I Have An Idea… Kill Your Website

[Ed.: “I Have An Idea…” is a series written for College AD by the author of Brands Win Championships, Jeremy Darlow.]

 

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing about.” – Benjamin Franklin

Why do you have a website? Because you’re supposed to? Because everyone else does? Because thinking about not having a website gives you anxiety? I recently did a website audit of every school in one power-5 conference…for fun. I have no life apparently? Regardless, what I found was telling. Over 90% of the schools maintained an essentially dormant website, with content that left much to be desired. Just about every one of those sites was without a clear takeaway. What was clear in each case was that the sites themselves were not a priority and the experiences suffered because of it. What do you think that does to the brand perception of each school when a potential athlete or the parent of said athlete visits? It can’t be good.

So my question is again, why do you have a website? If you’re not going to spend time creating a premium experience, why do you have it in the first place? As a brand marketer, I cringed going through these sites. Schools are spending money and at least some time to maintain these digital cemeteries. For what? When I posed this question to a group of industry professionals, to which one answered advertising dollars. Meaning the money companies pay the school to promote their brands on the site. I suppose one might question the sanity of those advertisers, but that’s for a different blog entirely.

 

 

Let’s say for one second that a school is reliant on the advertising money coming in through their website. If that’s the case, and knowing the site isn’t going anywhere, I would recommend to the administration running the experience to give the space a reason for being. Rather than simply checking the box.

What can you use the site for? How about recruiting? At the end of the day your success or failure often comes down to the school’s ability to recruit. Why not use your .com solely as a recruiting tool? Why not focus entirely on selling athletes on the school versus trying to keep it updated with less than inspiring stories and a less than fresh news feed?

The 10% of schools in the Power-5 conference I audited (because no life) did just that. Their sites were clean, aesthetically impressive and had a clear focus. Recruiting. They’re doing it right. Now it’s your turn.