Press relations should be one of the core charges for an
industry association. After all, companies pay their dues to these
organizations in some part because the association gives their
industry a unified, collective voice with other sectors of the
economy, the government and the media. Add to that the fact that so
much of the press relies on the Web for its initial information on
many stories, and we think that the bar for PR functionality at
association Web sites should be set pretty high.
An association wants to anticipate the reasons and the stories
that send press to their sites. It needs to have a trove of usable
and timely industry data, fast facts, ready contacts, and
information that answers the most common press questions.
We found one association that has all the best intentions. The
Direct Marketers Association Web site (http://www.the-dma.org) definitely
strikes the right tone, inviting the press to use its media
relations team as a resource for information and contacts. And the
site funnels some of the information that media researchers need.
But with an outdated interface, outdated info, and limited
usability, the site is a bit like a late-night direct sales
infomercial - a bit more pitch than product.
|
Criteria
|
Grade
|
Comments
|
| Link from Home Page | B- | The DMA links to its press room directly from the front page, which is good. But because the overall site design is so bland (stock typefaces, no introductory text, endless links) the link doesn't stand out, which is bad. The basic home page design is so 1997 - more of a site map than an inviting entryway. And at an association Web site, the press area deserves to be well demarcated. Although journalists will appreciate getting quick access to vital information (white papers, speeches, etc.) from the home page, the amateurishness of the design does raise some questions about the seriousness of the organization. |
| Press Release Archive | C | When we visited the site in late January, the most recent release posting was from Dec. 18. This seems sluggish. Most releases benefited from their one or two sentence descriptors beneath the headlines that linked to the full release. Unfortunately, the release "archive" amounts to a second page of headers and descriptors that scrolls forever. There is no chronological or thematic organization, and worse, the releases aren't even dated on this page. Without a clear sense of when a headline was published, it is effectively meaningless to a journalist. An association like the DMA serves different direct marketing platforms (TV, mail, Web) and it has a large lobbying effort, so the site desperately needs to break these releases down into such sectors, because that is how journalists will tend to come at them. |
| Contact Information | A | This is where the DMA sets a great example for other associations and businesses. The site opens its press page with an invitation to use the media relations team as a resource for information and contacts, and PR staff members have a page of their own, complete with bios, specific contact info, their areas of expertise and even a description of the types of marketing industry contacts and connections they can facilitate for journalists covering direct marketing. Only photos would bring the writer closer to her contact before picking up the phone. This is an exceptional way to help journalists self-select a contact and save time for both parties. There a great lesson in this. A press area should let the press know what you know and who you know and how you can be the one to accelerate their story. |
| Timeliness | C | The press area had a timely press release when we visited, but there was much more current and frequently-updated material in other corners of the site. The site itself does not have the dynamic feel of a well-updated site. The front page does not carry any timely information except for an ad pushing the next conference. The press area links to white papers, but many are one or two years old. Other areas of the site have more timely info, but it is not linked into the press area. We did find some content that was posted only days before our visit, but getting to it required a lengthy registration process. |
| Archive of News Coverage |
C | The DMA site has what it calls a "News Summary" and "Newsstand" of recent media, but much of what we found were press releases from individual companies and essays by corporate figures. They were poorly sourced, and most seemed aimed to educate DMA members about the marketing strategies, not give background to the press about how the industry is being covered. In fact, as we mention below, a core problem of this site is that it blurs too many audiences. |
| Ease of Navigation | C | The-DMA.org is less sophisticated than many corporate or even government sites, and so its cross-navigation is marginal. The resources within the press page itself are generous, but you get to them solely from this hub, so wherever you go you must make your way back to the press page. A sideline nav bar lists "Related Content," but mainly it links back to the hub page. For a dedicated press area, the side nav menu should have cross-links to the most important sub-pages for the press. Navigation is a problem because at heart the site is confused about whom it serves: members, consumers, potential members, or the press. The site needs to be organized so that these various possible audiences have discrete sections where all of the content speaks to their respective needs and perspectives. |
| Search Functions | B | The search box is available on select pages or through an ever-present link in the nav bar. The search performance is passable, in that it lets you refine your search to different types of site content (white papers, press releases, etc.) and input multiple terms. The results page gives priority ranking and a very detailed description of each document, which is invaluable to researching. |
| Company Information | C- | The "DMA Backgrounder" link was broken on our visit, and the industry statistics information was one to three years old. Shame on them. Having the latest research, industry statistics, and re-usable charts should be de rigeur at an association site, and at this the site is a resounding failure. A reporter's first question will be, "Do you have more recent statistics?" A saving grace for the site is that a lot of this necessary information is at the site, but an enterprising journalist needs to find and drill into it from the home page. It is not part of the press area, where it should be. |
| Financial Information | F | For an association site, this criterion is a bit different from a corporation, where reporters expect links to the organization's annual reports, earnings and other financial stats. At an association, one looks for financial information on the industry overall. What is its scale and role in relation to the larger economy, and how has it grown? We were hard pressed to find any of this information at the site, and certainly none of it was a part of the press area. |
| Graphics and Media Assets |
D | Oops. The DMA gives you three possible ways of asking for media assets, but it offers only an image of the association logo and the president. From spam to junk mail to telemarketers, the DMA is a source about a host of modern consumer culture maladies. Where are a few reusable charts about these phenomena? A logo and a headshot? These are the only visual representation of an entire industry the group can muster? |
| News by Email | F | Oops again. If there is an e-list for journalists to get press releases, we couldn't find it. |
| Overall | C- | We have to give the DMA site points for projecting the right attitude. "We want to help you meet your deadlines," is exactly what a frantic newsie wants to hear, and the site does a great job in offering a precise point of human contact. In a twisted sort of way, it probably is a good idea that the press area pushes journalists to a human, because the site itself is so poorly designed, more of an information dump site than an informational Web site. The-DMA.org fails to appreciate how journalists work, the sorts of questions they will have about the industry, and the assets they need to fulfill that deadline. Ultimately, the organization is being poorly served by an outmoded site structure that seems simply to have accumulated data over the years. |
Contact: Robert Blakeley, Director Internet Development
([email protected]).
The site is managed entirely in-house.