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Redefining the Role of the Web Like all new technologies, the
Internet has gone through several stages. These have included the design-driven "killer" stage where the goal was to "wow!" web site visitors with eye-catching colors, typography, animation and other
special effects. Next came the promised land of the of the 24/7 e-commerce stage where everything was going to be sold to everyone all the time and everyone was going to get rich beyond the wildest dreams of avarice.
The need for a new perspective
Now that the dust has had time to settle, perhaps it's time to take a new look at the Internet and develop a realistic scenario for the role your web site can play in the success
of your business.From the perspective of time, we can identify four components to a successful web site. 1 Not by web site alone
E-mail is the first component of a successful web strategy. Your web site--no
matter how well it has been designed and executed--cannot do the job by itself. Your web strategy has to involve a strong e-mail component. This e-mail component is based on successfully obtaining the e-mail address
of each and every web site visitor. Unless you obtain the e-mail addresses of your web site visitors, it's entirely up to your visitors whether or not they ever revisit your web site again. Not obtaining your
visitor's e-mail address is like meeting the potentially perfect spouse or life-partner at a party and failing to obtain their name and phone number. Instead of reestablishing contact the next day, you're forced to sit
by the phone and wait for them to call you. And, if they don't call you, you face a lifetime of loneliness. So the first step in creating an effective web site is to obtain your visitor's e-mail address and--equally
important--permission to contact them in the future via e-mail. This is easier said than done. Your web site visitors are likely to be very reluctant to provide their e-mail address without a good reason.
Thus, an important part of your web strategy involves developing an incentive that will motivate visitors to your web site to willingly provide their e-mail address to you and give you permission to contact them via
e-mail in the future. Once this happens, however, you're on your way to success. With e-mail address and permission in hand, you can contact web site visitors at frequent intervals, informing them of special offers
and--most important--invite them back to your web site whenever you add new content. 2 Developing information resources
The success of your web site is based on the quality of the information you
provide. Very few people visit a web site because they like the colors or typography. People visit web sites because of the quality of information that the site communicates. To succeed, information has to be both
timely and appropriate. It must answer visitor questions, address visitor concerns and point the way towards solving the problems that your visitors are experiencing. The short-term success of price-driven web sites
has obscured the point that most businesses are not profitable when they sell products and services at low prices. Such a "harvest" policy may work in the short term, but is impossible to sustain forever. Long term
success comes from developing a core of satisfied repeat customers who not only reward you with repeat purchases but also recommend your firm to their coworkers and friends. Your firm's value increases each time a
visitor to your web site encounters meaningful, credible information--information that helps them solve their problems, i.e.
- Quality
: do something better
- Speed
: Do something faster
- Efficiency
: do something easier
A constant stream of meaningful information at your web site--announced by e-mail--maintains your firm's visibility and pre-sells customers on your competence. Information is king. Your job is to develop and
present the information your market needs to solve their problems. 3 Different strokes for different folks
One size does not fit all. It is foolish to try to develop a web site
that can satisfy the information needs of every one of your visitors. Different visitors have different information needs. Yet, web site personalization is not the answer, either. For most companies, personalization
creates more problems than it solves. It assumes that just because you once bought a Dick Francis book or a blue Size 12 pinafore, you're likely to want to buy the next Dick Francis book or a matching Size 12 blue
sweater in the future. Worse, the costs and complexity of developing elaborate personalization schemes is prohibitive for most firms. Worse, yet, there's a certain "artificiality" to overly complex
personalization schemes. Customers are not dumb. They know when you're contacting them as individuals and when they're receiving a communication that was generated by an algorithm based on past performance. The
solution is, as occurs so often, to adopt a middle ground between "one size fits all" and "Hi, Roger, want to buy the new Dick Francis novel or a blue dress?" This solution is based on viewing your
firm's customers and prospects as fitting into different levels of a five-stage Customer Development Cycle. The stages of this cycle include:
- Awareness
. This stage occurs when prospects become aware that they have a problem that your firm may be able to solve.
- Comparison
. After acknowledging the problem, prospects begin to compare your solutions with with those of your competitors.
- Transaction
. Money (or, more typically, credit card numbers) change hands when customers say: "I do" and consummate a sale (or resale).
- Reinforcement
. The Reinforcement Stage paves the way for future purchases. Your goal is thank customers for their purchase and develop a way of generating repeat purchases and creating customers for life out
of that first transaction.
- Advocacy
. The highest level of the Customer Development Cycle occurs when you provide your customers with the motives and tools they need to sell their coworkers and friends. Your goal is to convert
customers into ambassadors and advocates for your firm.
Your goal is to develop and deliver information appropriate for each stage of the Customer Development Cycle. Information appropriate for the Awareness stage is inappropriate for the Transaction or Advocacy Stage.
Each stage requires its own information; the challenge you face is identifying and providing information appropriate for each level of the Customer Development Cycle. This involves both marketing and technology
issues, i.e. not only "what information should we provide" but also "How do we deliver it to the right customers and prospects at the right time?" 4 Integration
The final component of a successful
web strategy is to integrate e-mail and your web site with your existing business systems and procedures.If your firm is like most, customer and prospect information is scattered throughout your organization. Some
customer and prospect names and addresses reside in a computerized database, other information is on paper--stored in file cabinets and business cards tucked away in various drawers and rotary card files. Although
you can probably generate address labels for sending a catalog, newsletter or postcard to some
categories of customers and prospects, you're probably not able to send print communications to everyone nor are you able to separate customers and prospects based on their position in the Customer Development Cycle.
Adding to the problem: some customers and prospects are likely to receive multiple copies because their names and addresses appear in different locations. Beyond the immediate goal of generating sales to stay in
business--covering your overhead and creating a profit-- your long term goal must be to integrating all of your customer and prospect information into a single database that includes your customer and prospect's e-mail
addresses. This requires careful thought and, again, developing incentives that will motivate previous customers to visit your web site and submit their e-mail address. Your long-term survival strategy must be
based on using e-mail to drive customers to your web site where they can locate in-depth information appropriate to their stage of the Customer Development Cycle.
- Your web site along can't do the job.
It makes no sense to put information on your web site unless you use e-mail to make sure your customers and prospects revisit your web site and encounter the
information.
- E-mail alone is not enough.
To be read, e-mail should be short and to the point. Shorter is usually better. E-mail should simply point customers and prospects to your web site, rather than attempting to tell
the whole story.
Conclusion
Accordingly, as a business owner, you face several challenges…and none of them are particularly design-driven. They are information driven. Instead of "What colors
and typefaces should we use?" you should be asking yourself questions like:
- Problem/solution
. What are the problems that our customers and prospects are facing, and how can we solve them?
- Incentives
. What incentives can we provide visitors to our web site so they will provide their e-mail addresses?
- Integration
. How can we persuade previous customers and prospects to visit our web site and register their e-mail address?
- Timeliness
. How can we structure our web site so that visitors will receive the information most appropriate for their current stage in the Customer Buying Cycle?
Once you begin asking (and answering) those questions, you'll be well on your way to success. The worksheets in
The Streetwise Guide to Relationship Marketing and available at this web site
will help you begin developing an information-based web strategy necessary for success in the years to come. |
