Harmen Mander | Internet Marketing - Three Mistakes That Are Costing You Up to Half of Your Potential Sales
Harmen Mander | Some Internet marketers are making three big mistakes that can cost them up to half of their online business. And all three mistakes stem from the belief that "Everyone has high speed."
According to a survey by a marketing association, roughly 60% of all Americans have high speed internet. But even this figure is skewed. The truth is, far less than 60% have actual high speed.
If you ever fill out surveys, you'll see that the choices do not include satellite service. Possibly because it is advertised as high speed, satellite service is lumped in with broadband.
The latest figures I could find indicated that Hughes Net now serves over 500,000 homes, and since Hughes and Wild Blue each served a comparable number in the 2007 figures I found (700,000 combined) we can assume that Wild Blue also has over a half million subscribers.
While the ads promise high speed, it is far from the truth. In fact, every time I see a TV ad for either Wild Blue or Hughes Net I have the urge to throw something at the screen. I mention both providers, because I've used both.
One of their techs explained to me that it just can't be any other way - it's the nature of satellite to take longer because of the way the signals have to bounce up and back. On the positive side, it is faster than dial-up over our ancient rural phone lines. So, I continue to pay a hefty high-speed price for "medium" speed.
The government stimulus package will supposedly bring broadband to rural areas - so that everyone will have actual high speed by 2020 - but even if that happens, it doesn't do your 2010 marketing much good!
So why is lack of high speed costing you business?
Because when it takes too long to view your message, visitors go away.
The three mistakes that can drive visitors from your page are:
Using video to the exclusion of text.
Asking your visitors to click from page to page to view your message.
Creating long load times by using too many graphics or dark colored backgrounds.
In many, if not most cases, when you use dial-up or satellite, videos stream in short chunks. You'll see and hear 4 or 5 seconds, then wait for 8 or 10 seconds for the next 4 or 5 seconds. How many people are willing to watch video that way? Not me!
Going from page to page is another problem. Just today I wanted to read a message that promised a list of 8 ways to relieve pain. Too bad for me. Each short point was presented on a different page, surrounded by advertisements that included graphics. I got as far as the 3rd point, and after using about 6 minutes to view 15 seconds worth of reading, I left.
Perhaps if all they'd had on those pages was text, it would have moved fast enough to keep me interested.
Slow loading is the third thing that causes visitors to leave - often before your page even finishes loading. Too many graphics or a dark red or black background spells SLOW. Your satellite or dial-up visitor has to really want to be there in order to stay long enough to see your page.
Harmen Mander | I've done it a few times - and rather than sit here and steam, I go find something else to do while the page loads. To give you an example, at different times I've folded a load of laundry, gone upstairs to get a cup of coffee, and carried a load of wood in for the fireplace - and come back each time to find that the page is almost loaded.
Nothing could be farther from the truth. So unless your target audience is limited only to high-income city dwellers, creating your site for high speed is costing you sales.
\
According to a survey by a marketing association, roughly 60% of all Americans have high speed internet. But even this figure is skewed. The truth is, far less than 60% have actual high speed.
If you ever fill out surveys, you'll see that the choices do not include satellite service. Possibly because it is advertised as high speed, satellite service is lumped in with broadband.
The latest figures I could find indicated that Hughes Net now serves over 500,000 homes, and since Hughes and Wild Blue each served a comparable number in the 2007 figures I found (700,000 combined) we can assume that Wild Blue also has over a half million subscribers.
While the ads promise high speed, it is far from the truth. In fact, every time I see a TV ad for either Wild Blue or Hughes Net I have the urge to throw something at the screen. I mention both providers, because I've used both.
One of their techs explained to me that it just can't be any other way - it's the nature of satellite to take longer because of the way the signals have to bounce up and back. On the positive side, it is faster than dial-up over our ancient rural phone lines. So, I continue to pay a hefty high-speed price for "medium" speed.
The government stimulus package will supposedly bring broadband to rural areas - so that everyone will have actual high speed by 2020 - but even if that happens, it doesn't do your 2010 marketing much good!
So why is lack of high speed costing you business?
Because when it takes too long to view your message, visitors go away.
The three mistakes that can drive visitors from your page are:
Using video to the exclusion of text.
Asking your visitors to click from page to page to view your message.
Creating long load times by using too many graphics or dark colored backgrounds.
In many, if not most cases, when you use dial-up or satellite, videos stream in short chunks. You'll see and hear 4 or 5 seconds, then wait for 8 or 10 seconds for the next 4 or 5 seconds. How many people are willing to watch video that way? Not me!
Going from page to page is another problem. Just today I wanted to read a message that promised a list of 8 ways to relieve pain. Too bad for me. Each short point was presented on a different page, surrounded by advertisements that included graphics. I got as far as the 3rd point, and after using about 6 minutes to view 15 seconds worth of reading, I left.
Perhaps if all they'd had on those pages was text, it would have moved fast enough to keep me interested.
Slow loading is the third thing that causes visitors to leave - often before your page even finishes loading. Too many graphics or a dark red or black background spells SLOW. Your satellite or dial-up visitor has to really want to be there in order to stay long enough to see your page.
Harmen Mander | I've done it a few times - and rather than sit here and steam, I go find something else to do while the page loads. To give you an example, at different times I've folded a load of laundry, gone upstairs to get a cup of coffee, and carried a load of wood in for the fireplace - and come back each time to find that the page is almost loaded.
Comments
Post a Comment