Broken Marketing

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So much marketing effort is focused on the upfront stuff: the people who check guests in at hotels, how beautiful a website is and getting people to move from the brochure to buy the product.

But what about the other 'hidden' side of things that marketing should also focus on?

Here are two examples from today:

I went to REI.com to use a gift certificate. The system worked beautifully until I tried adding 3 different items to my cart - and ugh, the dreaded 404 error page. What do I do now?
Then, I needed to do some research on building a shed for the backyard of our new house. Typing 'shed' into Google and clicking an AdWords ad from HomeDepot.com led me to a really nice, custom landing page about Sheds. I was interested in how much a shed was going to cost me, so I clicked a link and blammo, the dreaded 404 error page again! Hmm, I bet Lowes.com has sheds...

What a wasted marketing opportunity! Here's how their 404 error page (and your's) could appear. A page like this helps the visitor get closer to solving their problem. And, why not promote something - heck it's free and you've got their attention!

By the way, if you don't know what a 404 error page looks like, chances are you can probably find it by typing your website address with a bunch of gibberish, like this www.your-website.com/palskjfdpas - it looks like this:

To learn more, pick up a copy of Seth Godin's book on web design, The Big Red Fez.
And to learn how to design a 404 error page, go here.

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