What can we do online to influence our customers in our favour?

Although many things have changed since we started Blue Latitude almost 6 years ago, one thing has remained a constant; the belief that customers, prospects and their online behaviour lie at the heart of building a successful interactive proposition.

As this business has grown, we have maintained this principle at the core of our methodology and have developed a series of tools to help us see the internet through they eyes of the customer. These tools help us to help our clients make important decisions regarding their web businesses and serve to remind us that… A website is not a web strategy.

There is one question that we find ourselves continually answering on behalf of our clients: What can we do online to influence our customers in our favour?

In recent times search engine marketing has gone a long way to answering that question and this can be seen by the meteoric rise in online advertising revenues over the last 5-6 years. However, Search only represents part of the answer, as users of the internet become more sophisticated companies are adopting a wide variety of tactics for reaching, converting and retaining customers online.

Over the last few years we have been developing the Online Environment Monitor; a series of views of the online environment that help us to predict customer journeys online and understand the influences at work within them. These views enable our experienced consultants to make practical strategic recommendations for improving our clients’ online performance.

The Online Environment Monitor helps us to answer important questions about an online business and its competition:

  • Who are our customers and which are the most visible sites in their journey?

  • Which sites are most relevant to their needs and why?

  • Who is the competition and who should our partners be?

  • Which sites are the most authoritative and how is this authority achieved?

  • What content is most likely to result in a conversion?

And most importantly –

What do we need to do now and in the future to ensure that our online business develops or maintains competitive advantage?

Blue Latitude is launching the Beta release of the Online Environment Monitor in May 2008.  If you would like to see a demo and find out how it might help your online business, please contact us today.