It never fails to astound me how many retailer's websites out there provide no more information than would be communicated via a standard yellow pages or magazine advertisement.

Some companies spend literally thousands and thousands of dollars developing a website that communicates nothing more than the simple message: "Please call for further information."

Why is that?

I believe this situation arises from a misunderstanding of how people actually perceive and use the internet. The magazine ad approach equates browsing the internet with flipping through the pages of a glossy magazine. I say browsing the internet is as far removed from flipping through a magazine as it is from neurosurgery.

When people are flipping through a magazine your message can not, in any practical sense, be anything more than "Please call us for more information" and if the person makes the call you have captured a valuable lead. This is all standard Marketing 101 stuff and of course you are free to mimic this model via your website (as many do).

I believe, however, that the internet offers a far greater opportunity for your business than any magazine advertisement is capable of delivering.

Ask yourself what is the main aim of your website. To answer this, ask yourself what is the main aim of your business. If you are a retailer this can only be one thing:

To get someone to buy something from you.

There are two kinds of potential customers out there: those who "get" the internet and those who don't. Those who don't are never going to buy anything over the internet no matter how your website is designed. So forget about them. Let them buy their magazines and flip away to their heart's content.

We need to concentrate on the former group of people and remember, this group increases in numbers every year.

These "web savvy" people do not consider the internet a vast collection of advertisements. They expect and demand far more from a website than they would from a mere advertisement.

Consider the potential widget buyer. They've seen a widget. They liked the widget. They want a widget. By the time this person actually starts surfing the net for their widget, they have already made a decision to purchase. There is half the battle won, right there - and you haven't even fired a shot yet.

So what happens next? The widget buyer comes across two websites. One that says "please contact us for further information" and one that says "click here to make your widget purchase on-line via credit card."

Which website do you think is more likely to win our widget buyer's business?

Comment here

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