Is Your Web Site as Good as Your Favorite Bistro? A Post-Holiday Recipe for Online Success

Just before the New Year, I was having lunch with my good friend, a restaurateur; I'll call him Chef M. We were eating at one of Chef M's two highly regarded, very successful neighborhood bistros in Portland, OR. My rockfish was a gorgeous plate of buttery, flaky goodness. Across the table, his duck confit looked scary delicious.

We were meeting to discuss some Web site/blog/social media ideas for his soon-to-be-launched third restaurant, scheduled to open this spring. (Yes, notwithstanding the end of capitalism as we know it, he is opening a third restaurant.)

The food was delicious, but the lessons were even better. The choreography of the dining room staff—all alert anticipation—coupled with Chef M's insights into how successful restaurants work, provided invaluable lessons that I thought were applicable elsewhere. The whole vibe was thought-provoking and terrific.

If the walls could talk, they would have said, "We like what we're doing here, we do it well and we like sharing it with our customers."

As I listened to Chef M talk, I became convinced that the fragile nature of the restaurant business has more than a few things in common with the fragile nature of doing business on the Web.

What Is the Menu Telling You?

A restaurant is either clean and bright... or it's not, yes? It is either tastefully laid out, welcoming and warm, or is too slick and clever for its own good or perhaps it's dumpy and stuck in a time warp. It serves fresh food or not. Maybe it serves processed, poorly prepared dreck. Through menu, wine list, service, décor, and value, a restaurant reflects a keen understanding (and respect) of its core customers. Or, it does not.

I'm sure that each of us, from personal experience, can point to any number of examples all along the good-experience/bad-experience continuum in dining. What comes to mind for me is a long-ago disaster in Albuquerque that involved an uncooked cheeseburger. If only I could forget.

One of the morsels of insight from Chef M that day was that any restaurant—most especially those not run by world-famous chefs—has to maximize every possible opportunity to win people over and to persuade them to return. The Gordon Ramsays, Mario Batalis, and Thomas Kellers of the world can afford to make a few mistakes (although they make far fewer than most) because their brand is so strong and they're so widely known. The margin of error for them is just a bit wider.

But that place in your neighborhood? They can't afford mistakes. While they might have less-discerning customers than the big dogs, they still have to treat every customer like gold, because the brand and reputation they own is less powerful and thus more fragile. They are much more dependent on a collection of positive individual experiences, good restaurant reviews... and word-of-mouth: "Hey, have you been to River Bistro? You have to go, it's fabulous."

Your Homepage: An Appealing Appetizer of Possibility

So let's consider the moment when someone lands on your Web site. Just as in the restaurant, your Web site is either clean or cluttered. It is welcoming or not, packed with everything you can think to throw up there... or laid out with just the right information—an appealing appetizer of possibility.

The visitor feels understood and knows what to do because the design and the copy help her understand all of that and more. And, just like a well-regarded, high-functioning restaurant, the site reflects a keen understanding of, and respect for, its core customers. Visitors enjoy their stay and they come back often. They tell their friends. All that is true of course only if your site treats each visitor like gold—as if your entire business depends on each visit... because, in a way, it does.

Restaurant goers and Web site visitors are trying to accomplish something: They want to feel good about their decision, and they want value. Most people don't want to be intimidated. They want to be informed and educated in an informal and respectful way. Who can blame them?

Good restaurants and good Web sites do one thing well—they present clear, organized, and attractive choices. They don't overwhelm you.

A Good Restaurant Is About More Than the Food

One of the more interesting things I learned at lunch that day was that, as a general rule, service trumps food.

The food is important, no question, but the best food in the world is going to have a heck of a time overcoming poor service, poor presentation, and a disorganized dining room. Conversely, decent presentation, good service, and an organized dining room will take at least some of the sting out of sitting down to a mediocre meal. Context is everything.

So how does this translate to your online business?

Good Writing on the Web Is About More Than the Words

In my work as a copywriter, one of the biggest challenges I face with clients has to do with the idea of thinking only about the words. Or maybe it's more precise to say that words and copy are seen in isolation: Too often, the perception of the problem is very narrowly focused—"If we can just get the words right, if we can nail down the language, everything will be good."

That would be great if it were true, but it isn't.

That's the same sort of thinking that says, "If our food is beyond reproach, then all will be well." Well, sure: If you have a restaurant, you have to nail down the food. But can you get the dish to the table hot? Can your staff pair the dish with the right wine? Can you handle complaints? Can you deliver your core product quickly and efficiently again and again, day in and day out? Can you deliver what your client wants even before your client knows what he wants?

When an online business simply focuses on one thing (the words) to the exclusion of all else (design, functionality, layout, and presentation)—it's a recipe for failure.

My Meat-and-Potatoes Advice for 2009

In the same way that good food cannot survive crummy service, the best copy out there cannot survive a poorly designed Web site. Good copy cannot survive poor delivery, lack of styling, low functionality, and lousy execution and presentation. It is a totality of experience that people are craving. Mark my words. Give your customers a full meal and they'll keep coming back for more.

Written by Richard Pelletier

Web Site Content—It's All About the Why

Every week I'm asked to look at business Web sites and tell the owners why they're not getting the results they want.

Some of these sites are straightforward brochures, others are e-commerce catalogs, and some are those direct-mail-style pitches reminiscent of old mail-order magazine subscription schemes. Some have incorporated do-it-yourself audio and video, and some even have such media professionally produced... but, still, the results stink. Why?

'The Close' Is Always Found in 'The Why'

Certainly part of the problem stems from a very narrow definition of what a Web site is: by casting your site in terms of a brochure, catalog, e-commerce-site, blog, or portal, you are falling into the trap of concentrating on "The What" rather than "The Why."

This focus on "The What" is exacerbated by some search engine optimization techniques intended to drive traffic rather than to brand product, sell services, or convert traffic into customers. Traffic is important, but converting that traffic into paying customers is more important. Even the best and brightest search engine optimizers will tell you that their job is to deliver traffic, not orders—closing the deal is your job, and anybody who tells you that closing can be done by means of some automatic never-touched-by-human-hands method is just plain nuts.

What you want to be careful of is search-engine tactics and second-rate media that actually get in the way of effectively delivering your marketing message—of telling your business story, creating a memorable brand image, and above all generating profitable business clients.

Web Video Is a Presentation-Marketing Strategy

If you pay any attention to what's going on, you must be aware of the shift in Web thinking and the acceptance of Web video as a fundamental Web-marketing tool. But like most things, there is a right way and a whole bunch of wrong ways to do it.

Web video is a presentation-marketing strategy, and its strength and power come from its ability to overcome the Web's natural sterile, isolationist environment by incorporating verbal and non-verbal human elements that effectively deliver bold, well-crafted memorable messages.

Can a Web-video campaign cure everything that's wrong with your company, or even your sales department's deficiencies? Of course not. But the right message based on "The Why" using appropriate, cost-effective presentation techniques can position your business, brand your product, and generate sales leads.

Don't fool yourself: You and your sales staff have to close the sale. Do not expect to sit back and count your profits while your Web site runs your business by default. Automatic pilot may work for sites that sell commodity items and nationally branded merchandise backed by millions of dollars of advertising, but unless you fall into that category, it's time to get real.

A New Web Paradigm

Here's a new way of looking at your Web site; and if you "get it," you will be able to refashion your site and reinvent your business in a way that gets you remembered and initiates action by your target market:

Start thinking of your Web site as a stage and all the content on it as players you direct in order to deliver your message and tell your story in a memorable manner to a relevant audience.

So let's break down this Web-presentation model and analyze how it meets your marketing needs.

Your Web site is a stage

Businesses that want to use their Web sites as a marketing vehicle have to get past thinking of them in terms of merely digital print media.

Just as damaging is the overreliance on search optimization or IT technical solutions that have little or no relationship to marketing's primary goal of delivering a memorable message that initiates action on the part of the audience.

Knowing the age, sex, and hat size of the last ten thousand visitors to your site may impress some, but having reams of statistical information on your visitors doesn't necessarily mean you know what that data means or how to use it effectively. In the same vein, tons of traffic generated by the latest SEO manipulation doesn't necessarily translate into business.

Start thinking of your Web site as a stage—a presentation and performance platform that allows your company to present your message to your audience in an entertaining, informative, and memorable manner.

Tell your story in a memorable manner

There are many ways to present what you do and why your audience should care, but the most effective way is to deliver that information in a story format. When people come to your Web site, they are putting you on trial and judging everything that you present, in order to see whether it is relevant and convincing, and whether it resonates with their needs.

In their article "Evidence Evaluation in Complex Decision Making" (in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology), Pennington and Hastie explain that when prosecutors tell their version of events to a jury in story format, they are able to achieve a 78% conviction rate, whereas those who do not use a story format have only a 31% conviction rate.

When visitors come to your Web site, they are putting you on trial for your Web-business life.

Memorable communication is all about the performance

Effective communication begins with the campaign concept. If you don't have a well-defined, focused concept that deals with the "why anybody should care factor," your communication will be muddy and irrelevant. Far too many marketing campaigns try to do too much, and in an effort to get your money's worth say everything and anything that comes to mind. Unfortunately, all you're really doing is confusing people—and your core message never gets heard, let alone understood or remembered.

You need professional presenters who know how to use both verbal and non-verbal performance to get your message across, and of course you've got to give the presenters a script that is well written, entertaining, and informative.

Professional actors and voiceover talent bring infinite subtlety, nuance, and meaning to cleverly written scripts. Add sound effects, signature music, and a few post-production enhancements... and you have a memorable presentation.

What you don't need is complicated sets, props, and locations that increase the cost of production. The Web is not television, and there is no need to absorb inflated expenses based on ad agency cost-plus-pricing fees that bear little relation to effectiveness.

Expensive movie-style productions are just not necessary and lose their impact when delivered in relatively small, Web-friendly formats that need to be easily integrated with additional collateral material that can be used to present more details and to answer frequently asked questions.

Last but Not Least

We can learn a lot from children, including from their relentless quest for the answer to "The Why" of things. We often forget that this is the central issue in our lives, and it is only after we've been told by parents, teachers, bosses, and numerous other authority figures to shut up and do what we've told that we sublimate this need and replace it with the far less meaningful and convincing "What."

But if we as marketers can put our faith in delivering "The Why" using the most people-friendly techniques of verbal and non-verbal digital communication, then we will have learned how to achieve a convincing and memorable Web-marketing presentation.

Neil Patel, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada