8: Internet Savvy
The author's own research suggests that the Internet is the primary vehicle by which affluent customers gather information about major purchases, and the information they retrieve from this source is an "integral" to their purchasing decisions.
Statistics about the gross audience of the Internet are provided (EN: Which is old hat. It's no longer growing at a fast rate, but has become ubiquitous. Virtually all households have access, and the affluent are early adopters and heavy users.)
A few more granular facts, specific to the affluentL
- Most use the Internet during daytime hours (8 am to 5 pm) from the workplace
- The Internet is five times more effective than television in reaching the affluent, and is considered equally influential to newspapers.
- Virtually all affluent shoppers use the Internet to research major purchases. The main categories are automobile, computer, and travel.
Repeated: the opinion of family and friends are relied upon to discover options, but once options are identified, the Internet is the most relied upon to gather information. From an earlier chapter, they will use this research to make a decision, trusting their own judgment and defining value in their own terms.
The information they seek out is:
- The features offered by each product
- Comparison among different products
- Pricing information
- Sales/service information
- Third-party information
Ultimately, the message is clear: if you want to reach the affluent customer, you need to have a presence on the Internet.
Continue What You Are Doing, Plus More
The Internet is not a replacement for traditional marketing channels and activities, but an additional channel that must be attended.
Returning to the previous chapter, your primary marketing effort to become known to affluent customers is connecting with them through organizations and real-world social networks, but the primary vehicle for providing information to them that will encourage a purchase and communicating with the during the decision-making process is the Internet.
The author offers some random advice:
Having an e-mail address and corresponding via e-mail is expected, and for the affluent, it is their most preferred method of communicating about business, including personal business. It is the fastest and most effective way to reach them - they check it more often than voice mail.
Make certain you have the e-mail address of each client or prospect, and use it. "Do not let all those articles about spam and security fool you," the author writes. (EN: Which is irresponsible. There's a definite etiquette to e-mail and if you abuse it, you will earn the title of "spammer" and be pointedly ignored.)
E-mail is no longer plain text, but enables you to include images, formatted text, attach a wide array of files, and provide links to Web pages. Most e-mail software accommodates this.
The software makes it simple to manage mailing lists, so you can send to individuals, all contacts, or select groups with ease. You can communicate with people individually, or spam out newsletters to large groups. Most e-mail software also accommodates this, but some are better than others - the author recommends Outlook, specifically.
Some random tips for e-mail:
- Use a "soignature" at the end of each e-mail that contains your name, organization, phone numbers, URL, e-mail address, and a brief tag line that sells your value.
- Send an e-mail follow-up right after your first encounter, thanking them for your attention
- Send an e-mail after any appointment or substantive discussion as a recap
- Use e-mail to confirm appointments, with details (where and when)
- Use e-mail to announce special events and invite participants. While this can be done in bulk, it's more effective to do so individually, and indicate the specific reasons a person should be interested in attending.
- Create an opt-in e-mail newsletter
- Remember: the subject line is very important, as people will determine whether to read or trash the message based on the subject line.
Social Media
(EN: The author says nothing about social media, as it was "greasy kid stuff" when the book was written and probably below the radar, but I suspect it has since surpassed e-mail as a method for communicating with existing customers, and far more tolerable for regular "news" than e-mail newsletters.)
Search Engines
Search engines are the way that Internet users find companies they don't know about (searching for products or solutions without knowing a provider's name), as well as finding the Web sites of those they do know about (searching by provider's name).
To reach the first group, consider what terms people might enter into a search engine to find the products or services you offer.
Various Web sites offer help for determining good keywords: those that are popular, those that are used for finding specific Web sites. (EN: He mentions a specific URL, but that site is primitive and hasn't been updated for several years, so I'll drop it.)
He suggests a manual process of visiting the top search engines and entering the terms to see where you come up (EN: which can be automated) as well as seeing which sites are at the top of the list, so you can do a closer inspection of them.
Competing Sites
Visit your competitors' Web sites, particularly those that tend to come up first on the keyword search (above) and look at them with a critical eye.
Make note of the information they provide about their solutions, and how they present. Avoid taking notes on sites that are "cluttered and confusing," as your customers will likely avoid them as well.
Specifically, look for common themes; identify where the sites are strong or weak; consider what information may be missing.
(EN: This is superficial and a bit wrong-headed. You are not your customer, and your opinions are those of a seller, not a buyer. There's too much to be said about proper competitive analysis to detail it here - suffice to say this sounds like good advice, but is likely harmful.)
Create A Compelling Online Presence
A Web site is a must-have for reaching and serving the affluent market, even if you are serving clients in your local area: people use the Internet to search for local vendors, even more so than they use telephone directories.
In addition to determining (and including) the keywords that will enable prospects to find you using search engines, be sure that your business is well described by the content of your home page, and products and services are easily spotted as soon as the page is viewed.
Specific keywords should be worked into the pages title, text nearest the top of the page, and headings in the content. Ideally, you should be listed within the first three pages (20 to 30 listings deep, but less is better) when people search for your products and services, and within the first page when people search for you by name.
If you collect leads (name and e-mail address), indicating to the user what value they will get by providing this information will improve effectiveness.
Remember that the Web is not a broadcast medium: just having a site doesn't mean anyone is aware it exists and will visit it. You have to make contact by some other means, and create enough interest that people will visit your site.
Search engine positioning, online advertising, and e-mail marketing are effective techniques of attracting new visitors to the site.
(EN: Here and elsewhere, the author seems to consider the Web solely as a method of communicating with new prospect, and he totally misses the boat on its value as a tool for communication after the sale. Focusing overmuch on the first can destroy the second: peppering a page with search engine keywords makes it unfriendly to human readers, support and resources may be pushed to the bottom, and visitors will regard the site as just a promotional brochure, killing repeat visits and even putting off first-time visitors.)
Meet The Expectations Of Affluent Web Site Visitors
A study of affluent investors by Forrester (2004) discovered that investors who work with a financial advisor are "more active online" than those who manage their own finances - which seems counterintuitive (the assumption being that they hire a manager so they don't have to be as involved), and points to a problem with the sites operated by financial management firms, which lack the resources of sites tailored to the self-managed investor. The study pointed out that "these stale, ill-conceived sites undermine the relationship between clients and their advisors."
Another finding of the research is that sites designed for affluent shoppers were focused overmuch on the visual design, assuming affluent shoppers "want to be dazzled by fancy, entertaining web sites." The desires of affluent shoppers are more practical: they want control over their shopping experience, easy access to responsive customer service.
A smattering of random tips follows:
- When researching products, shoppers want information and not entertainment. Extraneous images and animations detract from the experience.
- Navigability is also a key factor. Shoppers want the experience to be quick and efficient, which begins with getting to the information they want as quickly as possible.
- Affluent shoppers want to be in control of the shopping process, inasmuch as possible. Consider what they want to do, rather than what you want them to do.
- Shoppers do not want to create accounts, or provide any personal details, just to get information.
- Pricing information is critical. A shopping site must not withhold pricing, and should set expectations of total cost (not just nominal price)
- Quality customer service is important. A method for getting answers to questions while shopping and support after the sale should be evident.
- Details about quality guarantees, including a simple return process, help overcome uncertainty.
- Privacy remains a concern: collect no personal information unless it is necessary, use it only as necessary, and safeguard it vigilantly.
- Trust is a critical factor: having a web site that damages trust will ward off prospects and damage your relationship with customers, ultimately doing more harm than good.