And the name of the game is engagement
Intergen launches the Engaged Web in New Zealand Report.
March for us was all about the Engaged Web.
Of course, we’re always about web engagement, any month of the year, but in March we launched the Engaged Web in New Zealand Report, a survey of 50 of New Zealand’s top (most highly trafficked) websites across 10 sectors (Automotive, Business & Finance, Education, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Government, Health & Medical, Lifestyle, News & Media, Shopping & Classifieds). We partnered with Experian Hitwise and received their data for the study, and used EPiServer’s Engaged Web methodology as the basis for our investigation into the engagement levels of some of our best known and most frequently visited sites.
Why did we do it?
Gone are the days when a company’s web presence could thrive merely as a static shop window or an online brochure rack stuffed full of information.
If you’re failing to really engage with your website visitors, you’re missing out on huge opportunities. But how do you know what you’re missing out on? What websites are engaging well, and in which sectors? With no benchmark study of this kind in New Zealand, we decided to find out the answers to these questions, and to provide practical and constructive tips and tricks using real examples.
What did we find?
In a nutshell we found that kiwi businesses could be doing more to engage and interact with their customers online.
While 75% of the websites benchmarked featured an online community, the majority of these were using Facebook or Twitter. 48% of these major sites did not have a blog and only 45% allowed visitors to share website content.
In general, the websites made strong use of multimedia (81% of websites), personalisation (87% of websites) and sticky content (98% of websites), but lacked other forms of engagement. Email, phone and web forms were still the most commonly advertised contact channels, despite the rise in popularity of online channels such as Facebook and Twitter. 60% of the sites promoted their Facebook page on their homepage.
Entertainment, Automotive, and News & Media websites were most likely to have engaging features, while Government and Food & Beverage sector websites were found to be less engaging.
What does it mean? What learnings can we take from the results?
While many of New Zealand’s most popular websites strive to continually improve the level of engagement they provide, many other sites are still too static and are missing opportunities to do business online. The sites we benchmarked were some of New Zealand’s most popular websites. They attract huge audiences, but in some cases they aren’t allowing users to interact through the tools many people would expect, such as blogs, communities or social media.
The best websites are those that stay restless and continually improve themselves. There is no such thing as a finished website, and these interactive tools allow businesses to constantly update their content and engage with their audience. In many ways, launching or relaunching your site is easy, it’s what’s you do in the weeks and months that follow that counts. Too many companies take a “launch and leave” approach with their website, which results in stagnation and poor engagement.
While there are some excellent websites, many organisations are still stuck in a ‘project delivery’ mindset, where their website is seen as something they ‘do’ rather than something they should ‘nurture and grow’. This is a dangerous position to be in. The online environment is an incredibly fickle and transitory place, so if your website isn’t moving with your audience, they can and will go elsewhere.
So… the moral of the story? Don’t be afraid to engage. As a web user yourself, you know what works. Even if you’re not consciously noting it at the time, you know when a website is engaging you. The same principles apply for your own business website.
Go forth and connect.
Want to read the report for yourself? You can download it here for free.
Want a good old fashioned hard copy of the report? Email marketing@intergen.co.nz with your name and address, telling us you’d like to get your hands on a copy (or several).
giles.brown@intergen.co.nz