Fundamentals

While you are busy learning more about the ins and outs of web marketing, opt-in email, search engine optimization, and other hot marketing topics, please don't forget the fundamentals.

The other day, I went looking for advertising information for the Houston Chronicle for a project I'm working on now. If you go to the Chronicle's site and click the "Advertising" link you wind up on this mini-site, which is slickly produced and contains all kinds of great information about advertising in the paper.

Unfortunately, it does not include a rate card. I'm looking for very preliminary information, so I really don't want to talk to an ad sales rep. No offense intended to salespeople out there, but that will make the process of getting what I need today take five times longer than it needs to. It also will take up the time of the Chronicle advertising staff, driving up their cost of sales.

I resigned myself to doing that, however, and looked for the
"contact us" link on the mini-site. I was unable to find it. I acknowledge that it may be there, but after looking for ten minutes, I gave up. If it's there, it's very badly positioned.

I sent a note to the Chronicle's web department and while doing that, did a little test. I explained the problem, and explained that I would like to talk to someone in advertising.

I got a note back informing me that there is a link on the site to connect me to them, but with no indication of where it was. And the person in the Chronicle's web department did not think of forwarding my message on to someone in sales.

Of course, I will just call them. But what this indicates about the Chronicle is not pretty.

First of all, the web design is bad. And it's the worst kind of bad: the expensive kind.

Second, there's apparently little understanding in the web group that ad revenue pays their salaries. A marketing-centric (or even revenue-centric) organization is one where someone would naturally forward on a message like mine to the sales department and say, "Hey, this guy is interested in advertising, someone needs to get back to him."

What happens in your organization? Does your web site tell people why they should buy from you - or does it also tell them how? If a buyer lands in the wrong department, does someone get them in touch with the staff member who can start the process? Or does no one outside of sales and marketing care about revenue?

Make it a new year's resolution to shop your own site and see what happens. You may find that sales opportunities are slipping away.