Internet Marketing Podcast, Web Usability Blog – Intuitive Websites

Fundamentals of an Intuitive Website

This podcast is an introduction to Internet marketing and the first from Intuitive Websites. In this podcast you will learn Web marketing strategies, how to work with a Web marketing team, and the five fundamentals of an Intuitive Website.

Show Notes

Action Plan:

• Your Website is always under construction; fix design problems
• Add an Internet marketing manager to the team
• Ask for customer and visitor feedback, and do market research
• Use Website statistics for research and ROI

Resources:

• Intuitive Websites: www.intuitivewebsites.com
• Google Analytics (Formerly Urchin): www.google.com/analytics/
• ClickTracks Statistics: www.clicktracks.com
• Three Steps to an Intuitive Website (article): http://www.intuitivewebsites.com/article14.htm

 

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Add comment March 31st, 2006

How to Talk to Your CEO About the Web

Key managers within an organization can often become the greatest proponents of a strong Web marketing strategy. They can also get in the way by being too involved or not involved enough. This happens because the Web is a unique challenge for the business leader.

The CEO, or business leader, is drawn to the Website or avoids it for the following reasons:

• It is a doorway to the world

• There is a lack of expertise in Web strategy on staff

• The CEO is too close to the business

• The CEO may not understand the technology of the Web and its impact onthe business

How does one deal with the CEO who is either not interested enough in the Web or too involved?

When the CEO is too involved in the Website the first step is to understand their role in the company. Their job is to lead and provide the vision for the company, and a good CEO will provide a vision that relates to the company’s stakeholders. Here is a summary:

• Their role is to provide direction, leadership and focus

• Not to micro-manage

• Delegate to the right people

• Build a team and build momentum

• Avoid sample size of one conflicts and a dis-association from the needs of the Web user from an over involved CEO.

Another problem is the CEO who is not involved or doesn’t think the Web is viable for marketing. The challenge here is to get them interested. How? Well education, strategy, ROI and stats are the key. When working with a business leader that does not get the Web do the following:

• Develop a strategic Internet plan

• Educate your CEO on this plan

• Show simple and clear ROI data

• Present regular Web stats to the CEO or manager such as:

- Visitors

- Pages Viewed

- Entry and exit pages

- Search engine key words

- Referrers

- Conversion and ROI data

By the way, this will work with an over involved CEO as well.

These are a few ideas to help in working with the CEO or other business leader who generally has budget control and therefore control over your Website.

Add comment March 15th, 2006

How annoying can it be to take your money?

If I wasn’t desperate to get online at Starbucks today, T-Mobile would’ve most certainly lost a sale. I guess if you have customers who really, really, really, really need your product, then you don’t need to build usability into your shopping cart.

While it was easy to find a “day pass” to get online at Starbucks, actually paying took forever! Everytime there was an error in the form, all credit card information and security information had to be retyped “for security reasons.” First, there was a problem with my not reading the fine print on the number of characters needed in the username. Retype all my information. I’ll take the blame on this one. Second, someone had already used the name I chose. Retype all my information. Third, don’t use the same username as password (ok, that was a dumb try on my part, but I was trying to take the easy way out….not). Retype all my information. Fourth, someone had already used the name I chose again (I did not think lisalisa would be that popular…). Retype all my information.

The moral of the story…don’t make your users WORK to pay you. Most of them are not as desperate as me.

Add comment March 9th, 2006

The importance of usability to your retail sales

The Colorado Springs Gazette (Sunday, March 5, 2006) recently reported that “efficiency [is] essential to e-shopping.” This is nothing new to us at Intuitive Websites, since our mantra has always been to get inside the head of the user. It just provides more evidence that the truth is with the user.

A poll of 775 consumers by Allurent, Inc. shows that 82 percent would be less likely to return to a site where they had a frustrating experience. Thirty-three percent say they may not shop at the company’s brick and mortar store after a bad online experience. “And 55% of consumers surveyed said that a frustrating shopping experience online negatively impacts their overall opinion of that retailer.”

In addition to issues with high shipping costs, pricing, and inventory problems, other issues that led to negative online shopping experiences included:
-poor site navigation
-problems with checkout
-inadequate browsing capabilities
-not enough product details to close the sale

And, 51% said they abandoned their shopping cart because the checkout process was too lengthy.

Lisa

Add comment March 6th, 2006

Interesting Stats

Fast Company magazine did an interesting spread of technology statistics in their March 2006 issue. According to Forrester Research, by 2010, 85% of US households will have a cell phone, 53% will own a laptop, 37% will use a digital recorder and 35% an MP3 player.

And, comScore Media Metrix (November 2005) found that Americans spend 80 minutes online each day with the following activities:

-25.5 minutes on portals
-24.5 minutes on email
-13.6 minutes on retail
-9.8 minutes on community
-9.6 minutes on entertainment
-8.0 minutes on finance
-6.1 minutes on directories
-6.0 minutes on news
-4.8 minutes on technology
-3.5 minutes on search

So, what does this mean for your Website and Internet Marketing? How can you offer content that can be downloaded to cells and iPods? Can you better reach your customers via email or through portals? What opportunities do you have for retail on your Website? Keep watching online trends and don’t be afraid to adjust your Web strategy based on the new frontier!

Personally, I think the community stats will increase with the Echo/Gen Y generation coming on strong. Sites like MySpace are seeing huge traffic from the younger set. How will this impact your online marketing efforts? Likely, online PR and viral marketing will grow as mediums to reach into these online communities.

Lisa

Add comment March 6th, 2006