What Do People Want Online?
By Jay Conrad Levinson    GuerrillaMarketingAssociation.com

What people want online is a question guerrillas ask themselves a lot. Whether it's for fun or work or something else, understanding a consumer's motives once he or she logs on is a necessity. But the experts don't seem to agree on what people want. Some folks see the web as a vast, new field for advertising messages, assuming that while people may want to do something else, if we can entice them with flash, we can sort of trick them into paying attention to our products and services.

Other folks seem to subscribe to the notion that people online are looking for entertainment on the Internet and therefore they construct messages aimed at persuading while playing. And, in other cases, the time-honored direct-response model wins out: Grab people when you can, get 'em to take an action, and then market, market, market. The answer is that the consumer has and wants a lot more control than we think.

Two recent studies shed light upon this dilemma. The answer, as most answers, is very utilitarian: People want to accomplish something online. They're not aimless surfers hoping to discover a cybertreasure. Instead, the average Net user turns out to be a goal-oriented person interested in finding information and communicating with others ­ in doing something he or she set out to do. One study, "A View of the 21st Century News Consumer" looked at people's news reading habits on the web. It revealed that reading and getting news was the most popular online activity after email. The guerrilla thinks, “That means email is numberone. How might I capitalize on that?”

One out of three respondents reported that they read news online every day, with their interests expanding geographically — local news was of the most interest, U.S. news the least, though the September 11th attacks changed that. Personalization was seen as a benefit, too. Seventy-five percent of respondents said that they wanted news on demand and nearly two out of three wanted personalized news. The subjects surveyed liked the idea that they, not some media outlet, controlled the news they saw.

Almost two-thirds of the 3,500 respondents said they felt that email brought them closer to family and friends — significant when combined with the fact that 91 percent of them used email on a regular basis. That’s 91 percent. It took VCRs 25 years to achieve such market penetration.

What did people in this study seem to be doing online when they weren't doing email? Half were going online regularly to purchase products and services, and nearly 75 percent were going online to search for information about their hobbies or purchases they were planning to make. Sixty-four percent of respondents visited travel sites, and 62 percent visited weather-related sites. Over half did educational research, and 54 percent were hunting for data about health and medicine. A surprising 47 percent regularly visited government web sites, and 38 percent researched job opportunities. Instant messaging was used by 45 percent of these users, and a third of them played games online. Even with all the hype in the media, only 12 percent said they traded stocks online.

What does this mean to e-marketers? It means that if you’re constructing a site for goal-oriented consumers, you'd better make sure you can help facilitate their seeking. Rather than focus on entertainment, flash, and useless splash screens, the most effective sites are those that help people get the information they want when they need it. Straightforward data, information that invites comparison, and straight talk are going to win the day.

What do people want online? It’s wanting to accomplish something.
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Jay Conrad Levinson is the author of the "Guerrilla Marketing" series of books, the most popular marketing series in history with 14 million sold, now in 39 languages. At his new GuerrillaMarketingAssociation.com, you’ll find lots of profit-producing ideas plus a list of 100 marketing weapons. Join up for phone and online access to The Father of Guerrilla Marketing.