A Common Mistake: Online Marketing is Active, not Passive
March 12th, 2006
Why doesn’t a glitzy online catalog cut it in the world of online commerce? Lately, a number of streams of thought have been running through my mind. I’ve been busy designing Web sites, talking to people about marketing, and watching people with varying personalities working to make a go of online commerce - and, of course, reading books.
Here’s the big idea. Those who talk big about the Web and eCommerce as a way to make money easily either know more about marketing than I do, or they are completely unaware of the values of most people who browse the Net .
Instead of using Web based tools to engage visitors as individuals with opinions and feelings, the natural path for most of us is to assume that people visiting our Web site are there as passive rather than active viewers. For example, a Web site that tries to sell its products by simply creating an online catalog and adding “Buy Now” buttons, and doing little more.
Though in reality, the affordable eCommerce solution that most businesses need is not more technically advanced than this, it also should include an attempt to seek feedback about the products offered and to provide information that is useful to potential customers. The difference between treating a customer as ignorant, suggestible, and passive and engaging them as active participants is largely psychological, not technical.
Including a Blog or other software package that publishes valuable information about your products and company can help facilitate two-way communication. By doing everything you can to foster two-way communication, your company no longer is treating its customers as impulse purchasing couch potatoes and is acknowledging them as intelligent contributing individuals with unique reasons for their purchasing decisions.
Though an eCommerce initiative needs high-quality products, an excellent offline marketing strategy, and clear vision (not to mention financing) to succeed, it is my opinion that the most commonly missed component of an eCommerce strategy this: We fail to view our customers as intelligent - collectively certainly more intelligent than our company. As a result, we fail to engage their imagination, contribution to our vision, and ultimately, their dollars.
This oversight is, according to Blog Marketing author, Jeremy Wright, a holdover from television marketing where a passive stance is assumed. The Web is active, and companies can either harness that energy or they can let someone else do so.
Entry Filed under: Internet Marketing
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3 Comments
1. lovelyamy | March 14th, 2006 at 1:08 am
I think the point you made was excellent. As a costomer i don’t want people to force me or encourage me to buy things that i don’t think will be nessary for me. I prefer to make my own decisions. Recentally, i bought a new mac online. The reason to purchase online is because i always recive e-mail saying that good deals on new mac computers, and i asked most my classmates where they brought their macs from. Most of them purchased online. I think without those peers, i may buy a mac in the store because i am worried about security of credit card infomation transmits online. However this shopping online experence did not give me enough confidence to shop online any more, because after i entered my credit card number, I could not find any words saying that whether i purchased succefully or not. A couple of days later, i recived an e-mail said that i was succefully purchesd the product and it will take about three weeks to get my mac. It’s quite a long time to wait, i am rather to buy one in store next time.
2. Harvey Ramer | March 14th, 2006 at 8:04 am
lovelyamy, thanks for this comment. You helped me think about an aspect of active vs. passive eCommerce in two new dimensions that I’d overlooked. These are Reassuring your customer about security and the purchasing process (which your Mac buying experience failed to do) and Timely follow-up on a purchase.
Especially for customers who are unsure about the safety of purchasing online, of which there are many, anything that can be done to humanize the process (phone numbers, email) should be in place. Also, statements about the use of private information should be prominently placed and easy to read.
When someone has entrusted me as an eCommerce provider with their credit card, I owe them an instant email reply confirming my intentions regarding shipment of their purchase.
3. lovelyamy | March 14th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
Thank you to put my thought into consideration! I am so glad that I got reply from you. This is my first time to post my blog, thank you to give me a wonderful experience.