“I don’t care about motivation. I care about credibility.”

Eliot Spitzer

I laugh at the irony some business owners offer, unaware that the difference between their words and messages plays like parody.

Recently, I gave my name and e-mail address to a list-building blogger. A self-proclaimed ‘social media expert,’ in fact.

I get it’s the rage these days to distract prospects with pop-up windows, but the one on this site wouldn’t allow you to read a sentence as it constantly cycled back – even after you signed up. I’ll admit I was talked into trying one about six months ago on another site. I took it down quickly because it was driving me crazy and didn’t play well with my strategic marketing objectives (keeping visitors on site). I can only imagine how my readers were reacting. Maybe this device converts, but I imagine it chases away more. Still, enough feel they’re finding success with signage less subtle than neon, so it’s a choice I can understand.

Here’s the kicker though – the e-mail link delivered for the free report sends you back to the sign up page – and the annoying sign-up pop-up screaming the second the page loads. Mirror sign up boxes stacked atop one another. No report. No way to get out of the loop. I even tried pressing zero for an operator. Didn’t work. Perhaps the creators of this system should double as a telecommunication’s experts creating more voice mail hell.

It looked like a vendor was responsible for setting up the autoresponder, so I tried to contact the site owner to provide an alert about the issue. Sure, all this should have been tested before it went live, but I’ve let the occasional typo or spelling error slip through even after copious proofing, so understand how mortifying it can be to realize something got through that should have been caught.

You guessed it – not a stitch of contact information anywhere on the site. That was the final chuckle and eye-roll that caused me shift away from investing an inordinate amount of time trying to be supportive to the conviction, “I have to write about this.”

Do your words reflect your strategic marketing actions?

Point being, it doesn’t matter how good this report is, if by remarkable chance I ever see it. I’ve already formed an opinion about the competency of this provider. If someone promoting themselves as a social technology expert can’t get their own web house in order – with the front door locked for entry to boot – the confidence level of the prospect is shattered from the onset. Is it fair? Probably not. Is it dumb? Yep. Paying attention to your prospect’s experience should be a primary priority with any marketing effort.

Of course, the faux pas wouldn’t be such a major misstep if this wasn’t coming from a ‘social media expert.’ The website coupled with the efficacy of autoresponders and other tools set up to streamline and improve the prospect’s experience is paramount when you’re hanging a shingle as a consultant in this vastly competitive industry. Your skills are on stage the moment someone clicks through to your website. Actually, before – with every online interaction you make.

There are a lot of things people do to unwittingly undermine marketing efforts. It’s sad, actually, because often people focus heavily on outreach when it would be smarter to slow down and make sure the message is consistent. It’s frustrating when you work tirelessly to build a business yet find few takers. Sometimes, simply taking a close look at how customers see you can turn failure to success. If you’re not doing what you’re saying, people won’t believe you.

Needless to say, I’m feeling a bit snarky today. For those of you not in the United States – Eliot Spitzer (the opening quote) was an extremely aggressive Attorney General and then Governor of New York State until he got caught with his pants down. Seems he lost a bit of credibility when it was discovered how motivated he was as a regular client of an escort service (this is a kind term for a profession that is not legal in states where he was frolicking).