Interstates & Highways

What is the difference between Interstates and highways? Interstates are designed to [in theory at least] move people from place to another as directly & quickly as possible. They avoid cities & towns to allow a traveler to quickly get from point "A" to point "B". Developed in the 1960's, they are the travel route "of choice" for most drivers traveling the country.

Highways, on the other hand, come from a different era...a time when travel was less of a "sure thing". When I was young [yes...it was a long time ago], travel by car had the potential for breakdowns and the need to service your car. For example, on one family trip we traveled to Arizona by car & blew out 4 tires over the course of the trip! Because automotive travel was not a "sure thing" & cars overheated, broke down, or had problems, travel required drivers to "sprint" from one town to the next. As a result, highways are built to seek out towns & cities as "way points" between point "A" and "B". They leisurely move through the countryside ... slowing for every town on the way ... so you can stop to eat, maintenance your car, and just see the sights along the way.

By Interstate, the destination is the key ... by highway, the journey is the experience.

What does this mean in a web world?

When originally developed, most websites were built on a "highway" philosophy. We were looked at as surfers who were visiting companies to see what they offered. Web developers talked in terms of home pages, sticky sites, and assumed people were visiting to "see the sights along the way" as they attempted to find the items they wanted.

Look at most site maps. They start with a single home page with the assumption that one message - one position is right for every possible visitor coming to the site. They then have a deep structure of product, services, about us, and other places to visit as you cruise their company highway. The assumption is you will take the time to leisurely move through layer after layer of information and visit lots of pages to find what you need.

While this worked in a highway world...consumers & businesses are moving at Interstate speeds.

Today, people want websites which quickly get them the information they want. This means they expect the company to structure their web experience to quickly get them where they need to go. How quickly, in our research, we have found people seldom want a web experience to be longer than three pages. Page one positions the company and shows its expertise, page two can present products or tools to determine what they want. Page three shows details and starts the order.

If you agree with this approach, ask yourself the following questions:

1. Does your website force most of the people to visit a home page first?
2. Does your PPC [pay per click] and SEO [search engine optimization] strategy also focus on the home page?
   
3. Are all of your search terms the same for all pages?
   
4. Do you drive all PPC searches to one page?
5. Can you identify unique markets or communities who visit their site?
6. Do these communities have different needs or purchase patterns?
7. Can a web visitor identify their community of interest and can you move them to a unique page developed just for them?
8. Can you identify unique communities on search engines and PPC to drive them to these pages
9. Can you tailor your community landing pages to move from information to order in three steps?
10. Does this make sense to you?

As consumers - both B-2-B and B-2-C - time is our most precious commodity. Today, we want to visit sites which know our specific needs & quickly produce the information & products which meet our needs.

In considering your website and marketing programs, think Interstate not highways.

The Surfing Myth & Its Impact on Web Design

When we discuss prospects moving on the web, we often use the term "surfing the web". However, when you hear that term, what comes to mind? For many people, surfing conjures up an image of a person moving effortlessly across a wave. As they surf, they move from one portion of the same wave to another. While this is an interesting image, is it really a useful metaphor for the behaviors prospects use as they attempt to find a company with the products and services to meet their needs?

For most companies, the answer to this question can be found by analyzing your web logs. Companies with a traditional, home page structured website will find that most visitors will visit one to three pages on the site and, if they don't find what they are looking for, they will leave your site to return to their search results for another site. In other words, they will not be surfing seamlessly through your site but hit your site, "bob down" to a couple of pages to see if you have the "right stuff" to meet their needs, and then will abandon your site to find a more suitable partner to meet their needs.

If this analogy reflects the types of cruising patterns you see on your site, there are several web and marketing items you need to consider. They are:

1. If an average web visitor will only stay on your site long enough to "bob" to three pages, how can you make every visitor find that they need in three pages or less? At MSI, we have found it is possible to accomplish this objective if you remove the home page from most visitor cruising patterns. How? By identifying the unique communities that frequent your site and building mini-sites which start with a landing page tailored to the community interests. If this becomes the first page they see, then page 2 is for a specific product and page 3 is to complete the order. Three steps. Look at your site and see if this three "bob" rule occurs and, if it does, you need to find a way to make the "trip" three steps or less.
2. How can you get communities to a mini-site? To shorten the trip, we have found using your PPC and organic search terms to go directly to a community page works effectively. In addition, you PR and new product announcements and other market media must also move the individual directly to the mini-site most suited to their needs. In doing so, you will see an improvement in final results with longer but still three step cruising patterns.
3. What about visitors that find you directly? The key is to quickly inform them about your mini-sites and encourage them to move to the one which best meets their needs. If you do so, you will find they are more attracted to your company.
   

The key is to show a visitor you understand their needs and wants within their community and have the information, products, tools, & services tailored to address their needs. By understanding the communities, you can turn bobbers into short term surfers culminating with the purchase page on your site. Think about it, look at your web logs, and - if you see this pattern - consider developing community mini-sites. If you want, we can help.

Target Markets versus Communities

I was trained to be a target marketer. When I started in business, the internet did not exist and the primary way we grew market share was through direct marketing. Direct marketing involved "pushing" a message to a target market using a marketing channel like direct mail, telemarketing, magazine advertising, etc. When done right, this type of marketing attracted some members of the target market to respond to our offer thus allowing us to analyze who responded and who didn't to improve future marketing campaigns.

From a marketing perspective, the key to success was our ability to identify a target market. To do this, a direct marketer has several "tools" they could use to develop a likely target market for any B-2-C or B-2-B offer. The tools were:

• Behavioral data - In a push marketing campaign, direct marketers generally look for list which are likely to hold the same type of prospects they will want for their effort. For example, womens fashion catalogs often swap their lists because they know if a woman purchases from catalog "A" they have all of the desirable behaviors to purchase from catalog "B". What are these desirable behaviors? Direct marketers use the term RFM & P to define them. They are:
• R - Recency A person who recently purchased from catalog "A" they will be "in the market" and likely to consider other similar offers. This is why you frequently receive a number of offers from companies shortly after you purchase from one. Because you are a recent purchaser, they know you will be more likely to read & purchase from another company ... as opposed to an individual with less recency.
• F - Frequency If you are a multi-time purchaser, you are more likely to purchase again for a similar product.
  
• M - Monetary value - If you have purchased in high dollar amounts you are likely to be better than another individual who purchases in less dollar amounts.
• P - Product If you purchased a product which is like mine, you are more likely to purchase from me. This means a womens catalog purchaser is better for another womens catalog compared to a mens catalog
  

• Demographic - In addition to RFM-P variables, direct marketers also used demographic data which described the household and its members. Important variables include age of the head of household, age of both adults by gender, number of children, age of oldest child, income of the household, geographic region, types of autos owned, etc. They describe the household.

Which brings us to another topic. My wife - the bowler. My wife is a member of a bowling league here in Naperville, IL. If you were a direct marketer who had a bowling magazine or bowling catalog, would you target my wife. Let's look at the "facts"


If you consider RFM-P let's see how she looks.

• She is a bowler so she has the "P" covered.
  
• She has just started her current bowling league season so her recency is strong. She has just exhibited a desired behavior - she is bowling - and she is doing it now!
• If you look at her history, she has bowled in this league over the past 7 years and, of the 4 bowling seasons each year, the league bowls during 3 of them. So from a "F" perspective, she is extremely strong.
• From a "M" monetary perspective, she spends a fair amount on bowling with league and lane fees, lunches after each weekly match, travel, etc. She has her own ball, bag, shoes, and other required accessories.

From a demographic perspective, she is female, in her 40s, in one of the highest wealth areas in the country, upscale SUV [hybrid], family with children of college & high school age. Everything is right for a bowler who could purchase your bowling magazine and pay for the subscription.

HOWEVER, you would be wrong in targeting her.

From a direct marketing perspective, my wife is the ideal target for a bowling product but the picture is incomplete. My wife is a terrible bowler. She rarely exceeds 100 and her team has found that the best prizes are given to the first place team - which they will never become - and the last place team [which they can easily win]. But they don't place last because they simply want to be bad. They do it for another ... much more important ... reason.

She doesn't bowl because she loves bowling...she does it to be in the "loop" on gossip on the Naperville / Lisle communities. The bowling league contains all of the "whos who" of our area and, if you want to find out what is happening in area politics, social groups, school districts, etc, you need to be in the league. This is where the information is distributed throughout the community and where key issues are discussed and action plans evaluated. It is the hub of our local neighborhood social structure.

My wife bowls poorly because, if you are wasting time aiming your bowling ball, you might miss something. She and her team often just grab a ball, roll it, and quickly return to the discussion. If they do it quickly enough, they don't miss anything.

Target Markets versus Communities

The difference between target markets and communities is that target market describe a household based on descriptive elements as well as recently completed behaviors. It is always looking back in terms of behaviors and looking at broad demographic data. Even the most exacting demographic / behavioral data is never really describing any one household but a collection of thousands of households.

Communities are different. The community my wife belongs to is not a bowling community but a "gossip" community. Her bowling is defined by the other activities which attract her ... not the bowling activity. It is just an "excuse" to meet each week with other women to discuss key issues. Essentially, the bowling league in Naperville is a far better marketplace for local politicians than it would be for bowling vendors. Essentially, if you want anything done within Naperville / Lisle, you need one or more groups of people within the bowling league to support your endeavor. It is that powerful a group and that cohesive of a community. That is why it has existed for so long and is so strong.

The key is that communities are defined by the members and are self-forming and self-regulating. Each season, the women reform their community and simply "pick up" where they left off. The key is they know the bowling league is not for bowling but to exchange information important to the community. They would tell you that if you asked them about the league. They know ... and will tell you if you asked them.

Target markets, on the other hand, are defined by marketers using past behaviors and descriptive data to predict future purchases. It does not really know or consider the attitudes and exact needs of any individual.

While we exist in target markets, knowing our community involvement and understanding the community is a much more powerful tool for marketers. In future blogs, I will give you some specific actions you can take to both identify communities and determine how to ID them when they visit your website.