Web site optimisation: fire your ad agency
WHen an ad agency does direct marketing they often forget the basics. It's not that they forget them. They never learned them.
They don't like them when they do learn them, because the rules of direct marketing often contradict the rules of advertising.
The same is true for online and offline. You can tell a website designed by an ad agency - go to a few of them and you'll see - their own sites. Elaborate flash designs that make you wait while you admire their creative brilliance. Wankery. The online agency understands the principle of ACCESS. People visit websites for access to content and information. You come to the Opera House for what's on the stage. Not for some bullshit performance by the doorman.
This is not an ideological divide. It is a paradigm shift. There can be little understanding between people operating under different paradigms because the past cannot understand the future and the future cannot talk to the past in terms it will understand. Online is different to offline as direct marketing is different to advertising. If you want results, seek specialists in each field.