2006 TechNO Expo

Suzanne McGann
President and owner
Voyageur I.T.

The year brought more people in business on line. It appears that 92 percent of registered businesses have a Web site. And, anecdotally, Voyageur finds more often than not that businesses are relying on Web site information first for their brand impressions, company research, and subsequent buying decisions. Professional Web sites have become the expectation for all competitive businesses—no matter whether a small venture or a large corporation. Marketing dollars are being reallocated to maximize online presence.

Service and retail businesses are trending to content-rich, well-branded, and well-designed Web sites that are easily found on line, due to search positioning. Being found on line is a concern for most clients—they are looking for managed search services (search engine optimization and pay-per-click performance management). Online budgets are increasingly including paid advertising to drive customers to a company’s Web site.

Within the global online community, North Americans have the highest rate of Internet usage—edging out the European Union by nearly 18 percent. Within the States, overall Internet usage is highest among 19 to 35 year olds, with the fastest growth category being the over-55 category. Men slightly edge out women for online use, although women spend more. Those who are 45 to 64 are an aggressively targeted consumer audience, as they represent the largest spenders in general. As the baby boomers move on line, many e-businesses are expecting high returns. Although the majority of Americans are using the Internet, the largest users (personal/business) are college educated and fairly affluent, with $75,000+ annual income.

The users are changing, and the most active users are young and affluent between the ages of 25 to 34 years old. They have household incomes of more than $75,000 in the United States. Most of these users are male and connected to the Internet with broadband at home, according to Jupiter Research.

In my experience, each different industry has a different type of demographic. Usually the more technology savvy the company is, the more likely they will have more potential users using the Internet. For example, we have noticed many users in the computer, medical, and manufacturing industries. Other industries are slower to adapt to change, but we see other industries that are usually late adopters of technology come in to adopt the Internet now. Some examples are health and beauty, golf, and others.

The Internet provides significant efficiencies to companies. I person-ally think that efficiency and cost savings are the key to companies adapting to the Internet.