COMING OFF THE FENCE

Paul Carpenter 1st November 2006
Paul Carpenter

Often, when we speak to our clients, they agonise over what to say on their website. They apparently toss and turn in their beds, worrying about what someone will think of their business if they say anything humourous. What if they someone finds it offensive? Will they think we’re a serious business?

A man sitting on a fence

So they carefully prune every trace of personality from their site. And what they end up with is 'the lawyers are pleased' style text that tells the visitor in well punctuated sentences that 'we are an extremely tedious bunch of people.'

Actually, you pop your head into most offices, they crackle with banter, ribald wit and often passion. People really do care about what they are doing. Your business is probably stuffed to the gills with people who build great relations with their customers over the phone or face to face.

And then you go to your website, and it says: "Dave’s great shoes is a limited company (registered number: 0888HJ11) formed in 1988 by Dave Great, with the aim of selling the finest quality shoes to a select clientel in the Yorkshire region. In 1990, they launched their first range of brogues…"

Bored yet?

If you sign up with Flickr (an online photo album tool), one of the messages you will see is:

People who use Flickr rock! Not only does Flickr make you smell better, it also makes you more attractive.

This is part of the reason that Flickr has umpteen million registered users, and you have 8. Their site has a human face, and talks directly to the visitor in a friendly language. Despite the fact that the claim is obviously ludicrous, it sets an inviting tone.

So come off the fence, speak to your customers. Don’t be afraid of making someone laugh. It will certainly set you apart from your competitors.

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