Most web sites fail to convey the “big idea” of a company. Instead, they delve into details, processes, features, pseudo-benefits, and all sorts of “supporting cast” rather than have a big star of a concept.

Your job, if you have a web site, is to focus the first-time visitor on the HOT – the Honking Obvious Thing that clearly and instantly signals why they should pay attention to you.

Here’s an example that I’m about to gush over: my web hosting provider, LiquidWeb.com.

First, their home page:

Now, this page can certainly be improved – most notable, the headline “Step Inside” and the blah blah description, “LW is a leading provider or Fully Managed Web Hosting.” I mean, have you ever heard someone describe their business as a “trailing provider”?

The HOT: Heroic Support

What gets my attention is the cartoon superhero with a toll-free number on his shirt. And the tag line “Heroic Support.”

The claim is supported by a Heroic Support button below, touting “24×7x365 access to level 3 engineers within seconds. And by the Excellent Service button, laying out the guarantee of 100% uptime and 30 minute response time.

I immediately get the HOT here: Heroic Support. We will respond to you within 30 minutes, no matter when you contact us. And you can call us toll-free.

Everything about the company orients around Heroic Support. The wholly owned data centers with Liquid Web engineers on-site. The way employees view themselves and how they act.

The HOT in action: Not just about marketing

Heroic Support is what Dan and Chip Heath call a “generative metaphor.” By casting their support staff as superheros, they’re generating a set of guidelines for the staff to follow. In any situation, a support technician or engineer can figure out what to do by asking, “Am I providing Heroic Support?”

So this morning, I screwed up my entire site while trying to create a simple redirect to my Facebook Fan page. askHowie.com went away completely, replaced by a nasty 500 Internal Server Error.

Since it was 5am EDT (I just returned from Germany and I’m still jetlagged), I couldn’t exactly get Steve Goyette on the line and beg him to fix what I’d broken.

So I opened a support ticket at 5:23am. By 5:36am the site was back up, and I had received a detailed description of the problem and how it had been solved:

Here’s a company that walks their talk!

I don’t know anything about the management and internal structure of Liquid Web, but observing from the outside as a thrilled and amazed customer, I see the power of their HOT. Not only to get me to become a customer in the first place. But also to guide their own culture of service, so the words don’t just become an empty marketing slogan. And to make me, their customer, appreciate the value of their service even when nothing goes wrong.

So the next thing I did was sign up for Liquid Web’s affiliate program, and then write this post.

If you aren’t thrilled with the support and responsiveness you get from your web host, and your business will suffer if your site is down for hours at a time, then I heartily recommend you give a shout to Liquid Web.

If you want to send a few affiliate bucks my way, use this link: http://askhowie.com/liquidweb.

And if not: www.liquidweb.com.

Your Homework

Here’s the most important thing you can do for your own business: ask a few acquaintances who aren’t familiar with your site to look at it and find the HOT – the Honking Obvious Thing that explains what you do, how you’re different, and why prospects should care.

I discovered the McGurk Effect the other day.

Actually, my friend Sammy told me about it, and I looked it up on youtube, which is almost the same thing.

The McGurk Effect: if you listen to a recording of someone repeating the sound "Bah Bah Bah Bah" while watching a synchronized video of them mouthing the sound "Gah Gah Gah Gah", you will actually hear the sound "Dah Dah Dah Dah."

If you want to confirm for yourself the reality of the McGurk Effect, search for it on youtube.

Now, I’m anticipating three possible reactions to this summary of scientific progress:

1. "That’s the coolest thing I’ve ever encountered. Where can I learn more?"

2. "Big deal."

3. "Why are you wasting my time on this nonsense?"

Give me a minute, OK? There’s a lesson in here somewhere. Let me see…

When you create marketing campaigns, you are communicating based on a set of assumptions about your market:

• What language they speak.
• What their desires are.
• How much they can afford to pay.
• How badly they want their itch scratched.
• What they already know about your product or company.
• What they know about other potential solutions to their problems.
• And so on…

My question is, how many of these assumptions are you consciously considering, and how many are based on observable evidence as opposed to pre-judgment?

You see, if you write about your product as if your prospect already knows what it does, you may be a self-inflicted victim of a Marketing McGurk. You’re saying, "Here’s a big discount on my Magrouple-OpMart-WangChickle," and your prospect is hearing, "Dah Dah Dah."

Because your message is incongruent in context, just as the lips forming one sound and making another are incongruent in their context.

If you assume your prospect connects your solution with their problem, you may be McGurking yourself as well. You can treat sinus problems with chiropractic? Really? Acupuncture can help with eczema? The problems you can solve may be old hat to you, but your prospects need education and explanation and repetition to make the connections you take for granted.

Ken McCarthy understands the power of avoiding Marketing McGurkisms. He just announced the faculty and program of the 2008 System Seminar (Yes, I’m one of the faculty members, which entitles me to attend a pizza party on Sunday, June 1, not to brag but there you have it :)

And rather than assume that you would recognize the names and expertise of the presenters (most are not "gurus", but simply hard-working and clever practitioners and educators, so you probably won’t recognize them), Ken took the entire System 2008 program and made it available right now.

http://program.thesystemseminar.org

So if you’re not familiar with Nancy Andrews, Richard Mouser, Lon Naylor, or any of the other 22 faculty members; if you don’t know that Nancy Andrews has cracked the SEO code, that Richard Mouser used simple testing tactics to turn his money-losing online store into a huge success, that Lon Naylor is the expert in helping folks
use screen capture video tutorials to grow their businesses – you will after browsing the program guide.

Ken knows that by stepping out of the way of the product, and letting it sell itself, without hype or fancy marketing footwork, he’s allowing his prospects to gather information in their own way, to make an informed decision about whether System 2008 is appropriate for them.

If you’ve read AdWords For Dummies, you know that I credit Ken with being my Internet marketing mentor, as well as my first copywriting teacher. The most important thing he taught me is this:

Don’t try to be a copywriter. Just explain what you’ve got and why anyone should care – and then just get out of the way.

In other words, don’t mess around with mystical, manipulative tactics that are supposed to magically vacuum money out of your prospects’ wallets while they grin stupidly in a hypnotic trance.

Just talk to people. Be interesting. Be respectful of their time. Share value. Make your pitch. And shut up.

You can download the System 2008 program here:

http://program.thesystemseminar.org

If the program convinces you to join me in Chicago on May 30-June 1, I’d be delighted to connect with you – just give me a shout. If you read through the program and decide that it’s not for you, then that’s the right outcome.

No McGurks here – either it’s the thing to do, or it isn’t. Either way, you’ll broaden your perspective on Internet marketing tactics and strategies simply by browsing the program.