E-Marketing Tips from Gas Stations

Interesting piece over at WebPro News about applying the customer intuition skills and insights from your local gas station to the design of e-commerce experiences.

How Everything I Know About Web Marketing I Learned from Your Local Gas Station

During my holiday travels, it occurred to me how few people leave a gas station without buying anything. Whether it's a package of Pop Rocks or a full tank of gas for a Hummer, gas stations drive sales at high double-digit conversions versus an average e-commerce conversion rate of around 1.8%. What are we missing?

It's an interesting idea. The author, Jeremy Swiller, goes on to identify some key areas and approaches that can inform keyword advertising and site design.

Regular, Super or Premium?

On the highway, the search term is usually an empty gas tank. But do your search terms accurately represent your product online? If your product is more expensive than the average, then brand that product through search. A visitor searching through organic listings for "premium chocolates" may be willing to pay $50-$100 when you provide the inherent value of the product. However, conversions will not be as favorable on the more generic term "chocolates" when you drive visitors to the same page. And "discount chocolates" will create frustration for the visitor once they see the high price tag.

Descriptions are key in paid listings as well. Our gas station displays the prices on your way in, but how does this translate to the web?

American Crew Hair Gel
Best Hair Gel Selection & Expert Advice
American Crew $7-$20 plus free shipping
www.exampledomain.com

This helps meet a visitor's need to determine price range before wasting their time (and your money). Was this what they planned on spending? What can they expect when they click through?

The idea is simple. Approach your interactive internet marketing with knowledge of what your customer is looking for and how they are looking. Are they looking for regular, super or premium and are you communicating that you have what they are looking for.

Next time you ride the train or spend some time in an airport lounge watch people reading newspapers and magazines. See what you can observe that might provide some insights for your internet marketing. Do they read the articles or just skim each page? Do you notice them studying the ads? (Most magazines have ads on one side and editorial on the other. A person studying both sides of a spread is probably studying both editorial and ads) Do they tare anything out or make notes of telephone numbers or websites? Do they reach for their Treo to browse for more info? There just might be some insights that could help you formulate your next email newsletter in a way that will increase user friendliness.

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