| The Myth: The primary purpose of your web site should be to serve as a combination brochure and on-line ordering portal for customers and prospects. |
| The Reality: Consumers (both BtoB and BtoC) now expect far more than product information and convenience in ordering from on-line resources. |
| In recent blogs, I shared three megatrends of 21st century marketing: Megatrend # 1, that customers expect multichannel, preference-driven communications; Megatrend # 2, that they expect us to trust their requirements for deeper engagement; and Megatrend #3, that consumers are willing to share significant amounts of information about their preferences in order to gain valuable information or resources. |
| Let’s take a look at Megatrend # 4, which is also based on learnings from recent VOC research for companies such as Microsoft, HMS National, NBC Universal and Life Line Screening. |
| Megatrend # 4; Websites must now provide a three-dimensional experience that engages the customer and abandons the current one-dimensional, corporate, “me”-oriented Web experience. |
Per VOC research, the three dimensions of experience, in order of importance, are: | 1. | Provide access to peers, for the most trusted information and recommendations, |
| 2. | Provide access to relevant subject matter experts, and |
| 3. | Provide easier and faster access to the corporation before, during, and after purchases. |
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| Examples of companies who do this well: |
 | Amazon.com, now allows shoppers to connect to their Facebook accounts. As a result, Amazon can now display their friends’ favorite books, films, and so on. Amazon also provides access to both expert and amateur reviewers (via its main site) and to a wide range of peers and content experts (via its Omnivoracious interactive blog site). |
| TunerFish, a start-up owned by Comcast, lets users share TV shows and movies they are watching…creating a real-time "TV guide" of programs for friends. |
| Loopt, a location-focused social network with over 3.4 million registered users, recently began showing them which of their friends liked a particular restaurant. |
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| Megatrend #4 carries broad marketplace implications likely to play out for decades. According to the New York Times (9/13/10), on-line social networks of friends and colleagues are now a more trusted source of purchase recommendations than traditional search! |
| “The trust factor of friends' suggestions can make a big difference...Loopt's users are 20 times more likely to click on a place their friends liked...than a place that simply ranked higher in search results."
Sam Altman, Co-founder of Loopt |
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| Try This: |
Take a fresh look at your site. Identify how you can provide a three-dimensional experience which provides, in order of importance, better access to: |
| Peers |
| Subject Matter Experts |
| Your Company. |
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