As online marketers who try to sell online we have it in our heads that people by the millions are going to login, search for an ebook or product we offer, find your site and click the order button – right?
You may spot a few flaws in that sort of thinking, the first being that most people who spend time online have not intention of buying anything, and in fact, may be looking for nothing more than entertainment – a distraction from working or not working.
This recent study clearly shows that the vast majority of time broadband users spend online is either on entertainment or communications.
Here are some findings…
27% seek out entertainment – videos or games
About the same use the internet for communications through either email, instant messaging, skype IP phone calls, etc…
Only 12% is spent on shopping, and even less…
9% is allocated to searching for information.
Wow, more than half of the time someone is online, they are not even searching for products or information.
There is a HUGE message for marketers here – not the least of which is understanding how to leverage the social networking sites and entertainment technologies such as videos and games to attract the attention of their market.
If you plan to sell online, then one of the best ways to draw people from your market to you is to discover how they like to be entertained and either develop something entertaining, develop a tool or advertise using one of these channels.
Jeff
