CU Online! Where?!

When opening the CU Online page of the CU portal we were wondering the information overload. Our attention was not only drawn to a website error, but also to an image, several links, different menus, not to mention all the different fonts used on the page. This does not look user friendly at all. Some links on this page are hyperlinks to external web pages, where by a whole new page opens in a new window.

What follows next are some of our recommendations which will turn the design around to be more user friendly and efficient in usage. At the end, students have to feel comfortable and like to use CU Online in favour of their courses.

First we will talk about the information architecture. Obviously, there are a lot of things Coventry University wants the students to look at. They chose not to stick all the information on one page which is an excellent choice. It would take too long to load and students would not find what they need easily.(Nielsen, 2009) That is why the hierarchy of the offered information should be perfectly clear. This means that the general information concerning all students should be find very easy, without much effort. Searching for more specific info about a certain subject or course must be present on sub pages. A good navigation structure will ease this searching process. The CU Online page already tried to split up information and provided ways for students to find their way through all the offered info. But although they split it up, it still looks like a chaos. (Williams R., 2005)


Navigation on this page is also a crucial working point. Different types of navigation are currently used. We have left navigation which is very useful as we read from left to right in the UK. There’s also two top navigations. The advantage is this leaves more room for content and other relevant information in the centre of the page. Even on the right we find navigation possibilities under “Links”. These are all quick links to general information. But if we combine all these different navigation options, it starts to look too complex. Students often do not have the patience or time to discover and learn all the different navigation. Complicated and difficult to use navigation often makes users feel uneasy. Instead, it should be instinctive, easy to use and instantly clickable. (Mardiros Internet Marketing, 2009)

The titles of navigation are kept short and descriptive. This makes it easy to understand where every link leads to. The primary navigation, on the left hand side, should be no more than seven links. It should only include the most important links. The rest should be mentioned in the secondary navigation. The primary navigation should also stand out by using graphics and a different link style. On every page there should only be a fair number of links, less then 10. The best approach is to group similar links in categories. (Hunt, 2009) This means when clicking on a link in the main navigation, a sub menu with other related links appear. Because of this, the searched subject or information can be find much more easily and it is less time consuming . A used link should also be coloured differently, so it is clear the link is already used. The colour should stay in line and match with the web page design. In short, website navigation has to be kept simple and clean. (Bland V., 2009)


A good tip when redesigning the portal page of CU Online, let it be tested and pre-used by some students. Listen to their feedback and if possible correct important minors. Finally, they have to use CU Online frequently and the tool is especially developed for them to obtain course information much easier. They are the target, feedback from them can never do any harm. That is why it would be a good idea to give students an online possibility to suggest improvements or argue the user friendliness or usage efficiency of CU Online. In longer term, when redesigning the page, all these remarks could be kept in mind. (Bland V., 2009)


Knowing the CU Online page is used by all Coventry University students, why not offering them the possibility to gather in a online social community? Actually, the name says it all. CU Online, this application has to make sure it is well presented online. For example, all students who join the Coventry University network, or other Coventry University networks on Facebook, have the unique opportunity to join the CU Online group and/or fan page. Or, why only limit to those networks? Let’s make it available for all Facebook users! People and students who feel connected with CU Online will soon join this online group. By this support information and updates can be announced, there is the possibility to start discussions on several CU Online related topics, participants have the chance to give feedback and talk about their experiences with each others and with people responsible for this learning platform or users can pose questions. After developing this tool, it should be announced on the CU Online page so students are aware of this community tool. At the end, it will create a younger and a more involved image of CU Online, which hopefully results in a more pleasant use of the CU Online page, if major improvements are made!



References
Bland V. (2009) 'Website development: avoiding the traps.' NZB 23, 52-55

Hunt B. (n. d.) Web Design from scratch [online] available from [5 April 2009]

Nielsen J. (n. d.) Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design [online] available from [5 April 2009]

Unknown (n. d.) Mardiros Internet Marketing [online] available from [5 April 2009]

Williams R. (n. d.) Good Design Features [online] available from [25 February 2005]

The power of online communities

Browser based communities

Because they are enlarging, online social communities are very attractive for advertising expenditure. In 2007, 920 billion dollar was spend on ad expenditure for use in social networks in the United States. In 2008 this number rose to 1,6 billion dollars. Worldwide the ad expenditure on social networks grew to 2,1 billion dollar between 2007 and 2008.

The problem with mass social networks like Facebook is that they are limited in their ability to target customers with relevant ads from a brand advertiser. Most of the time advertisers only know the age and the interest, which they found out based on the groups in which the consumer is enrolled. (Medford, 2007)

LinkedIn might be better than Facebook and other mass social networks for advertisers. The consumer is motivated to update his profile because it concerns his professional life.

The members are older and wealthier than Facebook and MySpace users. This offers opportunities for B-to-B and premium good advertisers because they know the customer’s profession, the industry he works in, level of education and geography.

A Small World, http://www.asmallworld.net/, is another example of a social network. The website has 100 percent revenue of luxury brand ads like for example Louis Vuitton, Dior and Mercedes Benz. The website works with a focus group of consumers. These people are asked what brand they remember from the website on a regular basis. Apparently they have 85 percent brand recognition on the website. This is because the ads on the website are relevant to the audience. This is what’s so important for marketers. There’s also a high level of engagement which mass social networks can’t achieve. (Baker, 2008)

Marketers have several opportunities to target their target group. A simple way to reach consumers is by using banners. These are classic methods but seem to have lost their efficiency. A lot of companies have made a group of their own now on websites like Facebook. Other users can join this group. But what every marketer wants to achieve is that consumers build groups about the brand on their own, which happened with Starbucks.

Online gaming communities

Advertising in games or advergaming was first introduced by SEGA somewhat 20 years ago. According to Massive, a Microsoft subsidiary specialised in placing ads into video games, advertising within video games will approach a 1.4£ billion business by the end of the decade.
This would be a rough 3% of all media spent.

This growth is driven by the online application of in-game advertising. An increasing percentage of the 15-35 year olds are playing games in an online community. Already 75% of people who have internet access spend more than an hour per month playing online games (Park Associates, 2006).

Especially massively-multiplayer online roleplaying games (MMORPG) are booming business. MMORPG reach thousands of people and generate cash by the monthly membership contribution fees, virtual goods and advertising. The revenues of US online gaming such as MMORPG’s services will be touching $3.5 billion in 2009. (Park Associates, 2005)

By registering and agreeing to the terms of use, the company behind the game receives a lot of useful information. Gender, age, location, leisure activities, who your friends are, what times your playing … .These databases make it very easy for marketers to reach different segments and target specific groups. A high ROI is guaranteed, measuring internet traffic nowadays is also no problem.

The question remains how we reach these gamers effectively? Most members of these online game communities know the internet as if it was their own backyard and will not click easily on a lame banner ad. Gamers are also likely to be more engaged with their primary task (playing the game) and therefore have less attention capacity for the surrounding secondary information compared with their level of attention when they are engaging in usual online activity (Adam Acar, 2009).

E-xpErtz believe a mix of advertising tools could do the trick. Direct mailing to clearly limited target groups, product placement in the games, sponsoring certain features of the game, virtual billboards, account extra point or lives to people who include your brand name on the clothing of their virtual alter ego,…

Online communities whether they are browser based or originate from online games are not only the next best thing; they will probably dominate the near future on the internet. People are spending more and more hours within these communities. You don't want to limp behind with your brand...

References:

Baker, Claudine (2008) 'Close Friends .' New Media Age Supplement, 12-13

Medford, Cassimir (2008) 'MySpace Opens Ad Window to marketers.' Red Herring Unknown , 4-4

Adam Acar (2007) 'Testing the Effects of Incidental Advertising Exposure in Online Gaming Environments.' Journal of interactive advertising 8,

Park Associates (n. d.) Networked Gaming: Driving the Future [online] available from <http://www.parksassociates.com/research/reports/tocs/2005/networked_gaming.htm> [December 2005]

Hawkyard, M. ; Brown, O (2008) 'WILL ADVERGAMING BE THE NEXT BIG THING?.' Brand Strategy 227, 60-63

Hello, my name is Facebook. Nice to meet you!

Facebook, a virtual place to meet friends, colleagues, former classmates and other people we know. But how would Facebook look like in real life?

Comedy group Idiots of Ants made a very funny sketch for BBC's The Wall about this topic, including positive and negative features of this online social network platform.

SALE: Get your E-marketer now! Only £9,99!

Congratulations you are our 1,000,000th visitor, click here to see what you have won”. For years these kinds of pop-ups, unwanted newsletters and other spam were synonyms for E-marketing. Nowadays these irritating messages are almost extinguished and only remind us of the horror of web 1.0.

In those days you only needed a large database of e-mails and basic html knowledge to be successful on the internet. Luckily courts around the world judged and barred these pirates of the early internet. Adapt or die.

Thanks to online discussion forums companies think twice when applying e-marketing strategies, an upset consumer can easily influence hundreds of peers. On the other hand, companies have more resources for effective targeting than ever before. Booming websites and applications where a lot of user details are publically shared such as Amazon.com, Facebook, eBay, MySpace, … provide a massive amount of data. Webtraffic became also increasingly measurable so return-on-investment rates are just a few clicks away.

Marketing departments all over the world are preparing a war over the consumer, online. By the end of 2009 an average of 10% of the total marketing budget spend by global corporations will be allocated to e-marketing. To feed this war build-up companies are desperately recruiting youngsters who are familiar with the latest internet buzz and know the principles of marketing. Kids born with IPods in their ears who are 24/7 on the WWW browsing the blogosphere are hot.

Not often a blog writer is offered a quite impressive job such as Kris Hoet of ‘cross the breeze, who actually takes care of blogger relations for Microsoft in Europe. Off course, recruiting hobby-bloggers to develop marketing strategies is far from ideal. E-marketing is gaining so much importance that the subject should be taught at higher education level.

The question remains which profile an e-marketer should have. Off course he needs to be aware of the latest trends on the web. And yes, as a member of the marketing division he should know his P’s. Mix that with some technical and graphical knowledge such as flash, adobe, xhtml, java,… and you will come close finding your perfect e-marketer.

So, it seems that an e-marketer must be a multi skilled person huh? That is exactly how one should be trained: with a wide look on business environment. Ideally, students of all different business disciplines need to be mixed up and work in groups. Consequently, computing students get to know advertising strategies and marketing students learn that not all of their ideas are technically feasible.

Let’s take a look to some fine examples of e-marketing in various industries. Off course, e-marketing is mainly used in a B2C context. The good-things-should-never-end campaign of Orange, the Axe chocolatizer facebook-application, the ikea dreamkitchen, …But also non-profit organisations apply e-marketing in a very clever way. Or what to think of this Unicef campaign?

References:
Time magazine (2009) First E-marketing, Now E-research [online] available from <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,995937,00.html> [Monday, Jan. 24, 2000]
The Guardian (2009) Expert panel Q&A: E-commerce [online] available from <http://www.guardian.co.uk/royal-mail-growing-your-business/expert-panel-e-commerce> [Tuesday November 18 2008 ]
AllBusiness (2009) Trend Watch: The importance of E-marketing [online] available from <http://www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/4283264-1.html> [Friday, December 1 2000]
Article Alley (2009) Importance of Internet Marketing Education [online] available from <http://www.articlealley.com/article_745355_81.html> [09th January 2009]

Adapt or die.

“Adapt or die, that’s the unofficial motto of the Internet.” (Edelman)

How many, so called great websites went down in recent months. Not only is there MySpace, a website growing beyond the control of its builders, but also SecondLife, not to mention other once so successful stories.

We don’t have to spend too much time chatting about MySpace. When it first came off, it was an instant success. People could add their profile, keep in touch with their friends, upload music and so on. But it was the success that meant the failure in the end. The builders had no clear vision of where they were heading to. The website kept growing, more and more companies got involved and sponsored messages became the biggest deal in MySpace-land. Younger people soon realized this was not what they wanted – it lost its ‘coolness’ – and went on searching for other communicational websites. This meant of course the success of Facebook. So far the only negative aspect of this website is that you can not (yet?) personalize your own page. But I have the feeling this feature might appear in the future. (David Louis Edelman, 2007)

What about SecondLife? I must admit, I never was too fond of these websites but I try to be at little biased as possible. Just like MySpace, SecondLife boomed like no other website. Everywhere, people were talking about their latest discoveries. You could hear stories of people making millions of US dollars on the website in just a couple of days. But all good things come to an end. I wanted to see the current situation in person so I logged on once again – and probably for the last time -. Nothing but empty streets and the few people running around were trying to sell me some products I have never heard of before. Goodbye SecondLife.

“Few technology companies have succeeded in the long run with the mantra
-Why change?-.” (MacManus)

So, what can we learn from both cases? I you are unable to adapt quickly, your business will run dry. Next we try to sum up some elements that make your website a success.

People often tend to copy successful stories. Yes, this might be a success in the short term but probably – I say probably because there are plenty of other stories – it won’t work in the long term. So what you really ought to aim for is finding what you and other people desperately need. And please don’t make things too complicated. People are bored with complicated features. Keep things as simple as possible. Another element that made different successes, like YouTube and Flickr, work is that they begun small but had a clear vision of how they wanted to grow. I mentioned the fact of copying before but it’s necessary to be different.
And finally, just like in sports, it is very important not the let competition stop you, but, on the contrary, let it motivate you. (Richard MacManus, 2007)

References:
Richard Titus, Adam Hutchinson (October 28, 2008) More than just watching TV [online] available from <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2008/10/watching_tv_is_more_than_just.html> [February 22, 2009]
David Louis Edelman (January 24, 2007) The end of MySpace [online] available from <http://davidlouisedelman.com/technology/end-of-myspace> [February 22, 2008]
Richard MacManus (September 5, 2007) 10 future web trends [online] available from <http://readwriteweb/com/archives/10-future-web-trends.php> [February 22, 2009]