To paraphrase Captain Willard in the movie “Apocalypse Now”
The crap is piling so high in the facebook thread I talked about earlier today you need wings to stay above it. (If you’re just joining this party, I speaketh of one of my favorite copywriters Bob Bly’s Facebook page — where a bunch of people are responding to my claim from this mornings email about the only purpose of a website is to build a list.)
Yes, virtually all are people disagreeing with me.
(Few exceptions aside.)
But, that’s okay.
I’m happy to climb into the octagon (Bob-tagon?) about this.
Worry ye not, though.
This won’t just be a pissing match.
I’ll be pulling out the lessons from the comments like poison from a snake bite wound at the same time.
First comment:
“I disagree also. I agree that collecting data is important, but your website is a way to inform, educate and demonstrate credibility. It has to be more than a business card or brochure and if all it does is trap people into handing over info, they’ll just move on.”
And, kids, WHY do we inform, educate, and demonstrate ability on a website?
(A direct response marketing website, specifically)
Anyone?
C’mon, someone must know the answer?
No?
Okay, the answer is…
To build a list/make a sale (which builds a list)
Another person said:
“Ben Settle advocates emailing your list every day without fail, whether you have something worth reading or not, and if they unsubscribe then it’s their loss. I’m not a fan of this approach.”
Poor guy is seriously misinformed.
Either that, or he’s just a liar with an axe to grind.
I’ve never once advocated mailing if you don’t have something worth reading. In fact, just the opposite. I take the attitude I read in Ken McCarthy’s magnificent “System Club Letters” book: Before pushing send ask “is this worth interrupting someone’s day for a few minutes?” Now, obviously, my opinion of what’s worth reading may not jibe with everyone else’s. And those people are free to opt out (and they do). Anyone who’s bought any of my products or listened to any of my podcasts or consumed any of the podcasts and sites I’ve been interviewed on over the years (about this subject) knows this.
Like I always say:
There are plenty of *legitimate* reasons to disagree with me.
No need to make any up…
Okay, here’s another comment:
“Disagree completely. I see the prime purpose of my site as establishing legitimacy for prospective customers. Sharing knowledge is a secondary purpose.”
Like rapping Ronald Reagan said:
“There you go again…”
What is the *reason* to establish legitimacy for prospective customers, exactly?
If you say:
“To build a list or make a sale”
Then you are correct.
(Again, we’re talking about direct response marketing companies)
Another one:
“Without understanding the business, distribution model etc. it would be premature to determine the #1 purpose of any tool. There are more than one important job of a website.”
We are talking about direct response marketing.
And not just an important job, but ultimately the purpose of the site.
i.e. why is the site really there?
The first and foremost activity of any big reputable direct response marketing-driven company I’ve ever studied (unless I’m missing something, and mayhaps I am…) is to build a list. Why? Because then they can sell other products to that list and, in some cases, rent that list to other direct response marketing companies to sell their stuff to so that those companies can continue to build *their* lists.
Everything is there to serve the building of those lists and make transactions.
Yes, including the outstanding products.
The impeccable customer service.
The genius ads used to sell the products.
The user-friendliness of the website.
The social media share buttons (although I disagree with putting those on a site, listen to my podcast tomorrow for the reasons why)
And so on, and so forth…
All of it serves to build lists and bring in customers to carry out the goals, visions, mission statements, etc. of that company.
One of my favorite comments:
“I think he has it backwards… You build an email list by earning it with quality content and positioning.”
I should be thanking this guy.
After all, he made my point for me even better than I did!
The purpose of all that quality content and positioning is to…?
Yes, you, in the back of the room raising your hand, what is it?
That’s right — build a list.
This is fun…
Here’s another:
“Wholeheartedly disagree, but to be expected from a direct marketing copywriter who doesn’t provide other forms of engagement or information value to a customer or user base. He forgot about things like applications for them to engage and interact – calendars, event registrations, data lookups, form downloads, support ticket requests, app installs, ad nauseum….”
Starting to sound like a broken record here…
But what exactly is the purpose of all those engagement and interactive thingamajiggies he mentioned?
They aren’t there just to exist for the sake of it, are they?
So why are they there?
That’s right:
To ultimately work towards building a list/make sales (which builds a list)
Here’s one of the more profound comments:
“Beware of statements that begin ‘The ONLY …’”
I just got the warm fuzzies reading that…
Another sweet one:
“I don’t know about you folks…but when I visit a URL, I hit the ‘contact’ tab to see if there is a physical address (if not, that’s a red flag for me) and then the ‘about’ tab and the ‘team’ tab if they have one. I then do a search on the person I want to contact. I don’t provide email add’s to just anyone, and yes, I do want to know their ‘skills’. But that’s just me.”
For a *direct response marketing* site, what is the point of that “about” page?
And putting the address on there so there are no “red flags”?
And building that credibility and showing their skills?
And putting info out there about the site owner?
Or answering a would-be customer’s questions?
Hm?
Yep, you got it:
To ultimately get people to trust you with their info so you can build a list/make a sale (which builds a list).
Here’s another one:
“We marketers don’t decide what the purpose of a website is. It’s the prospects and customers who decide. As marketers, we have to find out why they visit a website and what motivates them to take the next step. When we’ve found out that, we’ve found out the purpose of the website.”
Yikes.
He likes to ask the deer how to hunt it, instead of the hunter. I wonder if he start out by putting a blank html page that says “please tell me if you want me to collect your email address?”
No matter, we can still help him:
Why bother finding out why people are visiting your website?
Why bother finding out what motivates them?
What is the point of all the data gathering?
Drum roll…
To build a list/make a sale (which builds a list) to give them what they want.
(Again, if you are a direct response marketing company)
And here a question was posed:
“Why say only when you really mean primary?”
Tomato, tom-AH-toe.
But at the end of the day, for a direct response marketing website, the whole point is to get a response. For the people I am talking to, that means building a list and making a transaction.
Allllll that other stuff on a website exists to help build the list.
Otherwise, there’s no point in having the site if it wasn’t geared towards building a list or making a sale (which builds a list). Might as well not use the Internet and go with direct mail, or radio, or TV.
All right, enough.
That thread has many more comments, way too many to address here.
But, here’s the bottom line:
Like I told Bob privately today, he gave me one of the most valuable gifts he could by posting my opinion on his page for the social media grandstanders to chime in on, giving me endless amounts of fodder to create emails and content to, yes, build a list and make more sales (which builds my list). So much value I almost want to PayPal him some dough.
That kind of exposure is a powerful marketing weapon if you know how to wield it.
But, ironically, only if you have a *list*…
Finally:
Since we’re talking lists I decided to extend the deadline window to get the April “Email Players” issue which is all about… (wait for it…)
Building a list.
Specifically, a free list.
And, even more specifically:
A free list of leads who are likely to be responsive, and make up the best kind of leads I have ever sold to. Since the printer doesn’t open again until Monday anyway, I’m extending the deadline to get in on this issue to tomorrow (Sunday) at midnight.
Here’s where to subscribe in time:
Ben Settle
P.S. Not everyone was battling elBenbo in the Bob-tagon.
My boy Luis Congdon chimed in the thread, too, with:
“Ben and I had a good discussion about this. He clearly knows his stuff. I like what Ray and I talked about – it’s to give value and collect that email and convert to buyers. And if they don’t convert or buy – maybe they become fans and share, or they just get some value. For me, that’s more in alignment with my values but I’ll say this – many people need to swing more towards Bens way, simply because big hearted people often don’t understand that having a big heart also needs some give and take, end goal, and so for this I really appreciate Bens way.”
Correct ^^
And about this part:
“maybe they become fans and share, or they just get some value”
And the reason we want them to become fans and share or get value? So that other people will find us through them… so we can build a list/make a sale (which builds a list).
