What,People,Want,Online,amp,#6 marketing What do People Want Online? It's not what y

Awhile ago, I got an email from one of the "gurus" I follow and it shocked me. The gist of it was this person wanted to trade services for a household item.To say it floored me would be an understatement.What was worse was a few days later t Automation technologies represent a fundamental aspect of any modern industry. The major types of industrial automation solutions, such as DCS, PLC, SCADA, and MES, are used on a large-scale in process and discrete industries.DCS technologie

What people want online is a question guerrillas ask themselvesa lot. Whether it's for fun or work or something else,understanding a consumer's motives once he or she logs on is anecessity. But the experts don't seem to agree on what peoplewant. Some folks see the web as a vast, new field for advertisingmessages, assuming that while people may want to do somethingelse, if we can entice them with flash, we can sort of trick theminto paying attention to our products and services. Guess what. That's not gonna happen. Other folks seem to subscribe to the notion that people onlineare looking for entertainment on the Internet, and therefore they construct messages aimed at persuading while playing. And, in other cases, the time-honored direct-response model wins out:Grab people when you can, get 'em to take an action, and thenmarket, market, market. The answer may be that the consumer hasand wants a lot more control than we give him/her credit for. Today, webmeisters are in control. Sort of. In a perfect cyberworld, people will be in control. Sort of. Two recent studies shed light upon this dilemma. One was conducted by Zatso. The other was conducted by the Pew ResearchCenter. Zatso and Pew. (Those guys didn't spend much time reading "how-to-name-your-company" books, I guess.) Still, bothof their studies illuminated the answer as to what people wantto do online. The answer, as most answers, is very utilitarian: People want toaccomplish something online. They're not aimless surfers hopingto discover a cybertreasure. Instead, the average Net user turnsout to be a goal-oriented person interested in finding information and communicating with others -- in doing somethinghe or she set out to do. Look at the Zatso study. "A View of the 21st Century NewsConsumer" looked at people's news reading habits on the web. Itrevealed that reading and getting news was the most popularonline activity after email. The guerrilla thinks, "That meansemail is number one. How might I capitalize on that?" One out of three respondents reported that they read news onlineevery day, with their interests expanding geographically -- local news was of the most interest, U.S. news the least. Personalization was seen as a benefit, too. Seventy-five percentof respondents said that they wanted news on demand and nearlytwo out of three wanted personalized news. The subjects surveyedliked the idea that they, not some media outlet, controlled the news they saw. They feel they're better equipped to select whatthey want to see than a professional editor. Again, controlseems to be the issue. Again, guerrillas think of ways to marketby putting the prospect in control. The Pew Research Center study revealed that regular net userswere more connected with their friends and family than those whodidn't use the Internet on a regular basis. Almost two-thirds of the 3,500 respondents said they felt thatemail brought them closer to family and friends -- significant when combined with the fact that 91% of them used email on aregular basis. That's 91%. It took VCRs 25 years to achieve suchmarket penetration. What did people in this study seem to be doing online when theyweren't doing email? Half were going online regularly to purchase products and services, and nearly 75 percent were goingonline to search for information about their hobbies orpurchases they were planning to make. Sixty-four percent ofrespondents visited travel sites, and 62 percent visitedweather-related sites. Over half did educational research, and54 percent were hunting for data about health and medicine. A surprising 47 percent regularly visited government web sites,and 38 percent researched job opportunities. Instant messagingwas used by 45 percent of these users, and a third of themplayed games online. Even with all the hype in the media, only12 percent said they traded stocks online. What does this mean to e-marketers? It means that if you'reconstructing a site for goal-oriented consumers, you'd bettermake sure you can help facilitate their seeking. Rather thanfocus on entertainment, flash, and useless splash screens, themost effective sites are those that help people get theinformation they want when they need it. Straightforward data,information that invites comparison, and straight talk are goingto win the day. A client buddy of mine showed me his website which heralds hisretail location and attempts to sell nothing online. He said ithas been the biggest moneymaker in the history of his35-year-old company. Then he apologized for its lack of glitterand special effects. He asked how his site could be so successful even though it lacked anything to add razzmatazz anddipsydazzle. Now, you know the answer. Article Tags: People Want