Customer behaviour will drive the customer experience
Delivering your users exactly what they want should be the focus of any website. But what if you could customise your website to suit each users' taste, preferences and interests? David Trewern argues that analytics and tracking technology will increasingly be used to optimise and customise content.
"The sophistication of web software will increase to allow dynamic publishing that draws on customer data and behaviour to optimise what they see and do online. Customers will increasingly expect websites and online marketing to reflect their personal interests and to predict their preferences," he says.
"Any publisher or retailer who does not move towards a dynamically optimised publishing model, or who adheres to a traditional ‘broadcast' model, will become increasingly irrelevant to consumers who are looking for more personalised experiences."
Corporate websites will become increasingly open and "mashable"
Companies are realising that it's OK to tear down the walls around their own websites. At the recent South by Southwest Conference in Texas, US electronics retailer BestBuy announced that it was opening up its entire online product catalogue to third party developers who can "remash" the content into new tools and applications.
Trewern says the site, called BestBuy ReMix, is another way BestBuy can expand its online audience.
"For example, developers can use the product data to create a Facebook app that lets people share favourite products with friends."
Reputation management - domain and channel protection
It used to be just domain names you needed to protect. You still do, but Chris Thomas argues that more than ever you also need to protect your channel IDs.
Channel IDs are the accounts you set up with YouTube, Twitter and MySpace and the like. "Even before Twitter looked like going mainstream, I registered http://twitter.com/reseo," Thomas says. "Your business should too, even if you're not going to use it. It can prevent the ‘nasties' taking the channel and masquerading as you."
As Thomas says, it's reputation management 101.
International SEO
So you've got your website optimised for the Australian market. But what about the Chinese, Japanese or Korean markets? Jason West says exporters are increasingly interested in getting help with SEO for overseas markets as a way to boost sales.
There's a lot to consider. First, West says that in a lot of these non-English speaking Asian countries Google doesn't have the dominance that it has in Australia. Second, you'll need someone to help with the language issues - and make sure they understand the jargon and linguistic nuances in each market. Finally, you need someone who knows which social media distribution channels to target - that is, which local blogs or social networking sites are popular in your sector.
Mobile marketing
West says the growing popularity of the iPhone has led to growing interest in mobile marketing and mobile search. While the market is still in development, mobile marketing won't suit every business. Fast-moving products (such as food, drink or hospitality-related items) or fast moving offers with an emotional call to action ("on sale at this price for one day only") seem to work best.
Online videos
Clay Cook says online video marketing has exploded recently, due to the huge popularity of video sharing sites like YouTube, and the increased speed of broadband. Some things - like customer testimonials or product demonstrations - are easier and far better expressed over video, rather than just text and images.
Cook says there are many techniques to maximise your video's exposure and one of the most important is inbound linking - make sure you link back to your website or product page.
Online agencies will focus on the buzz
David Trewern says clever media agencies will start to move into the space of "creating buzz" rather than simply booking "empty rectangles on portals".
"Banner ads and poorly executed, over-priced ‘content deals' with the big media owners will lose their lustre as astute brands realise they're getting little to no benefit at all, let alone a measurable ROI."
He says activity in the social media space, in blogs and in general website content will become far more important for brands looking to stimulate dialogue right in the middle of where web users continue to look to for information, help, inspiration and connections.
Want to learn more about SEO and online marketing? Register now for our free webinar "SEO for the CEO" to be held on Wednesday, March 25 at 10:00 ADST. On the eve of the Search Marketing Conference & Expo - SMX Sydney, Amanda Gome, SmartCompany.com.au talks with Rand Fishkin, CEO - SEOmoz about the latest in search marketing.
written by sterling silver jewellery, August 19, 2010
These are fantastic for analysing usability issues on your website, identifying opportunities for simple interface improvements that result in better conversion and increased sales.
We've used this approach with a number of recent redesigns with considerable impact on the bottom line.
Just as it's important to look after the customers you have, so too there are no more important potential customers to patronise than those already using your website. Make their life easier and you'll do more business.