Posts Tagged ‘web presence’

4 Keys to a Successful Web Presence: Push, Pull, Pass, & Punt

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

Today, our team was just starting design on a new product idea. We are talking about different features and functionalities. There is so much possibility that we felt we were getting overwhelmed. One way I was taught to make sure I was covering all the bases of a successful web presence was the 4 Ps. So we went over the 4 P’s.

I learned the 4 P’s from Eric Bowe, a great internet strategic marketer I worked with at JWT, the marketing communications company. These 4 P’s are an easy way to make sure you have a robust internet experience for users. Different than those you ask yourself to focus on usability or to do a heuristic evaluation, these focus on the type of experiences you are supporting with your web presence. Ask yourself these 4 P’s as a quick gut check on your next internet project.

Push –  Email, SMS, RSS are good examples of where the organization has to “push” the messages to the users. This is great for personalized content and offers opportunities for tracking and analytics. Newsletters are a great tactic for Push. Understand that the compliance issues are extensive and you will need to spend time thinking through opt in and out and unsubscribing functions.

  • How is your message being pushed  to your users?
  • What are the answers your web presence has to users’ questions?
  • How are you tailoring to different needs?

Pull – The user has to seek out and “pull” the content to them. The normal website is the prime example. Blogs, like this one, are also pull. It better be useful, easy to get to, easy to consume, and timely.

  • What is it that brings people in?
  • How would people know that there is something “there” that they want and can get?
  • What is the message?
  • What is the stuff you are putting out there for the consumer to find?
  • And the most pertinent question after their first visit is why should they ever return again?

Pass – Viral. Tell-a-friend. Send an postcard to a friend. Perhaps it is the high score they achieved in a game on your site that they challenge a friend with. All of these have an “middle-man” pass a message along to someone else, indirectly. The advantage here is they know their friend and hopefully are sending to a friend who is interested in the topic.

  • How do you make it easy for a person to pass to another person information from your site, or a link?
  • What viral tactics are you using?
  • What aspect of your web-presence lends itself to word-of-mouth?

Punt – Fun. This is the combination of emotion and information. Entertainment and learning at best are one in the same.

  • How is your site fun?
  • More than easy to use, do they want to play with the interface?

 

References

Push & Pull Digital Marketing on Wikipedia

The usual textbook 4 P’s of Markting: Product, Price, Place (distribution), and Promotion.

Eric Bowe’s Blog