MKTG 403:

ELECTRONIC MARKETING
ESSENTIALS
LECTURE 4
Lecturer:
Dr. Sheena Lovia Boateng
Lecturer in Marketing, University of Ghana Business School
Email:
slboateng@ug.edu.gh

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 1

CREATING VALUE FOR THE
CONNECTED CUSTOMER
ONLINE

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 2

Introduction
❖Managing the digital customer experience for a
brand used to be straightforward.

❖Businesses simply had a website and an email

newsletter alongside offline channels to sale.

❖Today the picture is far more complex, with a

combination of digital touchpoints where
marketers seek to influence consumers stretching
across Paid, Owned and Earned media on
different devices.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 3

The Online Customer
❖Understanding the nature of customers is
fundamental to marketing practice and planning.

❖There are many factors that influence consumer

behavior online; and over time the market segments
that use the internet have changed significantly.

❖It is therefore important for marketers to be aware

of important behavioral variables and to understand
how to model online consumer behavior.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 4

Identifying Customers Online

1. Demographic variables
Any personal attributes that remain
static throughout an individual’s
lifetime, or evolve slowly over time and
influence their online behavior,
including gender, age, income,
education, marital status etc.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 5

Identifying Customers Online

2. Psychographic and
behavioral variables
Any aspect of consumers’ perceptions,
beliefs and attitudes that might
influence a consumer’s behavior online;
particularly their intention to shop,
including personality, hobbies, habits,
risk aversion.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 6

What is Customer Experience
Management?
❖A holistic approach to managing customer
experience and customer engagement across
digital and non-digital touchpoints including the
web, mobile and social digital platforms, in store
and by call centres.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 7

Customer Experience Management
❖There are several customer-facing touchpoints of a
brand’s online experience. These can include:

• Desktop websites
• Mobile-optimized sites
• Mobile apps
• Company pages on social media
• Emails
• Connected devices

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 8

 CREATING EFFECTIVE
ONLINE EXPERIENCES

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 9

 What does ‘Effective’ here mean?

❖‘Effective’ means that the

presence must deliver relevance
and a satisfactory digital customer
experience for its audience.

❖‘Effective’ also means that the

presence must support and add
value to the brand to deliver
results for the company.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 10

Delivering the Digital Customer
Experience
❖Creating a customer-centric online presence is
key to online success.

❖However, creating these experiences is a

challenge, since there are many practical factors
to consider.

❖These factors can be presented in the form of a

pyramid of success factors. Note that all the
factors presented are all associated with using a
website.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 11

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 12
Essential Elements for Creating Effective
Online Experiences Using Websites

1. Accessibility – An accessible design supports

visually impaired site users and other disabled
users. It also helps users accessing the site
with a range of different web browsers, using
different devices such as mobiles or tablets,
and it also indirectly assists search engine
optimization.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 13

 Contrast Ratio

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 14

Provide feedback for errors and
omissions

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 15

Essential Elements for Creating Effective
Online Experiences Using Websites

2. User-centred design and usability – with

a user-friendly site, visitors can find the
information they are seeking, have a
satisfactory experience and complete
actions efficiently.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 16

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 17
9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 18
Essential Elements for Creating Effective
Online Experiences Using Websites

3. Information architecture and findability – An

analysis and design to create a sound system of
structure and labelling of content in headings
and navigation is essential to help findability
through standard navigation and on-site search.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 19

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 20
9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 21
Essential Elements for Creating Effective
Online Experiences Using Websites

4. Search engine optimization (SEO) – if SEO

isn’t considered in site design and within
content management systems, search robots
may be unable to crawl content and the
relevance of different pages will be unclear.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 22

Essential Elements for Creating Effective
Online Experiences Using Websites

5. Web standards – complying with standards to

produce consistency in the way sites are coded
and displayed in different browsers as promoted
through the World Wide Web consortium
(www.w3.org) and the Web Standards Project
(www.webstandards.org).

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 23

Essential Elements for Creating Effective
Online Experiences Using Websites

6. Persuasion to deliver commercial results –

your design should emphasize specific content
and customer journeys through the site in order
for your site to meet its objectives such as
conversion rate optimization (CRO). e.g. store
locators, delivery information, promotions etc.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 24

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 25
9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 26
Creating Effective Online Experiences
❖Despite the growth in social media, the company
website is still at the heart of online communications.

❖Even though the online customer experience

extends beyond just using a website.

❖Effectively designed online experiences integrate

with the entire customer journey for different
audiences and different scenarios to achieve the
best results.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 27

 PLANNING WEBSITE, APP
DESIGN AND REDESIGN
PROJECTS

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 28

Website Planning
❖The company website must be effective for
users accessing via desktop, smartphone
and tablet devices.

❖For the experience to be effective, a sound

process is needed to design, build and
refresh the online experience.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 29

Website Planning
❖This design and optimization process involves
analyzing the needs of owners and users of a site
and deciding on the best way to build a site to fulfill
these needs.

❖Without a structured plan, costly reworking is

inevitable.

❖This is because the initial version of the site will

not achieve the needs of the end users or the
business.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 30

 Main Website Development Tasks

❖The main development

tasks that need to be
scheduled as part of the
planning process for any
digital experience are as
follows:

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 31

 Summary
of Website
Development
Process

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 32

Main Website Development Tasks
1. Pre-development tasks

◦ For a new site or app, these include domain name

registration and deciding on the company to host the
website.

◦ Prepare a brief that sets out the aims and objectives

of the site.

◦ If the site is to be outsourced, make the brief

available for bidding and pitching.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 33

 Main Website Development Tasks
2. Discovery, analysis and design

◦ Research, detailed analysis and design of the site.

◦ Market research to identify the audience and typical

customer personas and user journeys and their
needs.

◦ Defining information architecture of different

content types and prototyping different functional
and visual designs.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 34

Main Website Development Tasks

3. Content creation, coding or development and

testing

◦ Developing the site to create prototypes.

◦ Integration of content management systems and

database integration.

◦ Usability and performance testing.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 35

 Main Website Development Tasks
4. Publishing or launching the site or improvement

◦ This stage is relatively short.

◦ Releasing different versions of an application or

website update.

◦ Often a Soft launch (trail version of site, launched

with limited publicity, until owners are sure the site
is stable) is used.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 36

 Main Website Development Tasks

5. Pre-launch promotion or communications

◦ Search engine registration and optimization is most

important for new sites.

◦ Briefing the PR company to publicise the launch.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 37

 Main Website Development Tasks
6. Ongoing promotion

◦ Site promotion should be kept ongoing after

launch.

◦ This may involve discount promotions on the site,

competitions planned in advance.

◦ Content marketing, influencer marketing and

pay-per-click marketing can also be used as a
continuous process.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 38

 Main Website Development Tasks
7. Ongoing development

◦ Content relating to products, services and

promotions are usually often updated.

◦ But the process from 1-5 should be repeated

between major updates using an agile
development process.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 39

 ELEMENTS OF SITE
DESIGN

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 40

1. Site Design and Structure
This captures the form and function of the site
including:
◦ Coherence - simplicity of design, easy to read,
use of categories, adequate font size, no
information overload, uncrowded presentation.
◦ Complexity - different categories of text.
◦ Legibility - use of ‘mini home page’ on every
page, site map to enhance navigation and
interaction.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 41

2. Site style
Some sites are information-intensive, and other
sites are graphics-intensive. An effective website
design is usually a balanced combination of the
following:

•Colour - It create a feeling about the site and

brand. Colour schemes need to be right for a
personality which fits the target audience, the
brand is for usability and accessibility.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 42

2. Site style
•Images (Graphics) - Many web sites indulge in
overelaborate graphics and ignore their audiences’
capability (screen resolutions, colour displays,
browsers), and patience, to view them.

•Layout and Typography - These have the power

to add to the visual appeal and persuasive power
of a website, e.g. using left justified text; sans-serif
font styles tend to work best on the web since they
are easier to scan and read; and look sharper on
the screen.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 43

3. Site personality
•The various style elements can be combined to
develop a distinct personality for a site.

•A site’s personality is described in a similar manner

as people, such as ‘formal’, ‘fun’, ‘engaging’,
‘entertaining’ etc.

•This personality connects the customer to the soul

of the brand and makes it shareable. It must
therefore be consistent with the needs of the target
audience.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 44

4. Visual design
•Despite modern browsers and broadband access,
graphic design of websites still poses a challenge
due to the following:

1.The speed of downloading graphics - Good

designers optimize graphics for fast
downloading. Remember the four-second rule
of thumb which shows that the majority of initial
visitors to a site will not hang around to wait for it
to download if it takes longer than this.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 45

4. Visual design
2. The screen resolutions of the computer -
Designing for different screen resolutions in very
important, given the range of resolutions from
smartphone to tablet to desktop.

3. The number of colours on the screen - The

colour palettes available must be considered.
Some users have monitors capable of displaying
16 million colours, giving photo-realism, while
others may only have the PC set up to display
256 colours.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 46

4. Visual design
4. The type of web browser used - Different types
of web browsers and their different versions may
display graphics or text slightly differently. A site
tested under one browser may fail completely
under another. Make sure to test your site design
against different versions of web browsers.

5. Different access devices - Sites are increasingly

viewed via mobile phones or handheld devices
like the PlayStation Plus. Different stylesheets can
be provided for different platforms or view modes,
e.g. mobile sites.

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 47

 Mobile site vs Desktop site

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 48

 END OF SESSION

9/9/2019 DR. SHEENA BOATENG 49