A couple of years ago, users didn’t want to be “engaged” online – they wanted to go to a website, do something (enquire, sign up), fix something (solve a problem) or buy something (shop!). We’ve seen an incredible shift in the way people achieve this over the past couple of years with people now spending so much more time online. Users now want more from their website browsing experience. The introduction of social media (I still don’t like that term, anyway…) tools means that people have now become used to using the internet as more than just a tool, but as a part of their life. And so, they naturally expect a website to be more than just a tool – it needs to make them feel at home, make them feel like they’re part of something – not just enquiring, problem solving or shopping.
How many times have you checked your web enabled phone today? How many times a day did you check it 2 years ago? We spend a LOT of time online now.
Your clients and potential customers now want to know who you are, what you look like, what your office looks like, what you did at your last team event, what was the name of your first pet!! They want to build a relationship with you, and feel that you’re actually interested in telling them about yourself. It needs to be genuine of course, as any relationship needs to be, so you do need to be careful, because this new world of online transparency means that if you’re not honest, it will easily show. Marketing hasn’t really changed, it’s still about being able to genuinely connect with the people who care the most; however the tools we used to make us look like someone we weren’t (websites are so good at making small businesses look like big companies) are not enough – there are just so many ways to find out more about a person or company now, that you can’t hide behind a website – so you might as well come out and tell the world about who you really are. If you don’t, someone else probably will.
An interesting side note: the staff page on the Salsa website is one of the most popular (top 2%)
Take the following examples (thanks to Avinash Kaushik from a “6 Pixels of Separation” Podcast I recently listened to). 2 competing companies in Canada, both selling laundry products.
www.vim.ca - not all that engaging, imo
The first example is quite a simple site – shows some products (ok, good start), has a voucher to save $1 (wow!), then the standard marketing spiel (“makes tough cleaning easy”). They have content on the site about how to use their products, cleaning tips, and home decorating ideas. Yawn. www.vim.ca
seventhgeneration.com - incredibly engaging
This example is not only a much more beautiful site (an enormous part of the ability to engage in my opinion), but also absolutely tells the website visitor all about who and what they’re dealing with. They become part of something much bigger. “Protecting Planet Home”. One of the major menu items is “Learn”. In here you can educate yourself on the bigger ‘green’ issues they’re passionate about, read an active Blog, visit the Forum, watch video’s. You can also see where people have “Asked Scienceman” a question, and can read his response. They of course also connect via Facebook, and Twitter – you can actually see in their Twitter account that they’re interacting with their customers, answering questions and solving problems! Oh, they also have some product information on the site of course. www.seventhgeneration.com
I can’t wait to re-design our website. Keep your eye out for it.
Tags: authentic, blog, engage, Facebook, relationships, twitter
