Consumers "Cry out for more Personal Experience" Online

86 per cent of British consumers have now researched a company online before choosing whether or not to use them and more than three quarters (78 per cent) have been put off from dealing with a company because of the poor process and usability on its web site, according to the 2008 Online Conversion Report from digital consultancy, Rawnet.

INTERNET IS FIRST PORT OF CALL FOR CONSUMERS
More than one in five (22 per cent) British consumers claim always to research a company online before choosing whether or not to use it, yet a massive proportion are put off by the simplest web design and build mistakes. The issue of making consumers look too hard to find information is so serious that almost three quarters (74 per cent) say they would be more likely to deal with a company that showed them all the relevant information they were looking for on a single page.

“Consumer opinion about websites in general demonstrates a real gap between creative and technical capabilities of most web design projects,” says Adam Smith, managing director of Rawnet. “The simple truth is that the two aspects should not live in separate silos – there is absolutely no reason why a really creative website shouldn’t be easy to use and produce real business benefits for clients. Researching companies online is now a part of daily life and a shocking number of companies are losing out on a massive amount of potential business simply because their current web design agency has either focused too much on what looks great, or too much on non-essential technical features and failed to actually produce a website that works for the business.”

WEBSITES FAILING TO CONVERT USERS ON FIRST ATTEMPT
For the millions of pounds British businesses spend on search engine marketing each year, only two per cent of consumers deal with the company whose link they clicked first when searching on Google. Companies are still falling way short of giving consumers what they are looking for when visiting their websites, as the majority – 49 per cent - claim only to occasionally be presented with the information they were searching for.

Adam Smith comments, “The majority of marketers continue to be preoccupied with their search engine rankings and invest more on more expensive paid-search keyword bidding, in order to drive more traffic to their website. First impressions are so important online, but there is still a massive disconnect between attracting visitors and converting them into customers. If you found that only 2 per cent of people visiting your high street shop bothered to walk to the fifth floor to find the checkout and pay for goods, you’d move the tills downstairs to make the experience as convenient as possible. The same, common sense principles should apply online, yet so many sites still get it so wrong.”

CONSUMERS CRYING OUT FOR PERSONALISATION
Conversion is increasingly becoming an issue for organisations. In tighter economic conditions, getting that lead, sale or enquiry is far more important than simply boosting your website’s traffic. According to the 2008 Online Conversion Report, companies could boost sales, leads or enquiries by 44 per cent if their website already knew, or could learn what visitors were most interested in, and personalise their experience. Companies are also failing to promote more of their services or products to website visitors as almost one in two (47 per cent) consumers claim to rarely or never view more of a company’s services than the one they originally intended.

Adam Smith comments, “Personalising the experience as closely as possible for your visitor is the single most effective manner of converting more into potential customers. The technology exists and is readily available to allow companies to understand who their site visitors are, and learn more about them as they navigate around your site, to feed them with relevant case studies or additional products. Marketers however don’t realise that the technology is here, and it is effective and can go a long way to helping them improve their ROI amid tougher economic conditions.”

Associated Link: rawnet

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