The Number One Reason B2B Websites Fail Is…

As part of my ongoing search for best practices that can help our clients succeed, I often find case studies that appear to be success stories on the surface but are actually reinforcement of the main problems corporate websites encounter everywhere. For example, a company will tout its client achieved an ROI of x% by installing its software and will have a quote from the IT department. Fine and dandy, but where does this fit in with the overall corporate objectives for the company? This is what so many folks miss…

One of my colleagues, Danny Flamberg has an excellent post on his blog Manhattan Marketing Maven titled Internal Politics Limit Global Websites. These issues plague almost every organization that we deal with. In fact, we spend many hours working with our clients to bridge this divide to get IT and the business organization to work together by breaking down the silos and focusing only on measurable, achievable objectives that allow both teams to share the credit for the win…

To summarize Danny’s thoughts on why internal politics defeat so many otherwise smart business decisions concerning using the website to achieve success, consider the following:

1. Everybody or Nobody is in Charge. In typical matrixed organization IT owns the plumbing and Marketing owns the content of the corporate website.
2. No Clear Objectives. Many global firms have a website for its own sake and cannot articulate what the site is supposed to do or where it fits into a selling, a communications or a messaging strategy. As a result it becomes a White Elephant thrashing around consuming time, money and resources in search of a mission.
3. No Process Integration. Few organizations place the website into a sequence of events or a contact strategy designed to leverage the strengths of the digital medium and link them to pre or post human-to-human interactions (in-person or by phone) or connect them to the natural steps in a deal flow. This short changes both the website and the corporation because it minimizes the chance to leverage combined assets to achieve company goals.

Thanks Danny, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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