The Form Of Consumer Relations

If I had to pick out just one unique feature of advertising on the Internet, it would be the ability for interaction between the business and the consumer. The world wide web is different than a billboard or broadcasting in that it allows communication to flow in both directions. Broadcasting pushes a message onto a consumer. The web allows a consumer to respond in real time.

The Form
What is the best way for a business to communicate with a consumer? We used to suggest giving the consumer all possible options, such as, listing your phone number, email address and the use of cgi forms. Unfortunately, unsolicited email and phone calls became overwhelming. After all, you don’t want to lose a legitimate customer in the avalanche of spam that is a result of posting your email address on a website. This problem became exasperated when spammers developed email bots. An email bot is a software program that works like a robot scouring the web for the “@” character and gathering all the email addresses it can find. It use to be that implementing a cgi form eliminated this problem; however, now the robots are sophisticated enough to find forms and fill them out with spam. In fact, this blog gets spam comments submitted on a frequent basis.

example of a mailto
eample of a cgi form

Keeping the line of communication open between the business and the consumer is very important. At the moment, there does not appear to be one simple solution. The two best methods are cgi forms and mailto forms. Following is a list of pro’s and con’s:

Pro’s

• The cgi form has proven to be the most successful measurable method for conducting business over the Internet.
• A cgi form is more secure and less likely to cause privacy violations.
• A mailto form offers more accessibility for people with disabilities.
• A mailto form can be sent to an email address that automatically filters spam (Warning: there is no 100% successful spam filter and legitimate customers can mistakenly be filtered out.)

Con’s

• A mailto form exposes an email address to spam.
• A cgi form requires more sophisticated computer programming skills.
• A cgi form needs additional programming if spam filtering is attempted.
• Mailto forms require the user to have an email software client on their computer. (If the consumer is on a computer at their workplace, internet kiosk, borrowed computer, etc., the mailto form will not work.)

Your input on this matter is welcomed. Can you think of additional advantages and disadvantages? Do you know of any other solutions?

Tags: advertising, Internet marketing, world wide web