Web Marketing

With many of the businesses marketing on the Internet there seems to be a lot of emphasis on creating a handsome looking site, but to what end? Isn't the idea to convert visitors into customers? Without excellent content on the site what businesses are left with is equivalent to a brochure that isn't read.

The question is, how will the site be used, and is it designed to help the client sell more or have their business awareness greatly enhanced? If it isn't doing at least these two things, what is the point?