Jeff's Online Marketing Thoughts

Your Web Site Doesn't Have To Be Flashy

I've talked previously about Flash and other rich media features on a Web site and how they can enhance your usability. An article by Josh Hay on results for a site after removing the flash got me thinking. Would you expect your grocery store to have flashing neon signs around the entrance and advertising the have strawberries on sale in a scrolling marquee around their entire store? Would you shop there? I know I wouldn't. It would just seem like they are trying to hard, or they charge too much to afford all those useless extras. It is the same thing that can happen with Flash and rich media. I'm all for effective use of any tool that enhances your users experience, but you have to be smart and make sure it doesn't turn users off. Does it work on your site or is it over done? The results in the study weren't that surprising to me, in fact I think this tends to often be the case. Many see the rich media on a site and think they are trying to hard, are over-priced or it is just distracting and leave. First impressions are made in seconds these days, or quicker. A good way is to study the data on different design elements and see what performs better.

Customers Before Search Engines

Search Engine Watch had an interesting post by Eric Enge about PageRank Obsession. I have seen it myself with customers and co-workers that when talking about a sites SEO performance through out the PageRank as the number one cause of their not ranking well, when it is usually lack of fresh, keyword rich content that is the major cause that I see. It isn't surprising, when you have easily identifiable statistics, as Eric states, "We all want to measure the progress of our site(s) in as many ways as we can." People are very competitive by nature, not at all things but at those things that are important to them they are. If someone is in charge of a Web site you can bet they are competitive and measure anything they can.

However, at the end of the day, search engine ranking doesn't matter, it is your site and your customer's experience that matters. All the numbers and metrics don't mean a thing if your customers aren't engaged and convert. I've seen some very search engine friendly sites that are not customer friendly, and I've seen some very engaging sites that search engines hate. Find the balance that works for you and measure the things that are truly important. It is the same thing I tell customers about Web Analytics. I see so many measuring hits, visits and page views, when they don't mean anything to you if you are selling something. If your focus is eCommerce then you need to be worried about getting customers to buy and come back to buy again in the future. More traffic often just means higher hosting costs and other performance problems. It is great exposure, but if nobody buys what does that traffic get you?

I agree with Eric, focus on your customers, they should come first in everything that you do.

4 Seconds To Make A First Impression

There is a great article on eMarketer.com that everyone should look at about Web characteristics that annoy users most. It is a great look at things not to do on your Web site, like pop-up ads, dead links and ineffective site search. The most interesting thing is how people's attention spans are getting shorter. If a page takes longer than 4 seconds to load, they are gone. That isn't a lot of time to dynamically generate all the interesting and targeted messages you want to create. It also speaks to people having shorter attention spans, which leads to the importance of good site search, clean navigation and a usable/pleasing design. First impressions are hard to change, and on the Internet, if you don't capture it first thing, they will never come back.

Target Lawsuit Allowed To Continue

A few months ago I did a post about Web site accessibility and how relevant it needs to be because of a lawsuit filed by The National Federation of the Blind against Target, because they say it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act.

In the latest news on this story, a judge recently denied the dismissal request by Target who claimed their Web site (Target.com) is not "a place of public accommodation."

This case is worth watching because of the precedent it is going to set even if Target wins. The expectation is being set that if you sell online your site has to be available to all. Plus it just makes good business sense to keep your audience as wide as possible. The other benefit, most Section 508 standards also help with your Search Engine Rankings.

Help Your Customers

I was talking with a friend recently that told me about a great experience she had shopping on the Internet and a horrible experience she had. Analyzing the difference brought one key factor, the good site helped her, the bad one didn't. The good one, Nordstrom.com, gave an option for live help. After not finding what she was looking for she opened up the chat window and within minutes had an answer to her question, and this was on Saturday.

How do your customers interact with your Web site and your company? What are they looking for? We have had success at our company offering Live Chat on behalf of our customers, it is a great way for people to get an answer without calling someone, especially nice if your customer base is still on dial-up. Another idea would be to have a separate 800 number on your Web site so you can track and direct the questions better. Before that, make sure the 800 number is clearly visible.

Many people develop Web sites with their organization in mind, streamlining communication, automating ordering process, etc. These are great benefits but it has to be with the customer in mind first. All of the best technology is worthless if it doesn't help the customer.

How about you, what are your best or worst customer experiences shopping online? Please leave a comment for others to learn what consumers like and don't like about sites they have shopped.

Rich Media Sites Popularity Growing

I've talked about the future of Internet sites moving to Rich Media and we are seeing that with more sites adding interactive elements in Flash. Even if it means sacrificing some from a search engine standpoint. Internet Retailer had an article about JupiterWells.com being designed for customers, not search engine spiders. The reason, they felt that it was a better way for their customers to shop their site. When you look at the JupiterWells.com the experience is very engaging. This is the future of shopping online and as you can see it isn't far off. For another example you can see what Cambria is doing with their design studio for their users to select the color for their new Cambria counter-top.

Web Analytics vs. Usability Studies

I had an interesting discussion with my co-worker Amy the other day about a Web site that our company created. We just got out of a strategy meeting discussing the next steps for the site and we were having a friendly debate about what was more important in understanding what needs to be fixed on your site; the data coming from your Web analytics or the results of a usability study. They are both important tools to consider, however I do think there are practical applications for both.

Web analytics can tell you a lot about what people are doing on your site, where are they going, what are they clicking on, etc. I've certainly talked a lot about what you can gain from Web analytics. Amy's argument though was that you don't know why someone decided to leave your site, it could be the interface, could be the message, could be the products, you just don't know. This is true but you can look at what are your biggest problem areas are, make changes and measure the results. Then you will know what worked. The excellent point that Amy brought up is that it can take a long time to make those small modifications, by the time you get that figured out your opportunity is probably lost.

The cases when I believe a usability study is useful is launching a brand new site. How do you know what your customers want to see by measuring after it is launched? You don't. The other main instance this is advisable is if you want to take your site in an entirely new direction or branch into different areas. Finding out from customers directly is the best way to know before you shoot yourself in the foot.

At the end of the day, both usability studies and Web analytics are tools that you should know are available. Costs and time to do a usability study are one factor to consider, but your Web analytics still need to be reviewed by someone. I think both are useful, but in the end I would trust data of all of my users over what information I'm given from a handful of customers I bring in and watch.

This does bring up an important feature that should be on every Web site, and that is a prominent way for your customers to leave comments or send you feedback. Customers are as willing as ever to help companies succeed, it is a strange phenomenon but you might as well use it. People will tell you what needs to be improved if you ask them.

10 simple ideas to improve your Web site

I just read Seth Godin's book The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better. It is a little outdated (published in 2001) but the information is still very relevant today. If you want to know more about the simple things that make a Web site work this is a quick read that you can refer back to from time to time.

Here are the top 10 things that I picked out of the book that you should always keep in mind:

1. Pick 1 thing – make a decision about what your core purpose is for your site and make it very clear and very obvious to your user.
2. If you have multiple goals, first see #1, then make your site deliver a different page with an obvious message for each specific goal. For example new visitors versus returning customers.
3. Keep forms simple – do not make your visitors have to go through a painful process just to ensure you get all the data you want. Keep the focus on making it easy for your user, not easy for you.
4. Never show “No results found” for your site search. If you don’t have what they are looking for help them as much as you can, show them your best selling products, something, anything rather than, “No results found.”
5. Errors will happen, make sure the page you show is clean and as helpful as possible.
6. The Web is not the same as a direct mail catalog. They are two different mediums and require two different approaches.
7. Take your thank you page to the next level and offer/sell them something. Someone that has just committed to you is ideal for getting more from.
8. Do not require anything from your users just to shop/browse your site.
9. When you collect an email address for a user treat it right. Only send them messages for things they have asked to receive.
10. Make it easy for users to spread ideas/products from your site to others.

The biggest concept that stood out throughout the book was the fact that you need to test and measure ideas. What works for one does not mean it will work for you. Each site is unique, the only way to know what works is to measure and prove.

If you are interested in more, two other top books in the area of Web design are Steve Krug's Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability (2nd Edition) and Jakob Nielson's Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity

So you want to raise your conversion rate

There was an interesting article in Internet Retailer about things that influence conversion in the past and what to think about today. I started thinking about this and consider it more of a stepped process on what you need to fix.

Step 1 is about the design and usability of the site. This is where you get into a lot of A/B testing with analytics review to see what works and what doesn't on your site. In the article it made it sound like that doesn't work anymore. It isn't that it doesn't work, it is that most companies have implemented the changes needed to raise the conversion rate as much as they can from those types of changes. The first place you need to start is tuning the usability of your site before you move on to the next step.

Step 2 that the article talked about was right, start targeting segments and think more about how different groups will want to shop your site. For each of those segments present choices and information that fits the persona they fall into.

Step 3 is what I think the future is going towards with a sort of the inmates running the asylum mentality. With the growth of sites like digg, flikr and YouTube the "Social Networking" side of the Web is becoming more prominent. Amazon for years has had a flavor of this where you can rate a product then others review to determine if they want to buy it. There seems to be a link with the top ideas or Web sites out there and the ability for people to share, comment and interact with the Web site.

You need to know who your customers are and how they want your site to be. Customers like to buy from companies they feel respect and listen to them. How are you capturing feedback from your customers today? What is your process to review the feedback? How do you implement the changes they are asking for that make sense for the majority of your customers? If you don't have a plan for this today, I would recommend starting something like it because your customers are the key. If you listen to them, they will tell you how to grow your business.

With Adobe Flex, create sites people will love to shop

Adobe has taken their Flash product to the next level with Flex. You will need Flash 9 player to view their sample store application but it is well worth your time. With around 70% of all households having broadband Internet access, it is inevitable that sites like this will soon become the norm. A store like this greatly increases the usability of a site and more closely represents the concept of shopping as it is in real life rather than how it is today on the Web. Flex can seemlessly take a user from browsing, to analyzing, to comparing, to adding items to their shopping cart, all without having to refresh the screen. To be able to shop without having to wait for the screen to refresh every time it goes back to the server would be one of the biggest leaps forward from a usability standpoint in the history of the Web. This isn't new technology but it also isn't common. There are many sites using AJAX components (Google Maps is an AJAX application), however you will see more sites like the example that Adobe has put together, probably in time for your Christmas shopping this year.