CMS vendor websites benefit from a succinct, plain English summary of the product and its capabilities. This should be listed on the homepage of the website, or on the initial product pages. This summary should outline the distinguishing features of the product, and indicate key target markets.

Many customers have a general idea of their basic requirements. A summary enables them to see quickly whether the product meets their immediate needs without ploughing through a lot of detailed information.

Site comparisons

A third of sites examined during the review of selected CMS vendor sites made no attempt at a summary of their products, relying on the customer having the time and concentration to read all of the detailed descriptions, or take the marketing copy at face value. Many of these sites were heavily reliant on very glowing marketing copy, some of which can be perceived by customers as exaggerated or even untrue, as some of the survey comments showed:

“Far too focused on marketing and sales which gets extremely annoying when I want to cut straight to the facts.”

“If a vendor over-hypes a product, I simply won’t believe them.”

Only four sites included clear and comprehensive summaries, with enough information for customers to see if their basic requirements would be met by the products. All of these were mid-sized vendors, whose sites rated well over a number of different elements, suggesting that a good summary comes out of an effective overall web strategy.