct causal link between an online game on a website and a venue visit.
That’s not to say that online resources can’t enhance a visit, however research suggests that visitors to a venue are likely to follow-up a real world visit with a website visit to get more information, rather than before they go.
That’s not to say that a good website won’t stimulate interest, but it’s not the lack of flashiness or interactivity that is to blame, and adding these elements is certainly not the solution. Get the product (venue) right, get the website content right and keep it up to date… in that order.
