Here's a sad example of "We don't have any sales collateral or copy. Build us an awesome website! But nothing too fancy."
Back in the 90s, it seems like the most creative we got with our page layouts was doing something unique with the navigation. Web traffic was also relatively low, so even having a "web presence" was considered impressive!
As simple and ugly as this design might be, it was exactly what the customer wanted, and it served them well for several years.