Driving, and driving traffic through the website
Working for a digital agency (www.mrmworldwide.com), I come across various digital marketing requirements from clients. One common client requirement is - website redesign/ changes. And familiar client remarks in such cases are – “Make it look different from the existing website”, “Identify best practices from other website and let’s incorporate the same”. On the face of it, it looks like a very common and straightforward ask …. But the truth is far, far true.
Sheryl Crow sang- A change would do you good. But the truth is, as humans, we seek familiarity. Be it the people we meet, the road we take from home to office, and in majority of the cases the food we eat….we tend to seen familiarity; so would it not be true even for our other habits including online. Yet, when as digital marketers we think about redesigning a website, we mostly seek complete change in the design including structural changes with little regard to the impact on user path
A casual glance into any website analytics would show that at-least 30% of the traffic would be that of repeat visitors. While the frequency of repeat visitors is generally not mapped (which is done either through cookie based tracking or IP based tracking); we can safely assume that there would be substantial amount of regular users to the website. This would be higher so, if the website is the primary source of interaction that the customers have with the brand, the product, or the company. As marketers, we all would be aware of the 80|20 principle. We also would be aware of what the marketing pundits keep repeating – your core customers are the most important ones. If we were to compare the website traffic basis what the pundits say – then should not our focus be on the loyal, rather than on the casual and the passerby
It is said familiarity breeds contempt. But, in many a case this might not be true. Imagine your email interface - be it the local desktop Outlook, or the free webmail services. In all the cases the links to relevant folders are on the left column. It has been so for a long, long time. Even when the email service providers enhanced their product interface by giving global links to folders on the top and bottom of the page, they did not disturb the left column links. Why? Because they did not want to upset the familiarity that people have been used to
A few days back, the traffic police in Gurgaon, the place I stay, converted few two way roads into one way. This was done to ease the traffic. The first couple of days it was chaotic on these roads. People knew where they want to go, but reaching there was becoming difficult. Another funny thing that I noticed was, even though the roads had become one way, people were wary of driving on the extreme right (which earlier was the opposite direction lane), they still stuck to the left lane. That’s how regulars become ‘conditioned’ to a particular path.
Similarly, I’m sure that even though the webmail service providers have provided other global links within the mail box, most people would still be conditioned to the left column browsing. And if keeping your core audience happy is your objective, and if they form a substantial traffic to your website, it is necessary that there are familiar elements in design and navigation so as not to confuse them. What is necessary as part of website redesign is to make it more effective, not different. And the best practice is to understand your current customer behavior on and off the website rather than how other websites look
Cheers
Santosh
Sheryl Crow sang- A change would do you good. But the truth is, as humans, we seek familiarity. Be it the people we meet, the road we take from home to office, and in majority of the cases the food we eat….we tend to seen familiarity; so would it not be true even for our other habits including online. Yet, when as digital marketers we think about redesigning a website, we mostly seek complete change in the design including structural changes with little regard to the impact on user path
A casual glance into any website analytics would show that at-least 30% of the traffic would be that of repeat visitors. While the frequency of repeat visitors is generally not mapped (which is done either through cookie based tracking or IP based tracking); we can safely assume that there would be substantial amount of regular users to the website. This would be higher so, if the website is the primary source of interaction that the customers have with the brand, the product, or the company. As marketers, we all would be aware of the 80|20 principle. We also would be aware of what the marketing pundits keep repeating – your core customers are the most important ones. If we were to compare the website traffic basis what the pundits say – then should not our focus be on the loyal, rather than on the casual and the passerby
It is said familiarity breeds contempt. But, in many a case this might not be true. Imagine your email interface - be it the local desktop Outlook, or the free webmail services. In all the cases the links to relevant folders are on the left column. It has been so for a long, long time. Even when the email service providers enhanced their product interface by giving global links to folders on the top and bottom of the page, they did not disturb the left column links. Why? Because they did not want to upset the familiarity that people have been used to
A few days back, the traffic police in Gurgaon, the place I stay, converted few two way roads into one way. This was done to ease the traffic. The first couple of days it was chaotic on these roads. People knew where they want to go, but reaching there was becoming difficult. Another funny thing that I noticed was, even though the roads had become one way, people were wary of driving on the extreme right (which earlier was the opposite direction lane), they still stuck to the left lane. That’s how regulars become ‘conditioned’ to a particular path.
Similarly, I’m sure that even though the webmail service providers have provided other global links within the mail box, most people would still be conditioned to the left column browsing. And if keeping your core audience happy is your objective, and if they form a substantial traffic to your website, it is necessary that there are familiar elements in design and navigation so as not to confuse them. What is necessary as part of website redesign is to make it more effective, not different. And the best practice is to understand your current customer behavior on and off the website rather than how other websites look
Cheers
Santosh
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