There has been a lot of talk recently in the sales and marketing world regarding the phrase ‘2.0’. Heck, in the last week I’ve seen the following mentioned in various places around the net:
- Web 2.0
- Sales 2.0
- Social Media 2.0
- Business Owner 2.0
- Marketing 2.0
Essentially, everything now has this 2.0 label and the crazy thing is that many people still don’t really get what in the world Web 2.0 is all about. But before we delve into the definition of this wildly important phrase, let’s ponder this one question:
When a consumer visits your website, how do they feel?
Now, now—don’t just keep reading. You really need to answer this question before you move any further. How do they feel? What would they say to a friend about your website when they were done? Would they stay on for hours because of the site’s quality, or would they bore to death within the first 60 seconds?
Suffering from Mediocrity
Most business owners are truly afraid to analyze and answer this question. Why? Because their website suffers from a major case of mediocrity. It’s just another slice of bread in the loaf. Nothing makes it special. Nothing makes it stand out. And it’s entirely forgettable.
The essential component of developing a Web 2.0 site is a clear understanding of the feeling you want to project to the visitor. Until you’re able to answer this question, there is really no need to go further.
Once my business (River Pools) started to fully understand this truism, we wanted our customers to be able to say the following when they had been on our site:
I feel like I understand so much more now about the process of installing and owning a swimming pool.
I feel like I already know the owners of this company and they are the type of people I’d want to entrust my backyard with.
I feel completely comfortable with and trust the people of this company because they’ve taken the time to teach me so much more about swimming pools than anyone else.
I’m not exaggerating when I say that I’ve heard derivatives of these statements from our customers hundreds of times in the past 18 months or so. In fact, about 95% of all the leads that contact our company mention the website and how impressed they were with it during our first conversation.
What’s crazy is that if you head over to our site you’ll see that it doesn’t blow people away visually. Yes, it does look nice, but by no means is it a visual work of art. In fact, there are many swimming pool websites that are much prettier than ours. Notwithstanding, it’s the best of its kind in the swimming pool business. But the question is, why?
The 3 Core Principles of Web 2.0
Killer Content
Sounds simple, and it really should be simple, but most businesses completely screw up the whole content thing. Why? Because they don’t speak the language of the consumer. They don’t think like a consumer. And they certainly don’t answer the unique questions that are going through a consumer’s mind.
This is why your company blog is the absolute key to your ability to create killer content. It gives you the means to continually supply a fountain of ever-flowing information and constantly answer the consumer questions that are thrown at you each and every day. In fact, I’d go so far to say that if you do not currently have a blog on your website that is updated with articles at least once a week, then you are still living in the world of Web 1.0 and losing sales and market share because of it.
Great Video
I’m blue in the face talking about video but its importance cannot be overstated. Video is the core to creating those feelings we’ve been talking about up to this point. When a consumer feels like they know you as a person, and not just an employee of your company, trust will naturally be the result.
Just as every consumer question deserves a great blog article, it also deserves a great video. Video simply has visual powers of explanation that words are unable fulfill. Plus, considering so many people are visual learners, the importance of video will only continue to grow throughout the information age and web 2.0 era.
A Personal Touch
This final quality may be hard to understand for many people and its merits as a requisite of Web 2.0 may be debated by some, but I’m here to say that if anyone thinks that a ‘personal touch’ isn’t necessary to create a positive feel to a website then they are wrong. And what are some personal touches you can add to your website?
- Owner/Staff bio pages
- Welcome videos by owner/CEO/etc
- The usage of personal experiences at every opportunity possible, especially in blog articles
So that’s it. That’s Web 2.0. If you truly, and I mean truly, implement these strategies you’ll quickly notice a marked difference in the comments (aka the feelings) you receive from consumers regarding your site and not only that, but your sales and marketing results will reach levels never previously attained.
Questions about Web 2.0? Do you think I’m wrong in my assessment? Do you think I’m a total idiot? 
As always, your thoughts and comments are appreciated.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
G’Day Marcus,
Firstly, I trust mum ‘n’ bub are both thriving. They must already be 2.1!
You may or may not be nuts. But you speak good stuff. In my experience customers often value different things about doing business with us than we would’ve expected. The only way to find out is to ask them.
But we must use questions that make sense to them. It’s so easy to phrase our questions to subconsciously support our own beliefs. We create a self fulfilling prophecy.
One of my major clints is a plunbing company. Their customer service and support is, to use that hackneyed term, awesome. Customers value the service very highly. But we’ve discovered that one of the things that they place most value on is “your plumbers treat me like an adult. They don’t regard me as an idiot.”
“Marketing” as Al Ries and Jack Trout told us years ago,”occurs in the mind.” I wonder how many of the web 2.0 proseleytisers understand that.
Anyway, make sure you have fun.
Regards
Leon
Love it Leon……”The don’t regard me as an idiot”….just goes back to this idea of speaking to and teaching our clients on their language, not ours…and not speaking down to them just because they don’t share the same skillset, knowledge base, or vernacular.
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