Creating a Successful Web
Presence
Designing the User Interface and
Promoting the Electronic
Commerce Web Site
Objectives
• To explore effective web sites
• To learn about business promotion techniques
• To understand how to meet the needs of web
site visitors
• To explore usability testing in website design
• To identify and reach customers on the web
• To view making approaches that work on the
web
• To understand elements of branding
• To understand branding strategies and costs
2
Creating an Effective Web
Presence
• What is presence
– Public image an organization conveys
– Often portrayed through employees
– Web presence is critical: in eCommerce it is
the primary means of customer and supplier
contact
• Web presence goals
– Sales brochure, product showroom, financial
information, customer contact
3
Identifying Web Presence Goals
• Goal: create a distinctive presence, and
meet business objectives
– Attracting visitors
– Encourage visitors to stay & explore
– Obtain information about the company
– Create an impression consistent with the
desired image, or
– Reinforce existing positive images of the
organization
4
Web Presence Goals for
Non-Profits
• Disseminate information
• Provide a two-way contact channel
• Examples
– Amnesty International
– United Nations
– Greenpeace
– Museum of Modern Art (MOMA)
– CNIB
5
Meet the Needs of Website
Visitors
• Why do visitors arrive at a website?
– Learn about, or buy, products or services
– Obtain information about a company
– Identify people who manage the company
– Obtain financial information for making an
investment or credit-granting decision
– Find out about warranties or service
– Get telephone or other contact information
6
Creating Flexible Website
Interfaces
• Goal: build flexibility into the interface.
• Interface definition
– Interface is the view it offers to visitors
– Includes layout, colours, hyperlinks, images
and controls
• Design for visually impaired and disabled
users.
– ALT tags/screen tips
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Flexible Website Interfaces
(cont.)
• Let visitors choose information attributes.
– Level of detail
– Grouping or selecting items to display
– Viewing format
– Downloading format
• Provide multiple ways to find information
on the site.
8
Usability Testing
• Definition: an observation or monitoring of
person’s actions as they use a website.
• How?
– Focus groups
– Automated testing
9
Website Design Guidelines
• Design around how visitors will use the
links, not around the organizational
structure.
• Place frequently used links at the top of
the page.
• Show company name and contact
information on the home page.
• Make sure all pages include a link back to
the home page.
10
Website Design Guidelines
(cont.)
• Be consistent with design features and
colours.
• Clearly label navigation controls and links.
• Ensure colors and text are visible to
colour-blind visitors.
• Conduct usability tests.
• Update frequently, eliminate stale content
11
Measuring Advertising
Effectiveness
• Standard metric: Cost per thousand (CPM)
– Value per visitor varies, depending on the
amount of information gathered or known
• Other metrics (see page 2.20)
– Visit: a visitor loads a page
– Impression: a view of a banner ad
– Click-through: a visitor clicks on a banner ad
12
Communication on the Web
• Mass media
– One-to-many model
– Flows from one advertiser to many customers
– Seller is active, buyer is passive
• Personal contact
– One-to-one model
– Interchange within a framework of trust
– Seller and buyer are active
13
Communication on the Web
(cont.)
• Web
– Many-to-one/many-to-many model
– Buyers can communicate with many sellers
– Buyer actively searches, and controls the
length, depth and scope of the search
14
Communication Channels
15
Levels of Trust
16
Marketing on the Web:
Customer Relationship Management
• What is CRM?
• Companies obtain detailed information
about a customer’s behaviour,
preferences, needs and buying patterns
and use that information to set prices,
negotiate terms, add features and
customize the entire relationship with that
customer
17
Customer Relationships
Dimensions
Technology-enabled Customer
Relationship Management
Traditional
Relationships with
Customers
Advertising
Information provided in
response to specific customer
inquiries
Deliver a uniform
message to all
customers
Targeting
Identifying and responding to
specific customer behaviours
and preferences
Market segmentation
Promotions and
discounts
Individually tailored
Same for all
Distribution
channels
Direct or through
intermediaries; customer’s
choice
Through intermediaries
chosen by seller
18
Customer Relationships
Dimensions
Technology-enabled
Customer Relationship
Management
Traditional Relationships
with Customers
Pricing
Negotiated with each
customer
Set by seller for all
New product features
Respond to customer
demands
Seller-determined based
on its own research and
development
Measurements used to
manage customer
relationship
Customer retention; total
value of the individual
customer relationship
Market share; profit
19
Permission Marketing
• What is spam?
– Unsolicited email
• ‘Opt-in’ email is a part of permission
marketing
– Only send email to customers who have
indicated an interest in receiving it
– May require incentives
20
Privacy Policy
• What is the firms policy?
21
Creating and Maintaining Web
Brands
• Brands try to represent quality, value and
other desirable attributes
• Branded products are easier to promote,
because each product carries the
reputation of the brand name
• The value of brands nearly always
exceeds the cost of creating them
22
Elements of Branding
• Differentiation
– Ivory soap example – “it floats”
• Relevance
– The product offers utility to the consumer
• Perceived Value
– Customer perceives they are getting “a good
deal”
23
Emotional & Rational Branding
• Emotional branding
– Feel good about the product
• Rational branding
– Substitutes an offer to help web users in
return for viewing an ad
– Popularity is diminishing
24
Affiliate Marketing
• The linking of a review, rating, description
or information on one web site to another
where the product can be purchased
• Example
– Amazon
25
Website Naming Issues
• Obtaining a domain name
• Domain types
– .com (most popular)
– .org
– .net
– .biz
– .ca (country codes)
26
Website Naming Issues (cont.)
• Trademark issues
• “Framing” your domain name
• Legal issues and the confusion on who
owns a name
27
Assignment
• Evaluate the information that Indigo.ca
provides in relation to the chapter material
• Write a memo to your superior that.
suggests 3 things that can be improved on
in the web site design. (Also look at the
web design checklist)
• Report an dead links in the chapter
28
Assignment (cont)
• Complete Tutorial 2 as described in the text
• Select 10 of the websites referenced in the text in
Tutorial 2.
• In tabular form list each URL and describe:
– the purpose for the website
– the users of the website services
– does this website successfully
• 1) inform,
• 2) persuade, and
• 3) empower
• its users?
– the effective use of branding in the website
– how is this e-commerce company trying to establish trust and do
they succeed?
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