our
5+ years using the Internet, those of us in the online marketing
industry can easily lose sight of the level of comfort our customers
truly have with technology. Being smack dab in the middle of
Internet use at least five days a week will do that to you. So,
let's take a step back and consider those for whom technology and
the Internet may be less ubiquitous.
Because women make or influence the purchases of 81% of consumer
products and services (according to EPM's Marketing To Women), and
continue to head online in droves, I'll zero in on them. Do most
women shop for their families at lunch from their office computers,
or do they save that for their hours at home? Do they suffer through
a 56.6K modem connection, have a long-established AOL addiction, or
have they gone high-speed with cable? Hmm.
Steep Learning Curve
Here's the point: In any steep learning curve industry like the
Internet, the consumers you are trying to reach will span from
little or no knowledge to ultra-savvy and experienced. From the
initial, sometimes formidable, "entry point," customers
should be provided with optional guidance to progress from one stage
to the next.
Remember how scary it was to learn to ride a bike, but how it
didn't really take that many days to figure it out, and then how all
you wanted to do was pedal for miles and go all sorts of new places?
Learning the ins and outs of the web and email might be initially
uncomfortable, but with just a bit of experience, the excitement
builds, especially for women. According to a September 2001 study by
Content Intelligence, 51 percent of online women have used the
Internet for less than three years, in comparison with 35 percent of
men. The study goes on to note that despite this fact, women are
three to six times more likely than men to become frequent Internet
users within two years. (In the first two years online, women are
much more likely to go online 10 or more times a day).
As women begin to experience confidence with the Internet, they
will tend to advance very quickly with the skills that most support
their daily life. That means that once they figure out the computer
and Internet basics, they will jump right into email, web research,
price comparison, and shopping. Yet, even those women with the most
Internet confidence will not necessarily bother to learn the full
spectrum of online possibilities like sharing music files,
downloading files, or participating in webinars.
What's the Connection?
Once the learning curve issues have been addressed, e-businesses
need to consider how and from where their consumers are connecting
to the Internet. Most women do their research and make their online
purchases from the comfort of their homes, so the connection speed
can be an initial barrier to overcome. According to a January 2002 Nielsen//NetRatings
study, the number of at-home female Internet users in the US
increased more rapidly than the number of male users in 2001. (Women
now account for 52 percent of home Internet users, or 55 million
people, up from 50.4 million last year.)
And, when it comes to the now popular rich media messaging and
flashy web sites, e-businesses have to keep the connection speed
(and online service) of their customers in mind. Point in fact:
those consumers using anything but the most recent AOL download
can't receive legible HTML e-mail, while those who are on dial-up
modems won't usually wait around for the rich messages to download
into their in-boxes.
According to Q3 2001 numbers released by eMarketer, AOL holds
23.3% of the ISP market share, with MSN holding second place at 6.2%
and @home (before the December transition fiasco) at 3.3%. If these
numbers are any indication, a lot of e-businesses need to keep the
AOL factor on their radars.
Equip a Range of Internet Confidence Levels
Here are a few other things to address when trying to reach women
consumers at home who have a variety of Internet confidence:
Downloads: A significant number of women in your customer base
may not bother to view materials that require the
"unknown" of a software or "reader" download
(like PDFs), so provide access to the necessary information on web
pages or through emails.
Unfounded Fear: Provide a glimpse of the big picture to make
entering a new process (like downloading) more comfortable. Offer an
initial sample email from your email training series, before
consumers have to sign up for the whole program. For viral
components like "send to a friend" buttons, offer "no
spam" reassurance by showing a sample of what will arrive in
the friend's inbox in advance (Amazon.com e-cards do this well).
Conclusion
Once you acknowledge your markets' varying levels of Internet
comfort and equip them for a speedy learning process, you will
likely create customers for life. But for women in particular, who
have taken the initiative to face a daunting new challenge head-on,
your guidance along the way will be remembered and rewarded. It's
worth the effort.
