By Susan E. Aldrich
Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group
In the past 12 months, we've watched our clients who were unhappy with how difficult it was to get the right items in front of their customers take very different paths to achieve their customer acquisition and sales conversion goals.
We saw one client opt for SEO services to bring all visitors to exactly the right page – no site search and navigation required.
Another client chose a recommendation platform to bypass their site search inadequacies. They didn't want to replace several search engines providing keyword and part number search on the site, and they recognized that metadata was never going to keep pace with customer terminology.
A third client took the traditional approach of replacing a simplistic keyword-match site search with an ecommerce-focused search solution, selecting an offering that comes with what the vendor describes as a marketing suite: recommendations, targeted ads and emails, and SEO.
A fourth client continues to struggle with ineffective search, because as she says, "We have an ecommerce platform, and we all pretend to believe it will do everything for ecommerce. So there is no chance of augmenting the parts that perform poorly for us, such as search."
The first three are pleased with their results, noting that customers are getting a much better experience and that the Web site is contributing more to business results.Does this mean that search, navigation and discovery are no longer the leading mechanisms for marketing and for streamlining the customer experience?
Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group
In the past 12 months, we've watched our clients who were unhappy with how difficult it was to get the right items in front of their customers take very different paths to achieve their customer acquisition and sales conversion goals.
We saw one client opt for SEO services to bring all visitors to exactly the right page – no site search and navigation required.
Another client chose a recommendation platform to bypass their site search inadequacies. They didn't want to replace several search engines providing keyword and part number search on the site, and they recognized that metadata was never going to keep pace with customer terminology.
A third client took the traditional approach of replacing a simplistic keyword-match site search with an ecommerce-focused search solution, selecting an offering that comes with what the vendor describes as a marketing suite: recommendations, targeted ads and emails, and SEO.
A fourth client continues to struggle with ineffective search, because as she says, "We have an ecommerce platform, and we all pretend to believe it will do everything for ecommerce. So there is no chance of augmenting the parts that perform poorly for us, such as search."
The first three are pleased with their results, noting that customers are getting a much better experience and that the Web site is contributing more to business results.Does this mean that search, navigation and discovery are no longer the leading mechanisms for marketing and for streamlining the customer experience?
This is the question we address in our Pocket Guide to Tools for Acquisition and Conversion.
