Holmes Report Blog

The Holmes Report blog focuses on news and issues of interest to public relations professionals. Our main site can be found at www.holmesreport.com.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

PR Websites Suck: This will come as no surprise to anyone who visits PR agency sites regularly, but public relations sites ranked bottom of a 10-year Web Marketing Association study of trends across 80 industries. Gaming and music websites were rated the highest, followed by automotive and sports sites.

The survey evaluated sites on seven criteria: design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting and ease of use.

“While advertising sites excelled in design and innovation, public relations sites ranked low across all categories,” said the report. “Notably, public relations scored lowest for copywriting, even though it is an industry known for effective communication.”

According to William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association: “It’s likely that PR practitioners focus more on developing their clients’ sites, while their own sites suffer from typical ‘brochure-ware.’ Another possibility is that the low scores reflect the informal nature of the Internet and the backlash over over-edited, corporate speak.”

4 Comments:

  • At 12:13 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    http://www.literatigroup.com/flash/main.html

     
  • At 12:22 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Literatigroup... Wow... that's different. Cool!

     
  • At 1:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Does anyone have a theory of why the shoemaker's children always go unshod? Is it just that they are busy on client work, or is there something else going on?

    I know it's real - as a management consultant, I'm a weak manager!

    I suspect there's something deeper, but it's not yet clear to me what it is.

     
  • At 2:24 AM, Blogger Paul A. Holmes said…

    David: I don't know what it is, but you're right: advertising agencies don't advertise (I always assumed that's because they know how ineffective it is); PR people don't tell their own stories well. It extends beyond the website: how many PR firms have a genuinely different brand positioning? How many stand for something unique or interesting?

    All I know is the "we're so busy doing it for our clients" excuse is bogus. If it was important to them, they'd find time.

     

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