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Content Critical
Gaining competitive advantage through high-quality web content
The Web
Content
Style Guide
The essential guide
for online writers, editors and managers
March 22, 2004
How to tell people what else you do on your website
By Gerry McGovern
People come to your website on a mission. They want to do something specific. They are tunnel readers. Telling them what else you do—without annoying them—is a major challenge. Doing it well is about relevance and context. It’s about presenting the right content at the right time.
Whether you are managing an intranet or public website, you have probably lots of valuable things your readers are not aware of. The larger the website, the bigger the challenge.
Sometime ago, I needed to replace the software for my Iomega Zip 250. I went to the website and quickly found what I needed. Beside the download instructions was information on another piece of software. This was called QuikSync.
With QuikSync you didn’t have to remember to back up your files. You identified folders on your hard drive and then when those folders were changed, they were automatically updated on your Zip. This was amazing. I was always forgetting to back up and sometimes I’d lose really valuable content.
I happily paid $50 for QuikSync, whereas the software I came to the website for was free. I was now an even more loyal customer of Iomega. They had helped me meet a real need that I had not known there was a solution for.
This is why I like Amazon. I go to Amazon intending to buy one book or album, and I end up buying four or five. Sometimes, I’ll go to Amazon and search for an album I really like. Then, I’ll browse the ‘Customers who bought this item also bought’ section. I’ve got great albums and books this way that I doubt I would have found out about otherwise.
A number of airlines have integrated their booking and frequent flyer miles processes. So, as you’re going through a booking, you will be informed of how many miles you would get for that trip. If you’re not a frequent flyer member, this sort of information encourages you to join.
Symantec takes it too far. I was bombarded with aggressive sales techniques as I went through the purchase process for its Norton antivirus software. Extra services and costs were added to my bill that I specifically had to uncheck. Deals were forced on me in an extremely annoying way. It made it a very difficult and unpleasant purchase process. My current impression of Symantec is of a slightly sleazy, underhand, hard sell organization.
Tunnel readers don’t like being distracted. So, if you’re going to distract them, make sure you have something valuable and relevant to offer. Once you know you have, you need to strike a fine balance between in-your-face positioning, and so-subtle-nobody-sees-it placement.
People are scanning and tunneling. They are moving fast. They are impatient. If you want to get their attention you need to present them with a very clear and concise message. You’ve got 30 seconds or less to ask them to stop what they’re doing and consider something else.
The more you present this information like an ad, the less likely you are to succeed. It needs to stand out while looking integrated into the process. It needs to be relevant. It needs to be timely. It needs to be useful.
Gerry McGovern
You are welcome to republish this article once you place the following text and link at the end of the article:
Gerry McGovern is a web content management author and consultant
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