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What do People Want Online?
It’s not what you think it is.
By
Jay Conrad Levinson
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What people want online is a question
guerrillas ask themselves a lot. Whether it's for fun
or work or something else, understanding a consumer's
motives once he or she logs on is a necessity.
But the experts don't seem to agree on what people want.
Some folks see the web as a vast, new field for advertising
messages, assuming that while people may want to do something
else, if we can entice them with flash, we can
sort of trick them into paying attention to our
products and services.
Guess what. That’s not gonna happen.
Other folks seem to subscribe to the notion that people
online are looking for entertainment on the Internet,
and therefore they construct messages aimed at persuading
while playing. And, in other cases, the time-honored
direct-response model wins out: Grab people when you
can, get 'em to take an action, and then market, market,
market. The answer may be that the consumer has and
wants a lot more control than we give him/her credit
for.
Today, webmeisters are in control. Sort of. In a perfect
cyberworld, people will be in control. Sort of.
Two recent studies shed light upon this dilemma.
One was conducted by Zatso. The other was conducted by
the Pew Research Center. Zatso and Pew. (Those guys didn’t
spend much time reading "how-to-name-your-company" books,
I guess.) Still, both of their studies illuminated
the answer as to what people want to do online.
The answer, as most answers, is very utilitarian: People
want to accomplish something online. They're not
aimless surfers hoping to discover a cybertreasure. Instead,
the average Net user turns out to be a goal-oriented
person interested in finding information and communicating
with others – in doing something he or she set out
to do.
Look at the Zatso study. "A View of the 21st Century News
Consumer" looked at people's news reading habits on the
web. It revealed that reading and getting news
was the most popular online activity after email.
The guerrilla thinks, "That means email is number one.
How might I capitalize on that?"
One out of three respondents reported that they read news
online every day, with their interests expanding geographically
— local news was of the most interest, U.S. news
the least.
Personalization was seen as a benefit, too. Seventy-five
percent of respondents said that they wanted news on demand
and nearly two out of three wanted personalized news.
The subjects surveyed liked the idea that they, not some
media outlet, controlled the news they saw. They feel
they're better equipped to select what they want to
see than a professional editor. Again, control seems
to be the issue. Again, guerrillas think of ways to market
by putting the prospect in control.
The Pew Research Center study revealed that regular net
users were more connected with their friends and family
than those who didn't use the Internet on a regular basis.
Almost two-thirds of the 3,500 respondents said they felt
that email brought them closer to family and friends —
significant when combined with the fact that 91% of
them used email on a regular basis. That’s 91%. It
took VCRs 25 years to achieve such market penetration.
What did people in this study seem to be doing online
when they weren't doing email? Half were going online
regularly to purchase products and services, and
nearly 75 percent were going online to search for information
about their hobbies or purchases they were planning
to make. Sixty-four percent of respondents visited
travel sites, and 62 percent visited weather-related sites.
Over half did educational research, and 54 percent were
hunting for data about health and medicine.
A surprising 47 percent regularly visited government web
sites, and 38 percent researched job opportunities. Instant
messaging was used by 45 percent of these users, and a
third of them played games online. Even with all the hype
in the media, only 12 percent said they traded stocks
online.
What does this mean to e-marketers? It means that if you’re
constructing a site for goal-oriented consumers, you'd
better make sure you can help facilitate their seeking.
Rather than focus on entertainment, flash, and useless
splash screens, the most effective sites are those that
help people get the information they want when
they need it. Straightforward data, information that invites
comparison, and straight talk are going to win the day.
A client buddy of mine showed me his website which heralds
his retail location and attempts to sell nothing online.
He said it has been the biggest moneymaker in the
history of his 35-year old company. Then he apologized
for its lack of glitter and special effects. He asked
how his site could be so successful even though it lacked
anything to add razzmatazz and dipsydazzle.
Now, you know the answer.
Jay Conrad Levinson is probably the most respected
marketer in the world. He is the inventor of "Guerrilla
Marketing" and is responsible for some of the most outrageous
marketing campaigns in history -- including the "Marlboro
Man" -- the most successful ad campaign in history. In
his latest book, "Put
Your Internet Marketing on Steroids" Jay reveals
how you can use marketing steroids legally to make
your business insanely profitable.
Arun Agrawal, a veteran Internet marketer, has a huge collection
of resources and affiliate programs to make you successful
in your Online marketing efforts. Click here to find out
more: http://www.onlinemarketingindia.com
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