Think MAIL |
| Thinking
Internet Management Newsletter: Issue 2.6 |
| Date Issued:
24 October,
2000 |
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
1.0 New Economy Thinking
1.1 Integration vs Focus
1.2 Welcome to the non-linear world
2.0 Marketing
2.1 A brand’s value increases online
2.2 Monday night’s shopping night
2.3 Olympic Record – 683 million hits
3.0 Email Marketing
3.1 Acquire their permission and you acquire their business
4.0 Risk Management
4.1 Are you still getting left behind?
4.2 70% of lost customers are unsalvageable
5.0 Search Results
5.1 Search Engines continue to be first stop
5.2 What the “#$%??” is that?
6.0 Style
6.1 The power of a well recognised style
1. New Economy Thinking
1.1 Integration vs Focus
ANZ is one of a list of large corporates who have decided to go against the
idea of “integration is best” and “all under one roof.”
General Motors and GEC, two of the world’s largest companies are others.
ANZ has recently created 21 Services Groups who will all work independently
of each other. It’s the realization of many that large integrated entities
normally have over-featured, broad-focused offerings, while the opposition
and new start-ups are offering highly focused products.
At today’s internet pace, an organisation has to be flexible and able to
shift direction quickly. This can only be achieved in flat, self contained
corporate structures.
It could be that the large monolith which so dramatically dominated the old
economy landscape is a thing of the past. New economy corporations breed
highly focused siblings who scour the terrain for opportunity and then have
the power to act quickly.
1.2 Welcome to the Non-Linear World.
One of the greatest changes in the new economy is the lack of linearity.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, in an economy far, far away, life was
linear. You started at the bottom and worked your way up, earning more,
buying a better house, faster car, dining at fancier restaurants and the
longer you stayed at a firm or managed a business, the better your
credentials. These days, you may rise to the dizzy heights, then come down
and start all over again.
There are a couple of major New Economy examples. One is Marc Andreessen who
created Mosaic and Netscape which allowed us to view the internet like never
before. Netscape today is a shadow of its former dominant self, yet Marc
seems to be successfully pursuing a new business venture.
The other example is Steve Jobs who after starting Apple Computer, fell into
obscurity with NEXT and is now once again making Apple a high profile,
profitable company.
The quaint ritual of the “gold watch” that followed 25 years service to
a company will never again be seen as a prize. In fact, we’ll move from
job to job, even work for multiple employees at once.
And you’ll be measured by both your failures and successes.
Being prepared means more than just having a website. Get a further
understanding of the requirements and make sure your company is moving in
the right direction, contact newthinking@thinking.com.au.
2. Marketing
2.1 A brand’s value increases online
We all know the value of a brand with a defined and well-focused image. A
few years ago, Al Ries revealed the importance of a defined brand in his
book, “Focus”. He even showed demonstrable dollar value of a brand and
how it drops dramatically when you lose focus.
This is even more pronounced on the internet. If you’re thirsty, you can
almost guarantee that one of the first images you’ll see is a coke sign
(whether its on a vending machine, in a store, or on a billboard).
This passing trade/influence is very rare online. The ultimate aim of
marketers is to own a concept or a word that can be immediately triggered by
a need. e.g: Yahoo! (search), Amazon (books), ebay (auctions).
At Thinking, we work with a number of associates to integrate online and
offline communications. To ensure you speak with one voice and a strong
focus, contact marketing@thinking.com.au.
2.2 Monday night’s shopping night
In the states, it’s Monday night football. In Australia, we prefer it on a
Friday night. The major shopping day used to be Saturday. Sunday used to be
the roast and potatoes with the family.
Shopping has changed and the internet has created its own shopping days.
Which are the best days to be prepared for if you are an internet etailer?
Here’s the days of the week and how much money was spent online during the
first quarter of 2000.
Sunday 12%
Monday 17%
Tuesday 15%
Wednesday 16%
Thursday 15%
Friday 14%
Saturday 11%
Looks like people prefer shopping early in the week, getting it over and
done with and then hopefully enjoying their purchases on the weekend.
2.3 Olympic Record – 683 million hits in one day
A lot of Olympic Records were broken this year. One of the most outstanding
was the number of hits in one day.
On 18 September, 2000 the official Olympic website recorded 683 million
hits. And guess what, it didn’t fall over.
3. Email Marketing
3.1 Acquire their permission and you’ll acquire their business.
There are various names for it, permission emails, one-to-one marketing,
opt-in marketing etc. Whatever you call it, these email communities are
proving to be a source of loyal customers.
According to recent research, six out of ten buyers receive information from
their selected merchants via opt-in email marketing.
Seven out of 10 online buyers click through to a company’s website as a
result of receiving an email newsletter they subscribed to. This is
phenomenally more effective than banner ads for a fraction of the cost.
61% of online buyers have made an online purchase following an email
newsletter. Very few forms of advertising could ever come close to these
results.
Don’t underestimate the power of email marketing. Begin your email
community now, contact emailmktg@thinking.com.au
4. Risk Management
4.1 Are you still getting left behind?
While there has been online growth worldwide, one of the fastest areas of
growth can be found here in Australia.
According to one figure we’ve seen, Internet penetration within Australia
is 45% of the population, second only to the US with 58%.
Following quickly is Taiwan 35%, South Korea 34%, Japan 33%.
We’re at the heart of a growing internet region that could play an
important role in shaping the new economy.
Make sure you’re part of it. Ensure your company is geared for the new
economy; email risk@thinking.com.au.
4.2 70% of lost customers are unsalvageable
In a store, the reason you lose a customer can be due to a number of
reasons.
On the internet, there is just one reason – a bad experience.
Datamonitor estimates that shoddy customer service resulted in lost sales of
over $6 billion in 1999 alone.
They also estimate that for every successful transaction, almost four times
as many are abandoned; 70% of these are unsalvageable.
The frightening thing is that in most cases companies are not collecting or
monitoring these statistics that tell so much about customer behaviour.
Or, if they are receiving usage statistics, they are not experienced at
deciphering the numbers or their meanings.
One client had for many months received statistics that stated a number of
pages had broken links. Nothing was done until we pointed this out. Who
knows how many customers were lost.
If you don’t understand your internet customers, you may lose their
business – and yours. A large part of Thinking’s business is Audience
Analysis. For more information, contact risk@thinking.com.au.
5. Search Results
5.1 Search Engines continue to be first stop
If property is about location, location, location, then a large part of
internet marketing is position, position, position.
In a recent study, 66% of online marketers mentioned search engine
positioning as a way to drive traffic to their websites.
And why not, search engines play a significant role in finding websites.
Forrester research asked internet consumers how they found websites, 81%
mentioned search engines. 59% said links from another site and 56% said word
of mouth.
In a similar study by Real Names, they found that 50% of web users spend
over 70% of their time online searching. If frustrated many will go to
another search engine, but only 20% actually give up.
If you can’t be found here, it’s hard to be found at all.
Thinking has a specialised arm dedicated to search engine optimisation. It’s
called Search Squad. For more information contact search@thinking.com.au.
5.2 What the “#$%??” is that?
Search engines are very basic animals. They like things simple and
understandable. They don’t care about your logo or how cool your site
looks or that you’ve found a use for #FFCC66 that no one has ever thought
of before.
More to the point they find technologies such as Flash problematic. They
particularly dislike complicated database driven sites that throw up URLS
with long, long strings of numbers and such symbols as “#$%??”.
There are a number of tricks we have learnt that we’ve used to help our
clients to get around these problems and get listed in search engines. One
trick is to have a healthy mix of technologies and good content to appeal to
both search engine spiders and human editors.
You know why people are interested in your products. We specialise in making
sure people find you. Make sure your site is not coming between you and a
good listing, contact search@thinking.com.au.
6. Style
6.1 The power of a well recognised style.
Imagine coming home and all the furniture had been re-arranged, the kitchen
was now the bathroom and there’s a carport where your bedroom used to be.
You’d feel uncomfortable, like you didn’t belong.
There are simple rules that you should know which have developed into a
recognised style on how people use the internet.
Make it hard for your customers and you’re making it easy for them to
leave and never return.
As was put so well in a recent email newsletter article: “Breaking (these
rules) is not really the sign of an artist, but rather an amateur. Remember
classic novels are not classics because every second page has a different
colour and font, but rather because of the power of the words.”
According to NUA, these are the most recognised rules by internet users:
Never use underline in body text as a reader will think it’s a link.
Avoid using bold within the body of the text for the same reason.
Avoid using italics as it is difficult to read on a screen.
When dealing with more than a couple of paragraphs, use 10-point font as
anything less will make the text difficult to read.
The font style that works best on the Web is sans serif, as it looks sharper
on the screen and is therefore easier to read.
If you’re laying out a summary of a document on a homepage, make the
heading of the summary a link, as the reader expects it to be so.
If the body text is in a 10-point font, then the heading should be 14 point.
If there is an image as part of this summary, then the image should also
link to the document.
On a homepage, you may go down to 8 point for the body text as this will let
you get more in. In this case, the heading size should be 10 point.
If the document is longer than 10 paragraphs, a table of contents should be
placed below the heading. The table should be generated from subheadings
found in the main body of the document.
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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