The SAMBA Blog’s April 8th post was on the importance of a quality product in terms of the product/marketing mix. I think that analogy can be used to describe the importance of a website’s content and function in terms of the marketing that went into planning it.
One of the points the post made was that good product developers aren’t often good marketers – but when the two get together you have something special. I totally agree with that and have written about it many times. Developing your website with marketing ideas in mind while you develop it is crucial.
But as the article says, if you have great marketing and your website is trash – no one will ever go back and your bounce rate will break your marketing budget. But the opposite is true as well, if your marketing isn’t good then your great website will be un-founded and your profits will be nill.
The foresight of marketing and quality content is what not only gets you in front of people, but attracts links, comments, subscribers, followers, bookmarks and potentially profit. Plan your website with both marketing and developers in the room. Don’t let the marketing guys go – until you’ve explored every way people will find your product.
Then release the developers to create outstanding content and find yourself basking in the glory of good planning, not out standing in the rain.