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How Do You Score on the Internet Marketing EQ Test, i.e., Are You Marketing APPROPRIATELY to Who's REALLY On the Internet?

By Susan Dunn © Copyright 2003

Are you marketing to who's really in the Internet? Remember that email rounding the Internet recently: "If we could shrink the Earth's population to a village of 100 people, this is what it would look like: There would be 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 North and South Americans, and 8 Africans. Seventy people would be non- white; 30 white. Seventy would be non-Christian; 30 Christian ...."

NOW SHRINK THE US INTERNET WORLD

Okay, now lets shrink the Internet world and take a look:

  • If 100 people were using the Internet, 52 of them would be women, and 48 of them would be men
  • If 100 women were doing business, 61 of them would be doing it on the Internet and 39 would not be
  • If 100 men were doing business, 55 would be doing it on the Internet and 45 would not be
  • If 100 women were spending over US$100 in a 3-month period online, 63 of them would not have children, while only 52 of them would

TAKE NOTICE:

  1. There are more women now on the Internet than men
  2. More women do business online than men
  3. More women do business online than do not
  4. Women in American make up to 80% of purchasing decisions for the family
  5. Women between the ages of 35 and 44 are a dominant e-retail force. (PC Date-Online's research)
  6. Women without children are heavier users of the Internet than women with children (Jupiter Media Metrix) and they spend more online

And -- according to Nielsen NetRatings, the number of at- home female Internet users in the US is increasing more rapidly than the number of male users.

PLUS -- according to the latest NielsenNetRatings, individuals with household incomes ranging from $100,000 to $150,000 are the fastest growing income group online.

PLUS -- 44% of US adults over 18 are single, and the American Association for Single People projects by 2010, 47.2% will be unmarried. The Census Bureau says between the ages of 15 and 85, the average American will be unmarried more years than they're married.

SO WHAT SHOULD YOU DO?

Interpeting these data is like "if all the wookies are mejums, and half the mejums are kondites, how many wookies are kondites?"

GET POSITIONED

  • Whatever you're selling, are you pitching it to women?
  • Whatever you're selling, have you included products for women?

This doesn't mean you need be clueless or artificial - slapping a "feminine" graphic next to your power tool, but it does mean if you're pitching your power tool with a bikini-clad babe, or showing a pert young thing for your "live chat", or alienating the huge singles' and Islamic markets in your Christmas marketing, D+ for you on your marketing emotional intelligence test.

Consider putting the face of a virile young man on your chat graphic.

And consider that nearly half your consumers are single -- the Carnival cruise line is the only one I know of that offers a true singles-rate (not a single rate based on double occupancy), and the Costa also gets kudos from me (a single woman) for providing Gentleman Dance Hosts. Combining both might win my cruise business and I cruise often.

  • THE BOTTOM LINE: Put your dip stick in your gender-bias and see how it comes out.

"US" INTERNET?

Notice I specified "US" here, because the statistics were about US users. However, I'm getting more and more hits on my site from folks outside the US (and glad to have them), and other webmasters are reporting the same.

This month so far, I've had visitors to my website from: UK, Canada and Australia, Netherlands, Singapore, Argentina, New Zealand, Japan, Luxembourg, Brazil, Belgium, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Germany, France, Namibia, Indonesia, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Cyprus, and Switzerland.

BUT -- when we talk about "US" Internet users, there are 80 million multicultural Americans in the US now, with over 1 million new immigrants yearly.

TRENDS

In coaching, web visits and ezine subscribers precede personal emails precede Internet course learners, clients and licensors for my EQ products. Look at the trends:

  • Last year I started getting more emails from Canada, the UK and Australia. Now 1/4th of my practice is from those countries.
  • This year I'm getting several emails a day from people whose first language is not English. This month alone I've heard from Nigeria, Malaysia, India and the Philippines, and increasingly am getting clients from the UK, Australia and Canada.
  • So I'm expecting more clients from non-Western nations to follow, wishing I knew more than English, Spanish and French.

I have ezine subscribers from more countries than I can name. In fact I didn't know some of them were countries and it's been a wake-up call. I'm doing my homework, are you?

And most surprisingly, a whopping 20% of the learners taking my Internet courses are from non-US countries including France, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Ireland, Russia and Indonesia.

I'm also being approached for strategic alliances from coaches in the UK and Malaysia. Can Singapore be far behind?

TamingTheBeast says users from India are coming on strong. "Up until now," they say, "the Internet has been very focused on the US ... [but] by 2003, the Asia Pacific region will catch up and overtake in regards to Internet usage." By sheer force of number -- see email above.

TIPS

  • Consider putting ni hao, guten tag, konichiwa, or buna ziua on our websites. Go here: http://www.ipl.org/div/kidspace/hello for ways to say "hello" in one of the 2,796 languages on this planet.
  • Start submitting your website to the Asia-Pacific search engines and indices. Here's one: http://www.asiaco.com.
  • Brush up on multi-cultural selling - pick up a copy of Michael Lee's Opening Doors. It's about selling, not just real estate.
  • Prepare to start hearing "neesh" instead of "nitch" for that niche you're trying to claim.
  • Get a currency converter on your website. There's a FREE one here: http://www.xe.com, and be ready to discount your professional services for Canadian clients.
  • Put the name of a professional translator in your Outlook Express. In Spanish you don't say "I love my clients" by using the "love" verb, that's erotic; you say "my clients please me."
  • Stop looking for "Article Archives" and start looking for "Free Ideas." It's all the go. But no advertorials, please.
  • If you're going after the asiadragons dot commers, be prepared to call your password your "Secret Word" and you don't have to enter your password twice!
  • And prepare for daily conversations that begin, "We don't want war over here, do you? Why aren't you doing something [in the US] to stop it?

And, let's see, perhaps having an international Internet dating service for un-childed women over 35 might be the gold mine of the century?

Recommended reading

Michael Lee's "Opening Doors"

About the Author:

©Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, maintains an international coaching practice and markets clients on the Internet. She is #1 on google and yahoo and the author of "Writing Articles for the Internet to Sell". Article-writing services available. URL:http://www.susandunn.cc. mailto:sdunn@sdunn@susandunn.cc .

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