Getting the basics right makes a big difference. Caring about what you do and taking pride in your marketing efforts is a foundational element of marketing your business.

Even if your credentials are solid and you can point to results, phoning in your marketing materials is a sure-fire way to damage your credibility.

Case in point: the screenshot below, the home page of a consulting firm, is a credibility killer. Relying heavily on academic credentials to make a case for the value of their services, this firm blows it straight out of the gate when it comes to their Web presence.

The tagline is a disaster. The misspelling of “quantitative” stands in opposition to any credibility gained by touting the partners’ academic credentials from “top research universities;” and the 21st century spin is as generic as the ACME products in old Road Runner cartoons.

This isn’t a case where a professional needed to be brought in; though it’s a do-it-yourself job. It’s an example of a business that apparently finds little value in articulating  how they create value for others and thinks little of attending to the basics, like proofreading critical copy.

(A side note: the dominating stock photography fails to support the content; it’s irrelevant to the copy and distracts with more questions than it answers. Is that the Guggenheim? Are those corporate guys cutting a deal in an arboretum?)

The resulting message is subtle but unnerving: we’re a generic firm that doesn’t care.

It’s a hard truth: if you don’t care enough to pay attention to the fundamentals of your efforts, your marketing and your business will likely, perhaps deservedly, fail.

I’d finally come to the breaking point.

It was 5 a.m. I was waiting for the coffee to finish brewing as I fired up Thunderbird to check my e-mail spam. There was a message from The One.

He’s the guy I learned the most from. His models are the ones I’m most likely to re-interpret, since His influence has so shaped my thinking. He breathed life into my professional development as I stood trembling and adrift on the stoop of middle-age. My Guru – My One.

Selfish, incompetent bastard!

This dude can drop a broken link like nobody’s business. He’s famous for the size of his e-mail list. He has tremendous reach and is known for the high quality of his newsletters — they have driven his business for years and made him a wealthy man. And-he-never-gets-it-right.

He blasts three e-mails to his list when one would do: “Oops broken link!” “Sorry-broken link, here’s the correct one!”

This has been going on for years.

As I’ve blossomed as a marketer, I’ve moved farther and farther away from Him; though I’ve always had a huge well of goodwill for all He’s given me – I thought a limitless one.

But those broken links have really been pissing me off. The thought of unsubscribing from His list, once unimaginable, had crossed my mind more than once.

Waiting for the coffee to brew, I read the subject line:  “Corrected Link for Publishing Teleclass.” Instead of deleting, I opened it, ready to scroll to the bottom and click the unsubscribe link.  All those cursory “sorry-wrong link!” excuses month after month! How about a little respect for your bread and butter? The years of negligence, it verged on contempt!

Hi,

You’d think this wouldn’t happen anymore, but unfortunately it does…

I heard the sadness. It reminded me of the way I felt lighting up again and again during all those years I spent trying to quit smoking before it finally took.

Fair enough – I’ll stay subscribed.

For now.