Unlocking the marketing power of the web!
By Frank Williams
If
you are not utilizing the power of the web as an integral part of your
marketing program and business strategy, you are simply asleep! And your
competition loves you for it.
In today's Internet-loving
environment, you and your business should clearly understand the huge
benefits of an effectively designed and properly utilized e-presence.
Using the Internet is virtually free, providing a worldwide customer
reach for your message and product. Imagination is the only limitation
in effectively utilizing the Internet in your marketing. Quickly and
easily, the Internet will cost-effectively provide current information
to your target market in a non-intrusive and timely manner. The
Internet has become the great equalizer for thinking businesses wishing
to thrive in the 21st century. I dare you to ‘surf-the-web' and pick 10
companies at random and tell me how big their annual revenue is. Whether
your business is just starting out, or celebrating its 25th year, the
Internet tends to level the playing field, initially providing equal
access to your targeted market. And that is a primary task for any
marketing group wishing to grow their business.
There are a
number of aspects to an effective "on-line" presence adding both reach
and currency to your total marketing strategy. Short of being just an
e-business, your e-presence should compliment other marketing efforts.
In other words, the look & feel of the web site, e-newsletters,
e-mail, etc. should reflect and reinforce the image you already send to
your target markets through sales brochures, direct mail, product
presentations, and corporate communiqués.
Developing an on-line
presence takes some thought and planning. Don't wing it! As a start,
apply the same process to creating a first class web site that you do to
your other marketing programs. Capture the same image and message on
line that you already convey in other marketing collateral dispensed by
the company and its sales representatives. Don't skimp - a poorly
deigned web site sends the wrong message. Especially when there are many
inexpensive ways to create a highly polished, professional grade
version.
Depending on your business, Global Marketing believes
that a comprehensive Internet effort should include a few key parts.
Each part comes with a set of Do's and Don'ts that will make or break
your e-marketing programs. If you are new or not sure, Global Marketing
recommends that you hire a consultant or a reputable Web site design
group to assist your initial entry.
► Creating your web site
Your
web site becomes the centerpiece or catalyst for all of your
e-marketing efforts. Don't get caught up in telling everyone how great
your company and senior executives are, rather inform the potential
customer why working with your firm will benefit them. After all, the
primary purpose of marketing is to create sales opportunity. The web
site should be another tool to this end.
If you hire a
consultant or web design group, they already understand how to
effectively paint your message on the Internet landscape. If you decide
to do it in-house, then a few simple reminders may help:
Make your web site easy to read with a crisp message on how and why the customer benefits
Make your web site intuitive and easy to navigate, keep things simple and informative
Make the look & feel similar to your other marketing collateral to reinforce your brand image
Stay away from fancy graphics, video and audio - many people still access through slow modems
Make sure it's clear how they can contact you if they want more information
To increase your web site traffic ( leverages search engine use ) utilize meta tags
Keep your site fresh with frequent and informative updates that motivate return visits
Test your site often with multiple browsers to ensure it plays at all levels
Make your content important, timely and relevant - provide value to your visitors, and they will return
► Creating Sales opportunities
A
web site begins to stitch together your overall e-presence. Your next
step is to turn your web site into a pro-active marketing tool that
reaches out and creates sales opportunities for your business. One
method used frequently is a high quality and informative eNewsletter.
An
eNewsletter is easy to create, and easier to distribute. With the click
of one button, you can literally send your eNewsletter to millions of
prospective customers. The beauty of an eNewsletter is that it is
immediate and virtually free via the Internet - consider the alternative
snail-mail of $0.18/copy (bulk-rate) and 5-7 business days to delivery.
An eNewsletter can be an effective promotional tool breathing sustained
value into your company's offering, while providing a greater
competitive advantage.
eNewsletters can be an effective tool in
generating new sales opportunities or made irrelevant and considered
worthless spam. The way you approach this important and special
communication with your target market decides which label your customers
give it.
Some things to consider when developing your
eNewsletter. The key to any well-written eNewsletter is capturing e-mail
addresses and building your customer database. The more email addresses
the better, however, give your target market an option by inviting them
to "opt-in " to your eNewsletter. In other words, don't ‘spam' them by
sending the eNewsletter unless they asked for it. It devalues your
eNewsletter no matter the contents.
Global Marketing realizes
that it is tempting to purchase a ready list of e-mail names. There is a
time to purchase e-mail lists; this is not one of them. Keep your
eNewsletter as a special prize provided to select individuals and only
available by visiting your web site. By getting them to your site you
can present your marketing message and the benefits to their company.
The eNewsletter now becomes an effective follow-on hook. And you get
them to sign-on for your eNewsletter by making the content compelling.
Your topics should be current and relevant, with tips that help their
business grow and develop. An easy read, that is non-intrusive, yet
timely, focused and value packed.
Shy away from incorporating
graphics into your eNewsletter. It's tempting to use frames and splash
fancy graphics around that make the piece more eye appealing, but
resist. As ubiquitous as the Internet is, many individuals still access
the Internet through slow modems and older, non-compatible PC's. Don't
make it hard for your prospect to gain information. These bring the same
sale opportunity as those using broadband Internet access. Try to
concentrate on content, not form. You'll reach more opportunities and
won't lose one point in image. Make it effortless for your readership to
get easy access to additional information by inserting hyper links into
your eNewsletter, but make sure they work. Nothing is more frustrating
than to click on a link and find out it doesn't link!
Use your
eNewsletter to inform your customer base and potential clients about new
products, or services. Selectively discuss significant corporate events
but only to the extent it reinforces the customers' decision to work
with your firm. Gratuitous self-promotion is meaningless. Certain
promotions and value adding programs that benefit the customer should be
routinely included. The frequency of your eNewsletter depends on your
target audience. Weekly or bi-weekly seems to strike a good balance
between too little and too much. However, the decision should be driven
by how often you have enough important ‘news'. Global Marketing has seen
daily eNewsletters that retain importance to the customer.
► Other important e-marketing tools and considerations
e-Marketing
has two basic responsibilities once the web site is built --to create
compelling content and increase traffic to the web site. All in an
effort to uncover sales opportunities.
There are a variety of
tools to drive up traffic. Earlier in this article, Global Marketing
mentioned meta tags in relation to web site development. Meta tags are
used by search engines such as Goggle, Altavista, etc. to quickly scan
and return the most relevant web sites based on words or a group of
words entered into the search field. This article won't cover all
aspects of meta tags, suffice to say that meta tags should be
incorporated into the heading of each page as well as the title page of
your web site. The selection of these words is critical. Meta tags
should be words that reflect what you do, and be descriptive of your
products or services.
The importance of picking the right words
and phrases plays out when the search engine returns numerous web sites -
say 30,000. Meta tags is part of the process by which web sites are
ranked against the criteria you put into the search field. And there is a
variety of programming tricks that will raise your web site's ranking.
With literally millions of web sites available on the Internet,
Marketing's goal should be to get ranked in the top 25 for words and
phrases that are important to your mission, product or service. This
brings visitors that seek what you offer - an initial qualifying
process. Global Marketing's experience can be of vital help in this
area.
e-Marketing works for a variety of reasons. However, many
of the same basic marketing principles applies. You need to understand
your customer, and serve them faster and more compelling than your
competitors. Building a database of customers in your target market is
key. In e-Marketing you are looking for e-mail addresses rather than
mailing addresses. When you first start your e-presence, you need e-mail
addresses. Lots and lots of e-mail addresses. Now would be the time to
purchase a ready-made list. You may also decide to use various pieces of
software that captures e-mail addresses on the Internet. E-mail lists
are plentiful and available for select markets, and can be sliced and
diced to meet your particular needs. Typical costs will range from $0.10
to $0.50 per e-mail address depending on the quality and source of the
list. Or you may decide to use any of a number of inexpensive software
programs that will trowel-the-net capturing literally 100's of thousands
of new e-mail address per hour. You may get quantity, but quality can
be poor and is unqualified.
Proper use of e-mail addresses will
help to increase you web site traffic. However, the company still has a
burden to make the content of the web site compelling to the visitor. By
keeping the web site fresh, with high content, the visitor will return.
Your web site can be the beginning of a customer qualifying process. As
a pivotal customer support tool, your web can provide access to
information customers need while saving them a phone call and allowing
them access time on their terms. Done correctly, e-marketing provides a
very sustainable competitive advantage.
How effective is your
web site will be something you want to know? You'll want to know if your
content is compelling and does it drive up traffic. You'll want to know
what pages are accessed and how many times. If you run a special,
you'll want to know if visitors read about it. Traffic statistics can be
a powerful monitoring tool to assist the marketing group to adjust the
web content , ensuring maximum visitors. Software programs are available
that do a wonderful job of reporting and slicing and dicing the data to
how it best fits your needs. Most servers will also provide limited
data and reports on traffic.
Depending on your target market, you
must decide what content provides your target market the most value.
These include decisions on what is available for free and what requires
payment. Payment can take the form of asking for an e-mail address to
actually accepting credit cards. Typical web site content may include
product or service data sheets, applications notes and/or certain
downloadable software giving 24 hour, 7 day-a-week access. This
convenience clearly makes it easier for customers to do business with
you and that's a plus. You may also direct clients to other web sites
that offer resources that compliment your products. There is a host of
ways to use your web site to enhance your competitive position, while
qualifying and informing your target market.
Establishing an
e-presence is a marketing imperative in today's global market. Global
Marketing can provide ideas on content and additional ways to drive up
traffic to your web site. Call today!
About the Author
Williams is an electronic engineer, augmented with many post
graduate courses in management, leadership, marketing and technology.
Williams is widely respected in the instrumentation business, he has
given many speeches, written numerous articles and introduced new
technology. He has significant knowledge in marketing strategies and
sales development programs. |
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