A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

It used to be so simple. Create a nice front door, add plenty of options, and the users would come flocking through. This view of user interaction is becoming rapidly outdated.

Rather than opening the front door, users are looking through our open windows and just jumping right in when they see what they want. They quite often never see the window decoration, the specials taped next to the mail slot. They rarely jingle the bell over the door.

Users seek what they want, when they want it, and where they want it. Rather than coming in through the home page, more often users find what they want listed elsewhere, and then just jump right into the middle of your Web site.

As users, this behavior is so commonplace that we hardly notice it ourselves. Often we aren't even aware that it was a window we browsed through and not a door.

The experiment

Try this experiment. There is a growing sport called disc golf. It is very popular among Midwestern Web developers (it's about the only exercise I get these days). There is even a Professional Disc Golfer's Association that holds international tournaments. Take a moment, open a new browser window, and look up the rules for disc golf. Go ahead. I'll wait.

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Glad you're back. Take a moment and examine at your behavior. What did you do? Did you open Google and search for "rules for disc golf", or did you type www.pdga.com into your browser's address bar and go directly to their front door? Chances are you did the former and put in some search term into a search engine then clicked around until you found what you wanted.

In bypassing the front page, you may have missed information on the upcoming 2006 Amateur World Invitational or their newly-launched endowment campaign.

For a content manager, this can be terribly frustrating. People are missing content they are putting up front and center. How much more evident does it have to be?

The strategy

The fact is that this isn't a problem so much as a growing reality. This behavior is a result of increasing bandwidth, better search engines, and the increasing computer literacy of the general population. It is also a great opportunity. It just takes awareness of user behavior.

An ideal strategy takes advantage of this new behavior and does a much better job of serving the user. Users find what they want, primarily through search (find-ability). When they find what they are looking for, they are also presented with other things in which they may be interested (serendipity). The user then has an opportunity, at their request, to receive more content or product offers on a regular basis (subscription)

Find-ability is paramount these days. It is important to understand how your content can and will be found. Regularly hit your own site through popular search engines. See who is linking to you and what people are using as search terms to find your site. Also, take advantage of professional, trustworthy advice on how to best to get your site's pages indexed by the major search engines.

Serendipity is the next step. As people search your site, they may want to know about the great new turnip twaddler you might be selling (I'll take three). Be sure to cross-promote offers, specials, or even news within your site. Don't just post it on the front page. Many interested customers may not see it.

Finally, make your content available through subscription. Podcasters understand this implicitly because their whole paradigm hinges upon this strategy. If you have an RSS feed, promote it everywhere. If you don't have one, consider putting one together. Internet customers can be fiercely loyal if they feel they have an "inside track" on what is happening in your company. If an RSS feed doesn't feel quite right for your business, an "opt-in" listserv is a great alternative. Better yet, offer both!

The point is, don't panic when you find out your customers are coming in the window. By paying attention to how they access your content, you can better serve their needs. Just offer them something extra and invite them to come back again.