Q. I’m the marketing manager for a medium-sized company and trying to figure out how to use the Internet more effectively to reach our consumers. I see people using banner ads and search engines to sell what they do, but these turn me off. Is there any new model that appeals emotionally to people looking for services or products?
A. Many readers have written to me about how the Internet has hurt, not helped, their business by providing a glut of low-quality content. How does your consumer tell the good from the bad, the expert from the huckster, or effective products and services from the snake oil? One promising Internet model has been developed by a company in the health-care industry called Sharecare. It has set up a website that allows consumers to ask increasingly complicated medical questions and receive thorough, accurate and useful information about health.
Consumers know who is providing the answers and can go as deeply as they want in researching information that will keep them healthy.
Organizations and experts must first apply to participate on the site and then are screened by a team of medical experts before they are allowed. The information is free to site visitors. The real payoff of the site is that it connects customers with providers in a way that builds confidence and connection.
Sharecare offers providers a way to reach out to customers and provides customers a way to interact with and gain confidence in the providers before buying the good or service. The hope is that the organizations and experts will transform the site into an online learning community that advances the knowledge and resources within the industry. Bottom line: Everybody wins!
So many of my readers have complained that they are seeking but not finding a model that lets them really use the internet to increase their business. Traditional advertising just annoys consumers, and websites are helpful but old hat.
“Traditional advertising focuses on benefits and features rather than providing immediate, useful knowledge to their customers,” says Jeff Arnold, Sharecare’s chairman and chief architect. “There are 17 billion searches happening in the U.S. on the Internet every 30 days. It doesn’t matter if you are an accountant, mechanic, or beautician if you have expertise. Someone on the Internet is looking for that expertise. This new model lets business people become fishermen, and the bait is knowledge!"
What I found most fascinating about Arnold’s model of integrating the Internet with business is the combination of social benefits and profits for organizations. Companies willing to contribute knowledge to these types of business ecosystems can increase customer traffic, educate their customers, reduce the suffering people experience due to ignorance, and share ideas with their brightest peers to advance breakthroughs in their industries.
Here’s the takeaway: Recognize that your customers are using the Internet this minute to get enlightened, to help make tough decisions, and to get information they need to solve problems. Stop thinking of yourself as merely selling a product or service and start to think of your company as selling education first. Your business will win new customers; your customers will find new solutions. And the information you provide may even contribute to improving the world. Work doesn’t get too much better than that!
Q. I tend to hire people who are just like me. Is that a problem?
A. Yes. No one on your team will have the complementary strengths to your weaknesses.
