Stop selling clicks dummy! Those are humans behind the keyboard!
Why do we have such a propensity to to to differentiate human foot traffic in a brick and mortar store from that of traffic and clicks on a website? Ever read a website marketing blog? They talk all about how to increase traffic, improve your bounce rate, write compelling headlines, and and improve click through rates. These things are all fine and well but I say, “Those are humans behind those keyboards.”
Since the inception of the internet we have heard about how the web would become the most powerful collaboration and communications tool known to us in our short history of the world. I believe it really has and is becoming more powerful each day. So if that is the case why do we treat human powered web traffic like mechanized clicks? Why do we continue to use traditional media metrics to measure the effectiveness of a website? Let me be real clear here, “People coming to your website is not like them driving by your billboard on the highway”
Let me ask you this, “If you owned a small shop in the middle of town and someone walked through your front door would you greet them or ignore them?” More so, “If this person walked around your store with a puzzled look on their face would you ask how you might help them?” Lets take this metaphor further and say that you own a professional services company. This is not your traditional retailer, but people still walk in seeking something. Would you let this person aimlessly walk about your office reading the brochures and signage on the walls only to shrug when they walk out? I sure hope not.
So why do so many websites act as if the traffic is just a bunch of clicks or numbers on a chart? It’s time for a Paradigm shift. A few weeks ago at Web 2.Open Amber Naslund asked us to think more about how we might sell social media to C-Level executives and decision makers. My simple answer to her is, “If we could put virtual goggles on these key managers and actually show them the traffic that walks in and out of their virtual storefronts and shops each and every day they might take things a bit more serious.” Frankly, we are doing a shitty job of making this clear!
It’s just not enough to treat your website like a glorified brochure anymore. These are real people seeking real products, services and information from you. If your not listening and interacting with them in my opinion your just flat out stupid. About six months ago Robert Scoble asked why Best Buy did not have any actual people on it’s website. I ask the same thing of not only Best Buy, but of 99% of the brands that have an online presence. What are they afraid of? Would you seriously leave a couple thousand people walk around your business every day without servicing them? It’s crazy! People are moving away from high prices in retail stores and finding better deals on the net. People are not breaking down the doors of your service firm for more information because they are doing their homework on Google. Can you even be found there? Customer bases are fracturing all over the place and the slices of pie are becoming much, much thinner. (Just ask the newspapers) Those C-Level executives that are asking what the ROI of social media is need to pull their heads out from under the sand and start putting humans behind their web presence. What is the ROI of a service technician at a gas station? Humans no longer want to meet with metal. They want information from other humans. CC Chapman said it best in a tweet yesterday about politicians that still use those stupid automated phone dialers with recorded messages.
Get the point?
Cyber Girl Image from: WebWizzard
Keith Burtis is a social media and digital marketing professional. If you or your company are looking to REV THE ENGINE on your digital efforts contact Keith today! Specialties include: Blog design/Integration, Custom Facebook Pages, Social, Digital and Interactive Content strategies.
Comments
Spot on.
I don’t think it’s realistic for a company whose website gets 10,000 visits per day to have a human being greet every single visitor BUT to at least have the option would be nice.
Instead of just having a “follow us on twitter” button, why not change the copy on the site (and operational objective of the company’s Twitter presence) to be purpose-driven? How about offering visitors the option to connect with a specialist via Twitter while they’re on the site, looking for something? Have them answer questions, compare products for them, connect them with customers who have bought the product, etc.?
And that’s just one idea.
Your idea of helping C-suite execs visualize traffic vs. conversions/transactions is simple yet fantastic. They’ve never been shown this. There’s only so much a pie chart can express, when that kind of data is even presented to them in that context.
Ponder the difference between “Woohoo! 12% of our website visitors made an online purchase from our e-store last year!” vs. “Only 12% our visitors made an online purchase from our e-store last year.” What digital team is going to present that 12% figure in a “we can do better” context? C-suite execs often don’t understand the web and other forms of media measurement because the format and context in which data is presented are skewed to perpetuate a set of services purposely divorced from actual business performance.
It isn’t in the best interest of people paid to sell subjective metrics to suddenly get out from behind the safety of decades of pointless measurement and finally start taking responsibility for real numbers: It is a lot easier to sell potential exposure and web traffic than it is to sell transactions.
As much as I find web analytics fascinating (and immensely valuable), any company that loses track of how limited that type of data really is outside of the human factor, is completely missing the boat. No wonder most companies spend so much capital on digital “strategies” but get so little in return. Heck, it’s gone on so long that most digital shops have completely forgotten what R.O.I. even stands for, as we learned this past year.
Business (and marketing, for that matter) is about influencing human behavior. Human behavior is influenced by stimulus. SAnd the funny thing about stimulus is that it is never neutral: It is either positive or negative. So every action a business takes (or fails to take) produces either a negative or positive effect on a potential customer’s experience – and ensuing purchasing decision. In other words, actions create bias, either for or against.
What is the consequence, then, of a robo-call vs. a friendly human phone call?
What is the consequence of an ineffective website vs. a customer-friendly website?
What is the consequence of being put on hold for 35 minutes vs. having a friendly voice pick up the phone when it rings?
What is the consequence of treating social media as just another push channel vs. using it to solve a customer problem and making them feel valuable?
You nailed it with this post, Keith. You and CC Chapman and Amber. I’m glad you guys are here.
olivier blanchard´s last blog ..BrandBuilder post number 1,000 – Let’s talk about leadership 
Most of the big companies have call centres that they could easily cross train to service clients online. This is such a huge opportunity, but one that is highly underdeveloped. I think we’ll see companies repurposing call centres to hybrid call/online centres in the next few years.