To begin, IMC practitioners must be able to place themselves in the customer’s shoes when considering the structure and design of their new web site. According to Aaron Kahlow, a partner in Business Online and a leader of web site usability comments, “Most Marketing professionals are way too “close” to their offering, corporate vernacular and all things related to their industry. So things like nomenclature and content grouping often fall in line with their corporate focused thinking – not the users.” Kahlow highlights a key issue facing web designers today. IMC practitioners must take the time to get it right the first time because “You Never Get Another Chance To Make A Good First Impression”. This includes knowing the target audience better than your competitors and proving it by creating a web site that’s both relevant, informative, entertaining and organized (Perez, 2008).
An article written by Sharon Lee titled “Human-to-Human Design” helps support our discussion by focusing on the visitor or, end-user of a web site. In fact, Lee’s article fits well with Chen and Wells’ Attitude Toward the Site (AST) scale which uses three “Human” dimensions to evaluate corporate sites including entertainment, informativeness and organization (Perez, 2008). According to Lee, “A good website is built on two basic truths—that the internet is an interactive medium and that the end user is in fact human. In other words, it is meant to be an experience.” IMC is all about developing long-term relationships through positive brand/customer experiences that coordinate seamlessly through the company’s web site, catalogs, retail stores and products (Perez, 2008).
What are some techniques or design tips we can use to enhance the experience? According to Perez, the best web sites are attractive, easy to navigate (Consider the three-click rule), and functional plus, as stated above, web sites must tie-in with the rest of the company’s promotional communications. Probably the greatest feature offered by the Internet is simply based on the interactive nature of the web. Interactivity is also presumed to be an influential factor in improving the quality of a company’s web site. In the context of IMC, the potential for customer interaction facilitates relationship marketing and customer support to a greater degree than traditional media (Perez, 2008).
Remember, I’m suggesting tips for those considering a web site for their small business in the near future. These guidelines should help get you thinking in the right direction and provide you with more in-depth links to articles on content, color & graphics, etc. To get more detailed information on design tips from the pros, check out some of the articles available on “A List Apart”. Also, consider what these pros have to say about:
“Web Design Mistakes”
“Effective Web Site Design”
and why “Experience is the New Reality”.
Once again, thanks for joining me this week and as always, I welcome your feedback or comments. Please feel free to visit me online at http://segment-specific-media.blogspot.com/
~Dan
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1 comment:
Hi Danny,
Love the Experience is the New Reality video. Very provacative. And the narrator's accent is pretty funny too!
I wonder if videos like these are on the right track or just the ramblings of conspiracy theorists with too much time on their hands?
Melissa
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