MIGROS CLUBSCHULE BUSINESS

Ich freue mich in dem ganz neuen Diplomlehrgang neben Jörg Eugster, Peter Hogenkamp, Maya Reinshagen und vielen weiteren Dozenten ab diesem Winter Website Marketing und Usability zu unterrichten.

BESCHREIBUNG
Das Internet ist mittlerweile die grösste Marketing- und Verkaufs- plattform der Welt. Wie nutzt man das Internet kommerziell für seine Zwecke?

Im Rahmen des Marketing-Mix’ werden zunehmend Online-Marketing- Massnahmen genutzt. Doch welche Methoden sind am wirkungsvollsten? Ist es E-Mail- oder Suchmaschinen-Marketing? Wie gut wirkt Bannerwerbung? Auf welchen Portalen gilt es, Präsenz zu zeigen? Soll man bereits auf Mobile Marketing setzen? Ist der Zeitpunkt richtig für Social Media Marketing und wenn ja, wie soll man diese Web 2.0-Instrumente einsetzen? Was für Alternativen bieten sich an?

Im Lehrgang Online-Marketing Manager/in werden Sie schrittweise von ausgewiesenen Experten mit langjähriger Erfahrung in diese Thematik eingeführt. Dabei werden ldie aktuellen Trends aus der Praxis wie Google, Facebook, Twitter & Co. laufend berücksichtigt.

Die Inhalte werden detailliert, praxisgerecht und anhand vieler Beispiele dargestellt, so dass Sie in der Lage sind, diese direkt in die Praxis umzusetzen.

INHALT
Folgende Inhalte bereiten die künftigen Online-Marketing Manager auf Ihre Aufgaben vor.
Online-Marketing-Strategie (8 Lektionen)
Website-Marketing und Usability (8 Lektionen)
E-Mail-/Newsletter-Marketing (8 Lektionen)
Suchmaschinen-Marketing (SEO, SEM), (16 Lektionen)
Web-Analyse (8 Lektionen)
Social Media Marketing (12 Lektionen)
Online-Werbung (8 Lektionen)
Virales Marketing, Sonderwerbeformen (8 Lektionen)
Mobile Marketing und Mobile Apps (8 Lektionen)
E-Commerce und rechtliche Grundlagen (8 Lektionen)
Einführung in die Diplomarbeit (4 Lektionen)

Details und Anmeldung

However, real life is not always that easy. Let’s look at some issues:

The seven point rule:
It is true and has been psychologically proven that the human brain best can recall 7 items and that the brain capacity after that becomes lower. This is certainly true for example shopping lists. However, from this also the rule: No more than 7 navigation items has been deducted.

Is it applicable? Yes and no.

It certainly makes sense to try to reduce navigational points and keep the navigational structure precise and clear.

However, what are some exceptions?

# Familiarity with a different structure in the “real world”:

For example news sites: Users are familiar with the categories of their daily newspaper such as news, entertainment, sports, weather etc. There it is advisable to retain the structure readers are familiar with.

# Simply too much content

Sometimes it also can help to add an additional top level item to avoid that the site will have too many navigational hierarchies.

# Linking to sub-sites

For example yahoo links to many sub-sites from its main portal and offers a link to view all other categories. This is another way to structure a huge amount many companies are following: Showing the main entries to everybody and adding an additional link to view all navigation items.

Read the entire series:
Part 1: How to structure content?
Part 3: Dynamic or static navigation
Part 4: Navigation and the customer life cycle
Part 5: Global navigation

Looking at their new homepage, I noticed three main points regarding usability and branding:

#1 Fast access to information on homepage

The main purpose of visiting a news Web site is usually to quickly learn about what is going on in the world or in the personal field of interest – for example sports. This means users want to be able to quickly scan the site and then pick an article.

It is exactly this which is impossible on the new BBC home page. Counting the visible news (at a 1024 resolution) entries on the home pages of major news sites today:

• BBC: 9 articles (not counting weather)
• CNN: 19 headlines
• NY Times: 18 headlines
• Yahoo: 14 headlines

Most other news sites make it much easier to get a quick overview.

When the user personalizes the homepage he can get up to about 12 visible entries without scrolling. However, studies have shown that usually only a small percentage of users make use of personalising a site. And why can the user not move the big picture on top; the one that is actually taking up most of the space?

Studies have shown that a minimum font size of 12 px and a bigger line spacing leads to the best results in reading efficiency and information transfer. So this is solved nicely on the new homepage. However, especially on the homepage there is too much unused space. For example the weather and blog quote are huge compared to the information they transfer.

#2 Accessing other topics via the homepage

In addition, the user has no chance to quickly access the topics provided by BBC. The user has to scroll to the end of the home page to find these:

These links are provided as a general navigation on almost every other news Web site. They allow easy and convenient access to the user’s field of interest. BBC offers those links also on all its subpages. Why not on the homepage?

For example Yahoo has solved those points on their homepage in a good manner: The navigation to the left with easy access to the main topics and lots of information in the content area.

#3 Visual consistency and branding

While the homepage looks like a clear attempt in trendy design with rounded corners, fading colours and light effects all the subpages have a totally different look and feel. They are flat 2 dimensional design, squared corners, no shading. What does BBC stand for?

The idea behind the concept sounds tempting at a first glance:
Personalized start pages allow their users to get all of their favorite websites, blogs, news, weather, maps, events, address books, to do lists, email accounts, social networks, search engines, video and photo networks – you name it – in one place, and users then can share the page with their friends.

What are the flaws
Have a look at the screenshot below: E-Mail, Flickr, Youtube, maps, etc.
Now consider the following scenarios and the users’ needs:

1. He wants to check his E-Mail: Where does he go?
   His start page or his E-Mail account?
2. He wants to check out the news on Youtube: Where does he go?
   His start page or Youtube?
3. He wants to upload some images to Flickr: Where does he go?
   His start page or Flickr?
4. He needs directions: Start page or Google maps?

You get the pattern.

So what are the benefits?
That is the big question. Users will fulfil their needs directly. The obstacles of configuring the start page and the loss of time do not match the benefits. A simple start page where a user can assemble all his favorite RSS feeds can offer a quick overview of all the sites’ news, and weather info is a feature many users appreciate. However, most features offered on those sites only mean a click more for the user, and therefore the user would rather go directly to the desired target such as Youtube, the E-Mail account or Flickr.

This is also why Flickr, Youtube, delicious, Facebook and many others got sold or received substantial venture capital. Despite the fact that several Personalized start pages got impressive media coverage, there is little business hype heard.

Lessons learned:
One of the most important factors for being successful is creating a business strategy that fulfils a concrete user need.
And yes, I am still wondering about the business models of today’s personalized start pages.

Who are the players?

Live