Remember the old saying about the cobbler’s children having no shoes? Or the mechanic whose car barely runs?
There seems to be a trend of the same from so-called marketing experts.
In the last week, I was checking out 3 colleagues sites, seeing if we’d be good partners for an upcoming program. Here’s what I found just in browsing the sites:
- Free giveaway had multiple broken links and personalization code missing
- Many site pages were “404 errors”
- Site was “optimized” (keywords linked to other pages within site) to the point that it was unreadable
- Newsletter sign-up was miniscule and included on one page deep within the site
- No address in violation of the CAN-SPAM law
You get the idea…and this was simply my browsing the other sites. It got me to thinking…
- How can these individuals possibly call themselves “marketing coaches/experts/gurus” when they don’t have the basics down on their own sites? Is it a case of ignorance and they don’t know (I don’t think this is the case in the sites I visited) or is a case of the cobbler having no shoes?
I checked in with one of my colleagues and she noted that she “doesn’t have time” to tend to her site (back to the barefoot cobbler).
I have a different thought. . .by not practicing what you preach/teach/coach/mentor, you’re out of integrity and your business is incongruent.
One of my favorites is the coach/expert who preaches sending out regular newsletters/otherwise keeping in contact with her readers and then “doesn’t have time” to do it herself for months at a time.
This would explain why it’s tough to attract clients or why when you announce a new offering, no one takes advantage of it. As a potential strategic partner, I crossed these three otherwise-promising colleagues off my short list.
Do your business a favor:
- Sign up for your free giveaway — experience it as those who are brand new to your business do. Are you pleased with what happens? If so, great! If not, what can you tweak so you would be?
- Go through your website. Click on the links. Do they work? Does the progression make sense?
- Pick your most popular product or service…order it and see what the experience is like. Smile or tweak depending on your experience.
What are your thoughts? Would you work with a coach/expert who doesn’t practice what she teaches?