Beyond an online brochure: 5 purposes for an ADR business website

Mediators know all about the benefits of clarity and conscious purpose for resolving conflict effectively. Yet, when it comes to our websites, we fall down on the job a bit. Too many ADR business websites show lack of clarity on the site’s purpose.

Yes, sure, general marketing is one purpose. That’s probably not enough to focus your content in a way that prospective clients can differentiate you from every other mediator out there. Beyond “general marketing,” what are you trying to achieve with your site?

In The Ease (E’s) of Blogging, Devin Reams identifies 5 primary purposes for blogging. I think it’s easy to extend his thinking beyond a blog website to any business website:

• Educate
• Entertain
• Emote
• Engage
• Earn

I encourage you to take a look at Devin’s article, where he goes into a bit more depth on each of the 5 E’s. What purpose, beyond general marketing, do you see for your website? Does it achieve it? Ask 5 honest friends to look at your site and then tell you what they think the purpose is. If there’s not a match, then you’ve gotten some excellent information from which to re-work your site’s content.