“Web Done Right,” or “Web Done Wrong”

Andrew McMillen wrote me to make sure I saw his post about Cold War Kids’ latest offering (or preview thereof). After a number of good points, he ends with a question: “How do you capture the attention of a user who rarely voluntarily visits band websites?” Before I answer that, I’m going to take a look at the Cold War Kids’ site with regards to what they’ve done right and what they’ve done wrong. Good is in blue, bad is in red.

The Cold War Kids’ site

When you go to their site, you’re greeted with a beautiful single-page: a picture, a link to the song download (which is totally free and catch-less), and an “enter site” button. When you try to enter the site, though, you get greeted by a giant video, and another prompt to enter site.

[Come on, that's like opening a box, only to find another box. I can think of at least three tried-and-true methods to incorporate the video viewing (or prompt) onto the main page without clutter, and yet they go for something that makes their website less flow-able.]

After I enter the site, I get greeted by an extremely minimalist design featuring a long list of their upcoming shows. That’s fine… Does it have an RSS feed so I can be updated when they announce new ones, potentially in my area? Doesn’t look like it.

Their news section comes next: a blog, complete with a distinct photo style, short posts about the band’s comings and goings, and seemingly regularly updated… until Dec. 7, 2007.

Their music section looks cool: a bunch of downloadable, catchless MP3s, with “Buy” links integrated and unobtrusive; easy to spot, but not obnoxious. Cool.

Pictures. And Video. Why are these proprietary? Wouldn’t they be better suited using Flickr or Youtube’s bandwidth, and making their photos/videos easily shareable and embeddable?

Diary: an even older version of the News section.

Merch was a link to a third-party merch seller, and it had the same style and feel.

Art was coming soon. Was that in 2006? Maybe even 2005?

The contact section doesn’t let you know where to write just to tell the band how much you love them. Don’t kid yourselves, Cold War Kids; this isn’t how to contact you; it’s how to contact the people who make sure you’re making money. Not even a link to your Myspace.

And finally, Sign Up. This led to subscribing for Cold War Kids updates, powered by Fanscape. If they use it like most bands do, they’d be better off having a self-branded email list. It’s really simple to set up.

Conclusions

This post is about how to capture the attention of a user who rarely visits band sites. I’ve been not-so-subtly hinting at my answer for a bit: make the site dynamic, personal, and conversational… make the people who do come want to come back.

I rarely (if ever) visit Coke’s website to find out more about one of my favourite beverages, but I visit Seth’s blog and The Hype Machine every day to get something new.

This marketing campaign is the equivalent of a big launch party for an ugly new store that doesn’t replenish its stock: sure, it’s going to get a bit of publicity, but nobody’s going to be coming back for more on a regular basis.