Over the course of the last decade, businesses have been scrambling to concoct virtual versions of their brick-and-mortar storefronts. Lured by the millions of consumers who have migrated online, they find themselves vying for consumer attention against millions of other online businesses. Most of them fail, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t hope. By planning your Web site carefully, you can attract potential customers to your e-store and entice them to hit the "Submit Order" button.
The solution lies in the content your site offers and how your site presents that content to your visitors.
What Surfers Want
Internet usability experts John Morkes and Jakob Nielsen agree that Web users have a common denominator: They want to find information as quickly as possible. According to Nielsen, aside from aesthetic design and navigational features, the quality and relevance of a Web site's textual content is crucial to capturing a surfer's extra-short attention span. Relevant content is critical to creating the "optimal user experience"; in fact, Morkes and Nielsen report that "content is king in the user's mind."
Nielsen believes the fundamentals of compelling Web content have remained constant over the years.
- Users want to get information fast, so they don't read -- they scan. They pick up the parts of sentences and paragraphs that contain the information they want. They look for instant information, and if they don't see what they’re looking for within the first few seconds, they immediately click elsewhere.
- To zero in on information as quickly as possible, surfers prefer reading tables of contents, captions, highlights, topic sentences, concise paragraphs, bulleted lists, summaries, and conclusions. If what they can quickly scan interests them, users will then delve into deeper levels of information. They prefer conversational writing, too, eschewing dense, wordy, time-consuming styles of formal and academic writing.
- Users want reliable information, so they expect clean and straight facts. They prefer professional writing, good quality images, and most especially, outbound links that allow them to verify and validate data through other sites. They are turned off by fluff, hype, hard sell, and marketing superlatives.
Experts point out that content is the single most important factor that can cause consumers to take their business elsewhere. A survey conducted by Cognitiative, Inc., also found that relevant and updated content is among the most important factors in deciding whether to purchase from an online business.
Stay Awhile
Convincing users to come to your site and remain on your site is a matter of using traditional advertising, reciprocal links, e-mail communities, and word of mouth to tell them where to find your information. Once inside your Web site, if not instantaneously repelled by sluggish loading time, eye-stabbing color schemes, or puzzling navigational links, your target viewers will experience their first contact with whatever value the site has for them. What they read will decide whether they will stick around or return to your site.
In a review of major commercial Web sites, online-writing expert Amy Gahran cited various content strategies that can motivate a surfer to stay and explore a particular site:
- Create value: Provide fresh content that adds to the visitor’s experience.
- Engage your visitors: Present content that is interesting, engaging, and useful to a wide range of audiences.
- Keep it current: Add content and features regularly to reflect site growth and evolution.
- Make it applicable: Ensure that content and products target the audience appropriately.
Gahran emphasizes that successful Web sites provide feature-style articles, rich product information, both general and specific advice on use of products, special sections for specific buyer needs, and discussion topics, as just some of the most effective content-related attention grabbers.
A commercial Web site must, therefore, have a good grasp of the content strategies that will make potential customers stay or come back, and finally decide to buy. According to a survey by Ernst & Young, almost a fifth of all prospective online buyers turn to the Web for more information on the products they are considering. If they find the product but not the information on your site, they are likely to go elsewhere instead of making the purchase.
But not every visitor needs the same amount of information. To avoid turning off as many potential customers as you satisfy, the best sites offer "multi-level" content.
How Deep Is the Interest?
According to Nathan Wallace, founder and CEO of Synop Software, a Web site must have different levels of writing to address the various levels of readership interest. Furthermore, successful sites provide information to draw customers to the site in the first place.
Quick-browsing skimmers, while hopping about looking for the right Web site to explore, will first be met by the title of the Web site. Effective site titles are the first level of screening, attracting only those who are remotely interested in what the site offers. Those who will be attracted by the site title will pause and read the next unit of information that every good site should offer: one-sentence summaries.
Visitors who want more in-depth information should encounter a deeper level of writing within the Web site. This means that a viewer who feels that the information he needs could be somewhere in the back pages of the Web site, will appreciate reading one-paragraph summaries, then some bullets, maybe captions on major points, down to details on some minor points, then finally onto a whole, 2000-word article. If he still needs more information, the site should be able to provide him with outbound links that will lead him to related resources and Web sites.
A content-efficient site, according to Wallace, whether commercial or otherwise, satisfies its visitors and encourages them to return and interact further. It provides the appropriate types of content that cater to the different levels of reader interest at any given time.
Who Wants to Buy?
Also essential in any business endeavor is the ability to target a focus audience, or establish a market niche. Online commercial site owners, not exactly working with the same tools used in traditional face-to-face business, discover their need to keep their ears to the ground in order to actively respond to Web users' browsing and buying tendencies.
Companies can spend millions trying to define and understand their customers. Regardless of who they are, however, all online customers have one thing in common: They want instant information that is easy to access, timely, relevant, and useful. They want, in short, to find out everything they need to know in one click. With life in the fast lane, no one can afford to waste time on useless information. The trick is in estimating how much they need to know and putting it into language that they will respond to favorably.
If It Ain't Broke...
Which leads to the question, "How often should a Web site change its content strategy?"
Amy Gahran suggests that a corporate Web site with a content strategy that works for its target audience should stick to it as long as possible. She imparts that a solid content strategy will stand the test of time without getting stale. As for Web sites that have obviously failed in their content strategy, Gahran says that remaining stagnant demonstrates "cluelessness, or a lack of caring." This, in the end, does additional harm to their business.
However, drastic changes to an otherwise well-frequented Web site can also do more harm than good. A Jupiter survey revealed that a total overhaul or redesign, even if it's for better layout or improved functionality, can cause a marked decline in site visits. According to the survey, 44% of the respondents reacted negatively to revisions on a site's overall look and feel -- 24% of the respondents drifted away to other sites. Experts suggest preparing the regular visitors for the changes and performing changes strategically. Without the old reasons to return to the site, surfers can always opt to ride the wave in another domain.
Killer Content
How exactly do specific commercial Web sites capitalize on content to entice online buyers to frequent their homepages and make a purchase?
Sue Spataro, owner of homeschoolzone.com, reveals her strategy: "People are more interested in up-to-date and useful information as opposed to the Web page with the most bells and whistles. Keeping content fresh and new engenders loyalty because it lets folks know this site is up-to-date and has their interests at heart. We have found this to be true in all our Web sites. One other thing to mention which is an intangible but nonetheless very key is how visitors 'feel' about a Web site. People really know who is reaching out for them and trying to make communities which are relevant for them as opposed to putting up a page to just sell a product."
"Without content, we would be nothing," confesses Benjamin Swett, CEO of Windowbox.com, the Web's first provider of products and information focused on the needs of container gardeners. "Almost all of our visitors come from good press, and almost all of our press comes from our writing -- journalists tend to appreciate good writing." As for the style that makes Windowbox.com's content effective, Swett says, "It's important that the writing all be in 'the voice of the site' which takes some time and effort from our editors." Swett adds that through their content (an extensive database of above-ground gardening products, how-to articles, and community gardening involvement) they are able to deliver "some helpful advice and a little imagination" to their target audience.
Value Judgments
Jakob Nielsen said it in three words: Content is king. People go online to find answers. They want the right answers, yesterday. If they want to read a novel, they cuddle with a book; if they want to watch pictures, they turn on the TV or go to the movies. But if they want information pronto, in order to make a valued decisionahora mismo, they log on to the Internet.
Maximizing the value of your Web site’s content means providing the most useful information in your market category, whether your Web site is about products, services, alliances, community, or the organization behind your business. Tailoring content for the specific needs of your target market and delivering it in logical levels of intensity will compel visitors to visit, explore, recommend, interact with, and ultimately trust their money to your Web site.
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