Web Design, Development & Online Marketing - Serving the Central and North Texas Markets

Looking for Affluent Men Online

Desiring interaction with affluent men is not just for single women on dating sites!  Marketers are recognizing that men like to shop online.  Although women still influence the majority of buying decisions, men are enjoying the freedom to shop anywhere, anytime on their computer and mobile devices.  This sure beats shopping with your wife/girlfriend and having to hold a purse at the mall while you wait and wait and wait!

I personally can vouch for the trend of men shopping online by even observing my two kids.  My 15 year old son shops on line 90% to my 17 year old daughter's 10% (or less).   (This does not include iTune purchases.) This may indicate future equality across the sexes for marketers' attention.

Men shop online with mobile devices

Marketing Charts published data from a iProspect study that indicated an overwhelming preference among affluent males (70%) to research and buy online as opposed to researching online and purchasing in store, provides unique opportunities for advertisers to capitalize on this audience’s behaviors. And while the majority of purchases are still made on PCs, the affluent male is doing more and more research on mobile devices, making a multi-channel approach necessary. Some details:

• The vast majority (91%) access a PC at least once daily, while 77% have a mobile smartphone and 50% own a tablet.
• Engagement with these devices is high across the board – almost 100% of survey respondents report using their PCs and mobile smartphones at least daily and 85% reporting daily use of tablets.
• When an affluent male has daily access to tablet, he is 32% more likely to have made a purchase via the device.
• In terms of visibility, 71% have seen ads on a PC while one in three has seen ads on a mobile phone or tablet. 

What Marketers Should Do to Reach Affluent Men

This trend trickles down beyond luxury brands and products so all marketers should take note. Your first priority is to have a highly functional MOBILE website.  Viewing your company website on a mobile device can be very frustrating for users and limits conversion and engagement opportunity. From there the focus is on content and visibility as with all your marketing channels.

If you are curious or new help reaching the affluent market or mobilizing your online presence, contact a digital marketing agency for a consultation.  We are here to help and can assess and prioritize a strategy based on your business goals and budget.

How so-called digital marketing agencies deliver creativity but fall short on reality.

Okay, so I’m doing a little surfing to see what companies are doing marketing in some of the target industries we’re expanded into and I happen upon a couple agencies that claim strength in digital marketing.  Hmmm….really?

The guilty will remain anonymous but, in the 2 cases I’ll rant about here, this is what I find:

“Wait while our site loads, it will be worth it”.  That, by itself, is so funny I must wait.  Wait..waiting…wait….  Poof…a pretty picture and a navigation “structure” that is so confusing I’m not sure what to click to find their services.  This is an agency that is working for large retail brand of beauty products and promotes a state’s visitor and entertainment bureau among other significant sized clients. It really made my brain hurt to look at their own site. 

Another agency site that focuses on health care digital marketing opens with a Flash image rotation with one little molecule looking symbol that says “drag me” when you hover over it.  Okay, weird.  Clicking the little nodules on the symbol brings up a portion of the content on top of the big rotating picture.  Then the content comes up over the image and is in 4 columns.  You must scroll down separately for each column’s content…thus FOUR scroll bars on the one page.  I could scream… “What? Are you kidding me?”  Keep those scalpels away from me.

My thought is that these agencies sell their clients outrageously costly, yet “creative” websites that don’t deliver beyond a gee whiz impression.
I cannot believe that a true business objective was ever at the forefront when sites like these are created.  When there is frustration, there is friction in the conversion process.  Digital marketing allows such great opportunity to eliminate friction.  Why create it just to be creative?

The Most Creative Websites Lose

Some of the most creative sites do win awards for creativity from other “creative” people or organizations.  But the real award should come from a client who’s increased sales by 20% or expanded into new markets without adding resources or added valuable customer service features that reduce client turnover or doubled lead generation without increasing marketing budget…and so on.  Digital marketing should focus more on making the client a winner!

Problem Solvers Win.

Keeping a balance between creativity and results is important.  But, if you are in a profit-focused business, face it, beauty doesn’t make payroll!
Don’t get me wrong.  Creating a great visitor experience on a website does include the first impression and a look and feel that reflects the image of your target audience.  But, it is more about making it easy for your visitor to quickly see how you can solve their problem or fulfill their need and take action in the fewest clicks.

A real digital marketing agency will help you strategize how digital can further the overall marketing objectives of your business before getting creative with your website, search engine optimization, social media efforts or mobile visibility.  In addition, a real digital marketing agency will put analytics in place to ensure your business objectives are being delivered through this medium and the data is actionable to constantly improve results.  Last I checked, Google Analytics didn’t have a Key Performance Indicator called “website awards”.  LOL.

It makes me happy to know we provide real digital marketing services that deliver great results to our local, regional and national clients.    You can take that to the bank!