18 April 2024

Do You Even NEED A Website?

2Frameworks

9Insights

Frameworks in this episode

Innovation6 steps

AI Website Modernization Ladder

Add AI guidance, personalized media, and customer-language optimization in stages

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Strategy5 steps

Four Jobs of a B2B Website

Balance acquisition, brand, support, and recruitment on one core website

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Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Hot Take· 3

Hot Take03:30

Why Microsites Create More Friction Than Value

The hosts argue that most campaign and product microsites should instead be focused pages on the primary domain. Separate sites fragment links and authority, disconnect visitors from the broader product, and demand disproportionate effort for limited recurring traffic.

Keep focused campaign pages on the core domain
Avoid splitting links and authority across sites
Reduce friction between campaign content and the broader product
Redirect retired microsites into relevant core pages

“micro sites to me are just a leaflet”
04:30

“they're a lot of work for a small amount of gains”
04:30

#microsites#websites#seo#campaigns

Hot Take13:30

Today's Annoying Autoplay Could Become Tomorrow's Interface

Audio autoplay is currently treated as a notorious website annoyance, yet the hosts predict that richer audio and video interactions will become normal. Rather than disappearing immediately, websites may evolve into multimodal experiences that extend beyond text and static visuals.

Audio has historically harmed website usability
New devices may normalize spoken interaction
Websites are likely to combine text, visuals, video, and audio
The design context determines whether audio helps or annoys

“websites are going to be much more multimodal than they are now”
14:30

“Beyond just text and visuals they're going to have more video and more audio”
14:30

#multimodal#audio#video#ux

Hot Take32:30

One AI Agent Could Eliminate the Customer Handoff Maze

The hosts identify organizational handoffs as a major cause of poor customer experiences. They envision a continuous AI-supported journey spanning marketing, sales, onboarding, success, and support instead of repeatedly transferring the customer between disconnected representatives.

Handoffs create inconsistent customer experiences
AI can preserve context across the lifecycle
One continuous journey could span pre- and post-purchase needs
Automation must connect the tools used by different teams

“most customer experiences suck right especially hand they suck because of handoffs”
32:30

“there's a continuation of experience right like the experience is consistent across the entirety of that journey”
33:00

#customer-experience#automation#handoffs#ai-agents

Explainer· 1

Explainer32:00

Website Metrics May Shift from Pageviews to Conversations

If visitors primarily ask an AI agent for help, bounce rate, page depth, and pages per visit become less informative. Marketers may instead analyze which conversations produced action, which failed, and the recurring differences between successful and unsuccessful journeys.

Conversation outcomes could replace navigation depth as a core signal
Successful interactions reveal buyer needs and effective answers
Failed interactions expose objections and missing information
Traditional bounce metrics may lose relevance

“all of your web metrics actually fundamentally change”
32:00

“you don't even need to look at things like traditional ban rate depth of visits”
32:00

#analytics#conversational-ai#conversion#metrics

Q&A· 1

Q&A10:00

Could Post-Smartphone Devices Make Websites Less Important?

The discussion considers whether audio-first devices could weaken the website's current role, which depends heavily on laptops and smartphones. The hosts remain skeptical of fully audio-based interaction because many users still need a visual component, but they expect interfaces to evolve.

Current websites assume screens and conventional browsing
Audio-first devices could change discovery and interaction
Many users remain strongly visual
Future devices may use smaller screens rather than eliminate them

“what if we didn't have smartphones and laptops would they still be important”
11:00

“I don't think I want to interact with all devices through voice”
13:00

#hardware#audio#interfaces#future

Tool· 2

Tool15:30

Udio Shows How Media Can Be Generated for One Person

A demonstration of Udio illustrates how AI can generate music from a title, lyrics, and requested style. The broader marketing implication is that consumers may increasingly receive media created specifically for them rather than a single asset distributed to everyone.

Udio generates complete songs from prompts
Users can specify lyrics and musical style
Personal media can differ for every consumer
The same concept could apply to website content

“the media you can cons you consume can be created by you for you by AI”
19:00

“it means the thing that you consume is much different than the thing I consume”
19:30

#udio#generative-ai#music#personalization

Tool26:00

Hume Turns a Website into a Guided Conversation

A live Hume demonstration shows an AI responding to spoken requests while navigating the visitor to relevant website content. The hosts suggest this could transform websites into interactive product demonstrations and require companies to train AI as carefully as sales representatives.

The agent responds to natural-language requests
It guides the visitor to relevant website sections
Visitors can change direction without restarting the journey
Positioning and product knowledge become AI training material

“Hume is basically showing us around the website”
28:00

“you could potentially think of it as nothing more than an online demo delivered by an AI agent”
28:00

#hume#conversational-ai#sales#website-ux

Takeaway· 2

Takeaway21:30

Build for Better Models, Not Just Today's Limitations

The episode relays Sam Altman's distinction between companies designed around current model capabilities and those prepared for rapid improvement. The first group risks disruption by model innovation, while the second can use improving quality and falling costs as an advantage.

Current AI limitations are unlikely to remain fixed
Model improvements can invalidate narrow product advantages
Plan experiences around a plausible capability curve
AI video quality may change substantially within 6–18 months

“the first categories of companies are the ones that are going to get disrupted by model Innovation”
22:30

“the second are the ones that are going to take advantage of that Innovation and be successful”
22:30

#ai-models#innovation#strategy#video

Takeaway34:30

Great Marketing Enables the Customer to Be Lazy

The episode summarizes website usability as reducing the effort needed to reach a useful outcome. Customers tend to choose experiences that demand fewer decisions and actions, making clarity and guided assistance competitive advantages.

Minimize the work required to reach value
Put essential information and actions within easy reach
Use guidance to reduce research burden
Clarity can outperform feature or message volume

“a marketer's job is to enable lazy”
34:30

“don't make me think just give me what I just give me what I need”
35:00

#usability#marketing#friction#customer-experience