Why Content Counts

If you search the Internet for websites that sell janitorial products and supplies, you’ll find dozens of listings. Upon closer inspection, you’ll find many are very similar. Sure, some are professionally designed, and some have more products listed than others. But many are missing something very important: content.

Content is knowledge. Content is instruction. Content is ideas. Content helps distributors build relationships with online customers. It makes your e-commerce site not only a market for janitorial goods and products, but also a knowledge resource for using, applying, and working with the products you sell.

Indeed, content is the missing ingredient on most e-commerce websites in our industry, as well as in many others. When the tech boom of the 1990s ended, many janitorial distributors dismissed the Internet, saying it was too early for our industry or not a fit for our industry at all. What they didn’t realize is that content can turn e-commerce websites into cash.

E-Commerce Is About Content
People are just starting to learn how to make e-commerce work for their companies, and it’s because they’re now making the connection between the “people” aspect of e-commerce and website content.

For example, let’s assume we are looking for a new car. We go to the Internet, not to buy the car, but to do research. We are searching for information — content — on the various models, features, prices, colors, and financing available. We look for product reviews, customer reviews, and comparisons to other models in the same price range.

In a 2000 study, Gartner Interactive, a business technology research firm, reported that 45 percent of the households in its study used the Internet to shop for a new vehicle, but only 3 percent bought their new car online.

What this study tells us is that customers use the Internet for content — to learn about products. They then go to the automobile dealer, in this example, to actually buy the car. An automobile is a very expensive purchase so it is expected that the buyer would want to actually see, feel, and touch the new car before buying it. For less costly purchases, however, the gap between gathering information and then actually purchasing the product is much narrower.

The Cash Benefits of Valuable Content
The auto example shows us what we can do in our own e-businesses: use the Internet to teach and educate our customers about our jan/san products. How does one buffer compare with another buffer make or model? If “Brand X” floor finish is recommended for heavily trafficked building corridors, explain why this is so to your online customer. How should this floor finish be applied? Offer product reviews. What do your customers have to say about the product? Let your readers know what type of customer usually purchases this floor finish and why.

This turns e-commerce, which is content and information, into cash. You sell the product by providing valuable information, which guides your website visitor to the purchase. Your customer will either purchase from you online or in your store. So even if the sale is not made while at your e-commerce site, the site did indeed lead to the sale.
Web content is also a time saver for you and your customer. Your staff saves time because they don’t have to spend as much time selling and promoting your products to customers who have been educated at your website. Using the automobile example once again, after using the Internet as a knowledge source, by the time that customer walks into the auto showroom, he or she already knows quite a bit about the car, down to the exact model and color, and can make a purchase more quickly.

Dell Computer has found that people who shop its site looking for a new computer make fewer calls to the Dell toll-free phone number. They know more specifically what they want to buy than the customer who does not visit the Dell site and must call Dell for customer support and sales information. In both the computer and auto examples, the right content to the right buyer makes the sale.

Building Customer Trust and Loyalty
Online customer loyalty and trust are strengthened when a distributor provides valuable, useful information in a form that’s easy to access and navigate. Teach online customers as much as you can about the products offered on your site. Don’t ask them to “purchase in the dark” by just seeing a product photo with a price tag beside it. Tell them how to use, apply, operate, and handle the product being considered. The more helpful the content on your website is, the more likely you are to have a loyal and trusting customer coming back to purchase this and other goods over time.

Robert Kravitz is a 30-year veteran of the janitorial industry and is Web content manager for the International Sanitary Supply Association, Inc., (ISSA). He has authored four books on the industry, writes for several industry and business magazines, lectures frequently on Web content, technology, as well as janitorial issues.

* What types of website content are your customers looking for? Look for Part 2 of this article on website content in an upcoming issue of Sanitary Maintenance.