Thinking Australia’s Internet Management Newsletter takes a look at issues that go beyond the web page. If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe see the instructions at the end of the important information that follows.

IN THIS ISSUE
1. Thinking Headlines
2. Online Brand Protection
  2.1 Is your brand ripe for hijacking?
  2.2 Understanding how customers are using the web.
3. Traffic Building
  3.1 Reach & Frequency online.
4. Audiences Management
  4.1 Capture your audience.
5. Brand Experiences
  5.1 WaitLoss Program.

1. Thinking Headlines
1.1 Thinking appointed by Air international, an Australian tier-one supplier to the automotive industry, whose aim is to become a global player.

1.2 Thinking appointed by Falls Creek Ski Lifts Pty Ltd. Around 27% of people visiting the site subscribed to the newsletter.

1.3 Australian Dairy Corporation and Australian Dairy Industry Council appoints Thinking to help align their web presence with corporate needs.

 
2. Internet brand protection.
2.1 Is your brand ripe for hijacking?
In a shopping mall, Myer wouldn't expect a retail store called Myers next door selling similar merchandise. What about on the internet? Best Buys in the US is a large retailer who has an established franchise built and protected over a number of years. However, online, you'll find bestbuys.com, best-buys.com, bestbuy.com. All sell similar merchandise. Two are internet only retailers. Can you tell which is the real world brand that has spent a lot of money establishing a brand only to see it hijacked? The lesson from this is to do a search on all probable uses of your name and to protect your brand, register them all or hope someone doesn't come along and see your brand as a good buy.

2.2 How customers are using the internet.
One of the most important lessons of internet use is to understand why people are accessing it. A recent study by Cahners Business Research produced the following figures: 79% said they access websites to learn general capabilities; 74% to obtain detailed product specs; 71% to review suppliers full product lines and enhance product knowledge; 62% to request product literature; 52% to download material; 42% to obtain pricing information; 36% to determine product availability; 26% to obtain service information; 21% to communicate with reps; and only 6% use it to place orders. These figures show that people are not browsing, they are seriously hunting for information. The internet is a seek and evaluation medium. It is one of the most efficient ways of accessing information. As an example, last year 50% of all new cars purchased, were researched on the internet. If you were searching for allergy issues relating to milk vs soy, it may take a while and quite a number of phone calls in the physical world, but on the internet it’s simply a couple of requests in the major search engines. It's why banner ads are falling in cost and not producing the click-through rates first expected. When you seek, you don't want to be disturbed by other information. If you're in a retail outlet looking for a jacket, do you pay much attention to the sales assistant selling shoes?

3. Traffic Building
3.1 Reach and Frequency on the Internet.
As many of our clients have found, an internet presence doesn't automatically lead to an internet audience. In a seek medium you have to be located in the sites people use to seek. Where are these? Again Forrester Research points the way. In 57% of cases, people found websites through search engines. Advertising, through TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, mail and banner ads, all together only added up to 59% Search engines such as Yahoo and Altavista are the most efficient in both speed and cost as the place to be found. If you don't appear here, then your reach and presence is practically invisible. You may have already tried this exercise where you looked up the name of your company in one of the search engines and found that it appeared somewhere in the top ten. Congratulations. But if the internet is a seek and evaluation medium and you're evaluating a category then you may search for car insurance before you search for racv.com.au. You may search for holiday or travel before you go to ansett.com.au. What happens to your internet brand then?
Are you still visible?

4. Audience Management
4.1 Capture your Audience
Estee Lauder is a $3.7 billion cosmetics company. It was sceptical about the internet as it thought women would want to sample, smell, touch and feel cosmetic products. However, it ventured forth with a trial. In its first year it achieved $30 million in sales. More importantly, part of its strategy was to capture an audience. Estee Lauder has 350,000 registered users with whom the company has a continual communication through email.
This is an interested audience that can be used to trial the value of new products, get feedback, offer web specials and various promotions at retail outlets and more. It's an audience that through constant contact will be responsible for greater sales than the $30 million mentioned above. eCommerce is not simply about the amount of money you drive through the site, but also how you maintain a loyal customer base that drives sales in the real world as well.
Email is the most cost efficient and cost effective means of communication. Recently, Thinking completed an exercise for a client. It was costing them over $200,000 to direct mail a newsletter 4 times a year to their 60,000 members. The main portion of the cost was in printing costs. Extra members made costs soar. By taking this online through email, we showed how they could save up to 67% of costs. In addition, they were able to go from speaking to their members four times a year to 12 times a year. And an extra 100,000 members would only increase costs by about $10,000. In other words, the could go from 270,000 pieces of communication to 1.2 million for around half the cost.
Why email? People ask to receive what you offer. Success from a Direct Mail shot is about a 3% response. In contrast, email is achieving 11-12% response rates. The reason is that you choose to receive email because you're interested in the subject. And importantly, you can choose to stop receiving it at any time. Email is the internet's main source of communications and traffic. Put it this way, it's very rare that you see a business card without an email address. And email lists are becoming very popular.
According to research conducted by Iconocast, only 6% of email users had never subscribed to an email list. Even more so, 54% reported having responded to an email ad with almost half of those who responded buying a product or service. Estee Lauder may go a long way online because they have that most valuable of marketing tools: an interested, committed audience.
Do you have an audience online?

5. Brand Experience
5.1 WaitLoss Program
This month, Thinking Australia launches a new service designed to speed up your web site and enhance your visitor experience.
It’s called Wait Loss.
The reason it exists is simple, but perhaps not obvious to everyone. According to an “eCommerce Trust Survey”, a site that has easy navigation and quick download times is more trustworthy than one that doesn’t.
I’m sure it has to do with being responsive, friendly, professional and ready when called. After all who isn’t frustrated by the sales assistant instore who continues talking to her friend on the telephone while you’re obviously looking for assistance?
The "Thinking Wait Loss Program" is more than just about fast downloads. It’s also about the amount of time it takes to get from anywhere on the internet to your site. And from there, to anywhere else on the site. We’ve noticed that in some cases this can take as much as 10 frustratingly slow clicks, not to mention a lot of unnecessary waiting for pages to download.

Three clicks of separation.
Our feeling is that no section of your site should be more than 2-3 clicks away from any other section of your site. Thinking’s WaitLoss Program is designed to look at various design and navigation features to speed communication: It’s function is to streamline the flow of important information between customer and company by:
- Reducing download times by looking at page sizes and graphics
- Reducing unnecessary pages (splash screens, Intermediate pages,)
- Reducing clicks: which is usually the result of poor navigation.
- Reducing code (many pages are code-heavy so that they can be compliant with all browsers. Their file size is making these pages in compliant with most users.)

Find the Meat:
Wait Loss is also designed to uncover the main reasons why customers are coming to your site (the meat). The task is then to bring this to the fore where it can be easily found. Whether it be a store locator or an Annual Report that is being searched for by stockholders. Why Wait Loss is important. It’s not Thinking telling you it’s a good idea. Your customers are telling you. In the Cahners Business Research results mentioned above, the main reason why websites are accessed are: To learn general capabilities 79%; To obtain detailed product specs 74%; To review suppliers full product lines and basic product knowledge rated 71%. Obviously, these people are not “browsing”, they’re actively seeking. And when you actively seek, you don’t like to be sitting around waiting. It means you’re being inactive. You’d be horrified if you discovered that your customers and potential customers were being kept waiting and experiencing a negative interface with your company. That may well be happening in the medium that is being used to evaluate your company and products. A customer wouldn't expect to wait long in a store. What about your Online Showroom?
For more information on Thinking’s WaitLoss Program, email info@thinking.com.au

See you soon.

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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