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8 Things That Motivate Web-Audience Response
By Jerry Bader (c) 2008

It's always a good idea to stick to the basics. When businesses
stray too far from the fundamentals, problems arise, but
sticking to the basics doesn't mean boring people into a state
of unconsciousness. If Web-visitors' eyes glaze-over upon
entering your site, you've lost them before you've begun.

Web success is based on creative implementation of the basics,
and that's where your Web-marketing presentation should begin.

1. Web-Audience Response Demands Communication

The Web has a lot in common with television but there are
fundamental differences; it is important for Web-entrepreneurs
to understand these differences and similarities, and learn from
them.

Television and the Web are both communication environments, but
television, like magazines and newspapers, are primarily
advertising platforms. Of course there are plenty of websites
around that follow the advertising financial model, but for the
average business website, depending on third party advertising
not only dilutes their marketing message and brand, but it also
makes for a confusing and cluttered visual presentation.

Just because your website presents information, doesn't mean
it's communicating it to your intended audience in any
meaningful way. The manner in which you communicate your message
is as important as the message itself. The medium is
increasingly becoming the message, and even in situations where
it isn't, it definitely shapes the message.

2. Web-Audience Response Demands Content

You have repeatedly heard the comment, 'content is king,' but
we think, 'communication is king' because without
communication your content is meaningless. But here's the
dilemma, your information is basically advertising, after all
you're in business, and business is about selling something - a
product, a service, an idea, or your know-how. So the real
underlying purpose of your website is to make that advertising
message worth listening to, and to do that, you need to turn it
into content.

To turn advertising into content you have to accept that sales
take time. You have to be patient. You can't hurry a sale, you
first have to build confidence; stop rushing the close and start
thinking of selling as a courtship. You would never ask someone
to get married on a first date, so why would you expect to get
an order from a potential Web-client on their first visit.

3. Web-Audience Response Demands Courtship

No one is going to make a substantial financial commitment
without reaching some level of comfort with who you are and what
you do, and that requires some repeated contact: a courtship, or
negotiation if you prefer.

Therein lies the similarity and difference between websites and
television: the success of a television program is based on
habituation. If you get people to tune-in every week on the same
night, at the same time to see their favorite program, you will
be able to keep delivering your marketing message through the
commercials that pay for the content. In the same regard, if you
can make your website interesting enough through the compelling
presentation of content, you will get visitors to return again
and again, each time gaining confidence and respect for what you
do and what you sell.

The difference is people accept television commercials as the
price they pay for free TV programming, but the same cannot be
said for the Web. People want free information on the Web
without the irritation and bother of ads; so the challenge for
website owners is to turn their marketing message into
compelling programming that creates habituation which is just
another form of negotiation, or courtship of potential clients.

4. Web-Audience Response Demands Consistency

You hear the word strategy bandied about with little relevance
to its precise meaning. In marketing terms, strategy is a big
idea, a sustainable concept that you can build a business
around.

Successful companies rarely change their strategies, a concept
that should not be confused with tactics, which are the various
methods used to implement strategy in order to secure the
ultimate objectives.

Business has to be resilient and open-minded enough to adapt to
an ever-changing business environment by constantly updating
tactics, but strategy needs to be a constant, a touchstone or
benchmark for implementing action. Staying on course requires
confidence in the strategy with a vigilant eye on the big
picture.

Websites that are nothing more than brochures or catalogs of
product that anyone can purchase at the local mall or box store
is a tactic that delivers little relevance to today's Web-savvy
consumer. And the same can be said for the blatantly obvious
direct marketing sites based on old magazine subscription
techniques. The new multimedia communication-based Web requires
new presentation tactics in order to successfully implement
marketing strategy.

5. Web-Audience Response Demands Expectation

Successful marketing is not just about persuading people that
what you have is what they need, it's about creating a series
of deliverable expectations.

If you expect a product to be easy to use because that's what
the marketing communication states, then that product better be
easy to use. Effective marketing presentations not only prompt
action but just as importantly they create a set of realistic,
deliverable expectations.

Ask yourself, why do people mistrust politicians, car salesmen,
and telemarketers? We all know the answer: many will say, and
promise, just about anything to get your vote or order, and the
result is a disgruntled, cynical voter or customer. Read my
lips, no false expectations!

6. Web-Audience Response Demands Trust

When customers' expectations are met, you begin to create
trust, and trust is one of the hardest things to achieve on a
website that lacks any kind of human connection to the
audience.

I can't tell you how many websites I've visited that make no
effort to humanize their presentations, and consequently their
businesses. When you go to a contact page and all that's there
is a form to fill-in, with no contact name or phone number, it
says to people, 'I really can't be bothered talking to you.'
Hiding behind email tells people not to trust you, and if they
don't trust you, they are not going to do business with you.

Business is about connecting to people, whether they are
consumers, purchasing agents, or suppliers. If your website
doesn't have some kind of human element like a video Web-host,
audio message, or even a contact name and phone number, how can
you expect to connect and build confidence, and trust in your
intent to satisfy their needs?

7. Web-Audience Response Demands Personality

By building trust with your Web-audience you are also building
your brand and defining your corporate personality. Here again
we have a bit of a dichotomy since personality is a human-based
characteristic, so how then can we create a personality and
instill human characteristics into an inanimate entity like a
business?

Corporate personality does not derive from a logo, packaging, or
your website's aesthetic qualities. Corporate personality is
the sum total of the collective experiences your audience has
with your company. In the brick and mortar world, corporate
personality is a result of dealing with people, sales people,
receptionists, and telemarketers; in short personality is
derived from interaction with real human beings.

Clever, well written website copy can help create personality as
long as it is written in a distinctive human voice, but we know
that 70% of all website text is never read; people skip to
bulleted points and captions. But the same material delivered by
a real person either through Web-audio or video, not only
delivers the marketing message in the most memorable and
compelling fashion, but it also defines the business personality
and humanizes the website.

Two caveats: avatars are not people, and unless you can afford
to hire the creators of the Simpsons to develop your animation,
you best forget it; as well, using yourself or a
non-professional as a spokesperson or Web-host is a dangerous
practice, and speaks more to ego than it does to effective
business development.

8. Web-Audience Response Demands Motivation

Lastly your website must communicate content that excites and
motivates people to do business with you. The ability to
motivate people isn't about what you're selling; it's about
how you present it.

Motivational speakers, whether in the business, entertainment,
personal coaching, or sports arenas, all deliver a similar
message; but the ones that truly stimulate people to act, are
the ones that know how to present their ideas in the most
exciting and compelling manner. If you want to motivate your
Web-audience to respond, your presentation has to be delivered
by a real human being: a professional with charm, charisma, and
a distinctive character.
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Jerry Bader is Senior Partner at MRPwebmedia, a website design
firm that specializes in Web-audio and Web-video. Visit
http://www.mrpwebmedia.com/ads, http://www.136words.com,
http://www.sonicpersonality.com, and http://www.CacheClosed.com.
Contact at info@mrpwebmedia.com or telephone (905) 764-1246.
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