Over Zealous Websites

Sometimes web designers and festival organizers create websites that overstate what is actually being offered. All festival and event organizers want people to come to their event. Your website, of course, needs to be interesting and exciting enough to attract people to first read it and then to motivate them to come to your event. I believe, however, that overstating what you are offering will ultimately become a negative. Here’s an example of what I mean. One particular weekend we were looking for a festival to visit, so I went onto the Internet to do some research. I looked at a number of sites and finally found one that looked interesting. It sounded like a great festival with lots of really interesting activities scheduled. The website was very detailed as to what was being offered. We decided to go to it. The problem was that when we got there the reality didn’t match what was advertised on the website. You might say, “What does that matter, it got you to come to the festival”. That may be true, but don’t you want your visitors to come back year after year? Don’t you want them to tell their friends and family about how great your festival was and that they should attend? It’s not that we wouldn’t have visited this festival, we likely would have, but the sour taste that was left from our disappointment meant that we wouldn’t recommend the festival to our friends and we certainly wouldn’t go back to it. If we felt like this, wouldn’t others? Yes, as I said before, it is very important to an interesting attention grabbing website, but it must be factual and not overstated. You definitely want to draw people to your event, but not under false pretenses. If you have special plans for your festival, great and by all means state them on your website. But, and this is a big but, make sure your special plans happen! If you find, as you get closer to your event that you can’t meet your plans, revise your website the match what is actually going to happen. Remember the old sales adages, “It’s easier to keep a satisfied customer than it is to find a new one” and, “Every dissatisfied customer will tell at least 10 of their friends”. Be wise, deliver what you promise!