What Red Lobster's tartar sauce, content, Flash and me have to do with your web site

Over the weekend I was looking for a “copycat” recipe for Red Lobster’s tartar sauce. My husband likes it. I like it. Besides, the tartar sauce in our fridge was dated ’07. Ewww!

But because many brands still close themselves off from their audiences (whatcha scared of — or hiding, Mr. Big Brand?), I did not want to get my hopes up that Red Lobster would actually post their recipe on their site.

Imagine my surprise, though, when I input the search phrase “red lobster tartar sauce recipe” into Google. Though they weren’t the first search result (ooooh, aahhh) Red Lobster did come in quite respectably above-the-fold.

And, their meta description provided this fabulous and tantalizing copy: “If you are looking for a creamy delicious tartar sauce recipe Red Lobster is the place to find it. There are also recipes for many of your favorite seafood …”

Jackpot!

Or was it ? …

Wanting THE recipe from THE source, I clicked in. Okay, so I didn’t get the recipe right away but they did have a link to “Recipe Box.”

Okay, one more click. No problem.

Click.

BIG problem.

Enormous, slow-loading Flash download of fancy Chef’s Kitchen with no recipe in site.

Experiential? Yes. Tartar sauce recipe? No. Not that I could find.

I won’t discuss the pros and cons of Flash here; but I will say that I just wanted some simple, straightforward content that I felt, as a customer, I deserved.

They promised it. They should have delivered it.

Lesson learned for you? Make sure your content helps pay off your site visitor’s expectations.

Oh, and we had pizza instead of seafood. Still looking for the genuine Red Lobster tartar sauce recipe if anyone has it.

By JanO on 1/19/09, In writing, Tags audience, brand, copywriting, customer service, google, interactive, loading flash, meta description, red lobster tartar sauce recipe, relevant copy, slow loading, strategies, strategy, tartar sauce recipe, web 2.0, web content