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.
