Advice to my Alma Mater

I recently came across the website of one of my Alma maters. It's been many years since I've worked for them and during that time, they've grown significantly (mostly through acquisition).

It was interesting to view the catalog company's website "as an outsider". While it is well organized and comprehensive, it doesn't really reflect the company's "personality", nor all of it's capabilities.

In a Web2.0 world, online presence needs to be more than a well organized store. One needs to make every effort to build a customer community, to foster trust, to build confidence, to gain permission to have an ongoing conversation.

In the old direct marketing model, "having a customer conversation" meant mailing another catalog.

I have never worked with a more customer oriented group. They always went above and beyond to address customer needs. If you didn't find exactly what you were looking for in the catalogs or on the website, they'd make every effort to find it for you. If you called in your order, customers saw that.

Their online presence masks that great attitude.

Effective online presence needs to reflect your business "personality". Your website needs to tell your story, educate, enthuse and motivate customers. Great websites are like the difference between an enthralling novel and a dictionary. While both are books, one features a well told story and the other is a list of words and definitions.

Engaging customers is not an easy task. For a direct marketing catalog company, the benefits can be enormous. The "old" direct mail model is to mail as many catalogs as you can afford - to the point where the sales profit barely covers the cost. That way you build a customer list, which you then mail and mail and mail to drive sales.

Web2.0 can change all that. But it takes time and commitment.

My Alma mater has decided to focus on transaction efficiency, rather than relationship building.

They're experts at search engine optimization, product indexing, product presentation, affiliated regulatory compliance information, cross-selling, effective shopping cart checkout. If you visit the website, chances are excellent that you'll find what you're looking for.

It looks as if the I.T. department built the website - not the marketing folks. Now I know that's not true, but from the outside, that's what it feels like. I do know that their marketing department is filled with very bright product managers, each responsible for product selection, presentation and promotion.

No one within the Marketing department has responsibility to promote and build a customer conversation. And that shows.

In fact, the website landing page doesn't include any photo of a single employee!

So my advice to my Alma mater would be:

1. Tell your story. You are much more than your website displays.
2. Put someone in charge of building a customer community, of maintaining a blog, of managing the customer conversation. Done well, it will engender loyalty and allow you to reduce traditional catalog mailings!
3. Make your website personable. People like dealing with people, not machines. And you have a lot of great people.
4. If none of this advice makes any sense, try reading a Seth Godin book.

Good luck guys.