By
Duane Sprague
One of the
original applications for the Internet was to tie the college,
university and government research and library facilities together,
so that information could be accessed, expedited and shared. Its
no wonder, that propeller heads were the real users of the Internet
for the first decade of its existence.
The Internet
is still used primarily by people that skew higher than average
in education, income, and present or future purchasing power.
These people are typically comparison shoppers, who are also looking
for convenience, value-added goods or services, warranties and
guarantees, time savings, and quality. They look for information,
facts, reports, comparison studies, consumer reports, and the
like. Though all purchasing decisions are ultimately based on
emotions, and justified with logic, regular home Internet users
seem to be weigh decisions more on logic than the average consumer.
Therefore,
it is critical that your web site be educational and informative
about your industry, your product, and your company, without being
just self puffery. As computer and technology prices continue
to drop, the Internet user demographics will surely change to
reflect the average consumer.
What to avoid
on your web site:
o Large color photos on your home page, or at the very beginning
of your site. They take too long to down load, and most people
won't wait that long.
o Self puffery without objective information.
o Too many photographs or graphic files that slow down the down
load
o Stale, outdated inventory lists, information, or home pages
o Surveying every visitor to death
What you should
do to improve your Internet marketing success:
o Provide an e-mail option, and check it hourly, and respond quickly
o Offer a web-connect option, where the user can connect to a
live operator at the click of an icon
o Keep your inventory list up-to date daily
o Provide hot links to related web sites
o Provide hot links to collaborative marketing partners
o Track which pages are visited, and for how long
o Provide low resolution, or thumb-nail photos at first, and allow
the user to click on the photo if they are interested in waiting
to download the larger, high resolution version
o Show the date when the site was last updated
o Offer a recommended reading and web site list to learn more
about your industry or product
What people
typically want in a web site shopping experience:
o Fast down loads and easy access to information
o A simple and complete site navigation
o To learn and be educated
o Objective data and information
o Convenience
o Value-added goods and services
o Competitive pricing
o Reports and comparisons by consumer research firms
o Testimonials
o Partial client list (if they are companies or people they would
have heard of)
o Warranty and guarantee information
o A secure credit card ordering site
o Easy and fast ordering form
o A 24 hour toll free number if they have any other questions
o Quick follow-up to their e-mail
o Fast delivery of their order
As a marketing
company, one of the things we offer, is a fully personalized,
full color mailer that goes out to our clients web visitors, as
a very effective follow-up to their specific area of interest.
For car dealerships,
some of the best sites I have seen, contain the following elements:
o Updated daily, with current inventory of new and used cars,
with color photographs available of each and every used car.
o A search engine that allows the consumer to specify make, model,
year, vehickle type, or price range of vehicle they are looking
for
o A calculator function that will estimate what their monthly
payment will be based on the down payment and number of payments
they wish to make
o Service coupons that they can select, down load, and print at
home
o Hot links to the manufacturers web sites that the dealer represents
o Consumer or industry reports on new cars
o A map to their dealership
o Allowing the consumer to specify what type of purchasing experince
they wish to have (one-price vs. negotiations, bring the car to
their home or work place for a test drive vs. going to the dealership,
a male vs. a female sales person, etc.)
