Thinking’s Internet Management Newsletter takes a look at issues that affect audiences and audience behaviour on the internet.
 
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In this issue
 
1. Directions
1.1 New Directions
1.2 SEMINAR - Understanding the business issues for your e-future
1.3 Your customers are getting slower
 
2. Risk Management
2.1 Prime Minister Blair is blunt
 
3. New Economy Thinking
3.1 The shift in customer relationships
 
4. Audience Behaviour
4.1 What brings customers back
 
5. Search Results
5.1 One billion and counting
5.2 You can’t beat it
 
6. Email Marketing
6.1 Email marketing guidelines
6.2 Email and word of mouth

 
1. Directions
1.1 New Directions
Let’s start with an apology for the tardiness of this newsletter. It’s not that we’ve been sitting on our hands, it’s just that we’ve been running faster than usual.
 
Over the last month, Thinking has been appointed to undertake major projects for BHP, Repco Australia and IBISWorld.com. At the same time, we’ve been progressing with existing clients ANZ, Falls Creek, Air International, Stottsonline and more.
 
In fact, the amount of bodies in the office has doubled in a very short time. So, excuse us while we squeeze in front of our keyboards for a Thinking newsletter.
 
This issue, there are a lot of interesting matters to report.
 
  
1.2 SEMINAR - Understanding the business issues for your e-future
The sudden impact of the Internet is causing major problems for many corporates. Although organisations may have a web site they often don’t really know why or what it’s achieving for their business, and many are struggling to make the transition from the old economy to the new.
  
To address these needs, Thinking Internet Management has developed a series of business management seminars on how to work in the new economy.
  
Presented under the banner of Destination-e, the seminars provide specialists from multidisciplinary fields to assist companies to address it’s specific situation.
  
To date, Thinking Internet Management has helped BHP, ANZ, GE Capital, Air International, Falls Creek, StottsOnline.com and IBISWorld.com.
  
Normally run within a company, Destination-e is now going to be offered as a public seminar.
  
The first series of seminars will be held on June 1  from 4:00-6.00pm at the Sofitel, 25 Collins Street Melbourne. Tickets are $65.
  
For further details and bookings contact Lesley Haygarth at booking@destination-e.com
  
  
1.3 Your customers are getting slower
There has always been talk around how the internet will soon provide high speed connections and will allow greater interactivity and graphical complexity.
 
The truth is that the internet and your new customers will slow down before their connections speed up.
 
For example, witness the sudden increase in ISPs offering free internet connections. Go Connect, who is one, predicts it will be the third largest ISP, behind Telstra and Eisa, when they launch. Plus, there’s Free Online whom you may have noticed advertising very heavily. And I’m sure it won’t be too long before Telstra, Yahoo, Optus and others offer a similar service.
 
For some of those customers who have joined these free ISPs, part of their bandwidth will be taken up by advertising that is served up to their screens.
 
So, there is a cost to their savings. They have to wait a little longer than paying customers.
 
This is important to understand if your company deals directly with consumers. A large portion of them will be "Freebies". If you want them to receive your message, make sure it downloads quickly.
 
If you make your customers wait for content, then you may be waiting even longer for customers.
 
Speed up your communications today, email directions@thinking.com.au.
 
 
2. Risk Management
2.1 Prime Minister Blair is blunt
At the launch of a major program to incentivise business to take the internet seriously, British Prime Minister Tony Blair used the greatest incentive of all – survival.
 
He said: "To British business I deliver a pretty blunt message: if you don’t see the internet as an opportunity, it will be a threat. In two year’s time the internet could be as commonplace as the telephone. If you are not exploiting the opportunities of e-commerce you could go bankrupt."
 
Need a quick fix to be up and relevant on the internet? Email risk@thinking.com.au now.
 
 
3. New Economy Thinking
3.1 The shift in customer relationships (By Joe Di Stefano)
As a child I remember my parents both taking a day off work because they had been summoned by the bank manager.
 
I was also taken out of school for the day and went along as an interpreter. I was a lot happier about missing a day than they were.
 
My parents dressed in their Sunday best and nervously went to the appointment. The Manager came out and in a serious tone told my parents they were behind in their home loan repayments.
 
In truth, my parents were actually well ahead. The Bank had miscalculated. When this became abundantly clear, the Manager quickly rose out of his seat and briskly walked out of the room without a goodbye or an apology.
 
My parents, as most people would have been in those days, were relieved rather than angry, even though they had lost a day’s pay which they knew they couldn’t afford to do.
 
Once upon a time, you went to the bank, to the supermarket, to the supplier, to the business you’re dealing with …
 
This mode of operation has now been turned on its head. The businesses that will be successful are those that go out to their customers.
 
Notice the change in banks. It has been months since I have walked into one. If I need a loan, I can get them to come to me. When I need cash, there are now ATMs where I shop. (In many cases they’re not even attached to a bank.)
 
It’s not just banks. I don’t have to go to a Travel Agent to book a holiday. I don’t have to go to a Store to buy a whole range of items. The new media is changing this fundamental relationship between business and customer.
 
The businesses that make the experience as simple and as smooth as possible, and happen to be there when needed, will be successful.
 
Join our growing customer list and derive more from your new relationships in the new economy, info@thinking.com.au.
 
 
4. Audience Behaviour
4.1 What brings customers back
Recent research has shown that the top features that bring customers back to retail sites are:

• guaranteed transaction security 85%
• price discounts 79%
• free shipping 76%
• ease of finding items 69%

At the other end of the scale, the least important features are:

• the availability of other shopper’s opinions 14%
• the ability to personalise information 23%
• one-click shopping 30%

If this is the case, why are so many large portals trying to position themselves on "personalisation"? These are obviously secondary and even tertiary issues. On first visiting a site, the last thing I want is a personal relationship with someone I know nothing about.
 
It’s a bit like someone wanting to call you "mate" the first time you meet them. A personal relationship is something you build up to and on. For examples of this email audience@thinking.com.au.
 
 
5. Search Results
5.1 One billion and counting
In the early days of the web it was easier to locate sites; a search in Yahoo brought up a few hundred.
 
If you think of it as the universe, the internet has gone from a galaxy of planets to little short of the Milky Way. Recently, Inktomi announced there were over one billion pages on the internet. Try to find a topic and most search engines will return thousands upon thousands of links.
 
If you’re like most people, you’ll only look at the first listing. How does a business make it into this sacred ground which has so much value? How does a site stand out in this mass of html pages littered with meta data, trying to reach the top of the list?
 
Thinking employs a team of people whose main job is to achieve top ranking in search engines.
 
You can buy programs to help you. You can submit pages yourself to the top engines.
 
But unless you were doing it on a daily basis, how would you ever know that one of the best ways to help you into the top 10 could be through a couple of search engines – one located in Canada and another in Japan?
 
As the web doubles and triples those billion pages, these skills will come to the fore and prove even more important.
 
The internet is not about being there, it’s about being seen. If that is what you want email searchme@thinking.com.au
 
 
5.2 You can’t beat it
To further add importance to the above article, recent results have shown that search engine positioning is the most effective web site promotion technique.
 
66% of people mentioned it as their first choice when looking for information.
 
 
6. Email Marketing
6.1 Email marketing guidelines
There are certain expectations that internet users want from marketers. After all, an email is far more personal than a direct mail piece in your letterbox at home.
 
The Association for Interactive Media’s Council for Responsible Email has put together a series of Guidelines designed to protect and respect internet email users.
 
Many sites are already displaying and using many of these guidelines. If you’re about to perform any email campaign it’s worth taking note.
 
The Guidelines state that Marketers:
 
* Must not falsify the sender's domain name or use a nonresponsive IP address in their email marketing.
 
* Must not falsify the subject line to mislead readers.
 
* Must include an unsubscribe option in all messages.
 
* Must inform consumers how their email addresses will be used when the addresses are collected.
 
* Must not harvest email addresses with the intent to send spam without consumers' knowledge.
 
* Must not send bulk unsolicited commercial email to an email address without a prior business or personal relationship.
 
Email is one of the most effective ways to get through to customers. Use it wisely and it will repay you handsomely. Email marketing and communities is one of the areas that Thinking specialises in. To know more, email email@thinking.com.au.
 
 
6.2 Email and word of mouth
How are people finding your site? In recent research the results found that:

• 51% mentioned other sites as promoting a visit
• 30% mentioned word of mouth
• 19% cited offline media

Email is basically "word of mouth" communication. Its informal, casual approach works in the same way as "word of mouth". And it’s equally as effective.
 
An example of this is click through rates. In 1996, the average internet click through rate was 2.12%. By January 2000 this had dropped to 0.47%.
 
However, the click through rates on email have maintained their importance with 5-15% click throughs. There is a personal power in email.
 
When you join an email list or community, you have entrusted those people with your details and therefore you trust their opinion.
 
You give your name to people who have gained your trust and therefore place value on the information they provide.
 
With banner ads, they are an intrusion on your browsing time. There is no relationship development and therefore mainly have negatives attached to them.
 
Put more value into your marketing, write to email@thinking.com.au
 
 
 
THINK MAIL is Thinking Australia’s Internet Management Newsletter. It is compiled and written by Mark Bergin and Joe Di Stefano. For further information contact Thinking Australia.
 
Thinking’s mission is to help our clients establish, develop and maintain successful internet brands. We help them complete the transition from mere internet presence of their brand to the more important phase of internet - brand management which covers the management of their "voice", "experience" and "audience".
 
 
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