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Online retailers,
no matter what their industry, share one common denominator:
to sell products/services. However, consumers now have a 21st
century attitude to any sales pitch: they demand better customer
service and are certainly more selective about who they give
their business to. Online retailers cannot ignore this fact
and need to adapt quickly or see their customers move to competitors.
Driving Customers to your site
The first objective in customer acquisition
should be driving customers to your website. This can be done
in a number of ways (listed below) but one key element which
is overlooked on many sites is:
Update your website often (daily /weekly).
Keep the homepage looking fresh. You won’t be enticing
customers to view your store if it looks the same as the last
time they visited.
Word of mouth marketing – people
recommending their site to friends/family via conversation,
internet blogs, email etc.
Viral marketing
Driving people to the site via online
games. Regular internet and email users regularly receive
“Friday afternoon emails” which, whilst hidden
as work avoidance, also build brand awareness and do drive
traffic to the website.
Recently, The One
Account released a viral marketing game aimed at those
looking to re-mortgage. It is based on the old space invaders
game where the space ship is a house and the bullets are actually
smoke from the chimney.
Brand awareness
People visit a website in search of the
individual brand name i.e. Levis, Barclaycard, American Express
etc. Brand building exercises are driven by offline marketing
as well as online marketing. It is normal for a retailer to
have a multiple pronged marketing strategy involving both
online and offline marketing. But this falls flat –
and can harm a brand seriously – if the web site is
not easy to use and does not offer solutions, services and
products required.
Paid for search
Bidding on keywords with
search engines like Google.com so your adverts are only shown
to those people who are already looking for your products/services.
Sponsored Search Words – Google.com
Natural Search
Having a listing on the first or second
page of a natural search is a major objective of most online
retailers. Web surfers rarely go beyond the second or third
page preferring to refine their search and search again.
One of the ways in which websites are ranked is by how much
content their website has. The more ‘relevant content’
the site contains the better the chances it has of outperforming
competitors.
Natural Search Engine Results – Google.com
In financial services there are websites
known as ‘aggregators’ – a web based comparison
service where a consumer can research multiple providers for
a personal loan, credit card etc.
e.g. www.motleyfool.co.uk
and www.moneysupermarket.com
Many companies i.e. Abbey National (website = abbey.com) provide
special rates to attract customers online. A personal loan
rate may differ from the rate that is received in branches.
A personal loan with an internet only rate from Abbey.com
Servicing a customer
Websites may not provide a meeter/greeter
when a potential customer visits the site although this can
and should be set up for registered customers. However, the
website still needs to provide excellent first-time customer
service.
Some websites like amazon.co.uk require
existing customers to register before they purchase. This
offers the retailer the ability to add that personal touch:
‘Welcome back, Mr Smith. Last time you bought ________
book – perhaps you would be interested in newly launched
_________ book’ i.e. develop targeted marketing campaigns.
This can maximise the revenue generated.
The acquisition and retention of consumers should be embedded
into the strategic goals of any online retailer. Web pages
should be considered as valuable retail space; pages which
confuse or are not adding value or generating revenue must
be adjusted or removed.
Retention / Revisit exercises
The online retailer has the opportunity
to take an individual’s contact details and store information
on past purchases e.g. Amazon. However, what does the retailer
do when the customer does not visit for a period of time?
The retailer prompts the consumer to return.
Perhaps by an email:
“Hello. We’ve not seen
you visit our website for a little while. Would you be interested
in hearing about a special deal we’ve got on televisions?”
If the consumer does not come back after
receiving the above email then the retailer could re-email
the consumer with a targeted special offer.
“Come back to our website and get
£30 off a new microwave when you purchase £50
of your favourite popcorn” (which was a previous purchase
of the consumer).
Another way of persuading the consumer to re-visit is by sending
a targeted customer survey (available from www.confirmit.com).
This can ask the customer why he/she has not used their website
and can then implement changes in accordance with customers’
wishes. This can be a subtle mixture of market research and
offering the customer what he/she wants, underlining the company’s
respect for that customer’s opinion.
Initiatives should be in place for attracting
customers to the site and servicing them and showing them
they are valued when they are there. Customers will not revisit
a site where products are hard to receive or where “value-added”
elements are not available.
For example, a European based in-car entertainment
provider would benefit [i.e. increase customer base, customer
spend] by providing chat-rooms for individuals who modify
their cars - best practices in installing did screens into
the headrests of seats, errors made and reported to warn other
people either in a chat-room or on a product blog. This sense
of community would certainly put the brand directly in front
of those who have the highest propensity to purchase. This
could be maintained for a fraction of the cost of annual direct
marketing campaigns.
Summary
To summarise, the basic rules of
marketing are totally applicable to the web site. Value your
customers, make the website relevant to the customer and,
ideally, make the website interactive and responsive to the
wide variety of customers who will use it. The young single,
the silver surfer will have different needs and differing
practical approaches to onscreen information and offers. But
both categories are valuable potential customers. The web
site has the ability to offer a one-to-one relationship with
customers. Ask customers what they want from the brand and
give them a sense of belonging.
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