Have you ever seen a TV commercial that made you go… huh, what was that about?  Did you ever wonder who the heck that ad was targeting?  GoDaddy is a good example… their early TV commercials made no sense… many people still don’t know they are a registrar and web hosting company.  I recently watched a Chevy commercial with 3 guys in a car, they turn on the CD player, and it’s kids music thumping… I didn’t get it.  Am I supposed to want this embarrassment for myself?  Confusing marketing doesn’t work.  If your target audience doesn’t know who you are AND why you exist, you may as well have not bothered to tell them who you are.

Some companies websites are the worst (examples: http://www.rootlearning.com/ , http://www.motive.com/ , many, many more).  That clever Flash animation you have: I didn’t watch it.  That annoying “auto-play” audio you launch when I hit your site: made me close your site in 1 second.  The funky, indirect, “marketing-speak” on your home-page: might be good for SEO, but please, just TELL ME WHAT YOU DO!  Directness is valued by customers who are shopping for your goods.  Leave the indirect stuff for latter pages.. and always open and close with directness… it works.