Having
attended several marketing campaigns, we came to abhor the business
evangelists who claim to have narrowed down the entire art and
science of conducting business into something like the "Seven
Keys to Success." We don't want you to think for a second
that the list is anything like that. What this list represents
are some of the very good reasons we've found for doing business
on the Internet. However, we loathe the idea that people might
try to limit themselves and their campaigns to these few items.
Simply think of these as a starting-off point.
1.
TO ESTABLISH A PRESENCE.
Globally,
approximately 50 million people have access to the World Wide
Web. Quite simply, there are few businesses that can ignore
a market of this size. In the near future, having an email address
and website will be like having a phone number and business
card - crucial to even small companies.
2.
TO NETWORK.
By
linking your pages with those of your networked contacts, you
are referring clients back and forth. If, for instance, your
product compliments, is used within, or uses a product from
another manufacturer, a potential client can get a complete
package of information with just a few clicks of a mouse.
3.
TO PROVIDE AVAILABILITY ADVERTISING.
There's
little doubt that the most used resource directory is the Yellow
Pages. Imagine a book of Yellow Pages that covers the globe
- all a client would need to do is tell it what he or she was
looking for, and it would automatically open to your listing.
That's exactly how the WWW works.
Not
only can you list basic information (your business expertise,
location, hours, how to contact you, methods of payment, and
so on), but you can update this information instantly (time
sensitive specials, current interest rates, announcements, and
press releases). You can even have an entire catalog, including
full-color photographs and graphics, available for instant viewing
and ordering.
4.
TO AUGMENT TRADITIONAL ADVERTISING.
Imagine
including a brochure with every business card, piece of letterhead,
print or broadcast ad, and even in your telephone's on-hold
messages. By including your WWW address, that's exactly what
you can do. A WWW address is small enough to fit anywhere, yet
it provides instant access to your entire sales argument. Furthermore,
an instant email response can be built into web pages to get
and give feedback while the questions are still fresh in your
customer's mind, without the cost and lack of response of business
reply mail.
If
you read any of the nation's largest magazines and newspapers,
you'll notice more and more WWW addresses printed within advertisements.
The reason for this is simple: The WWW allows a much higher
degree of communication for the advertising investment - "more
bang for the buck."
5.
CUSTOMER SERVICE.
People
wiser that we have often said that it is easier to keep an old
customer than get a new one. Keeping an open line of communication
is one of the most important ways to serve your customers. Via
the WWW, you can post information, troubleshooting tips, request
forms, and the like that will enable you "to keep your
finger on the pulse" of your customers.
6.
PUBLICITY.
The
media is perhaps the most advanced profession today in regard
to electronic communication because their main product is information,
and they can get it more quickly, cheaply, and easily online.
Because of this, online press kits are becoming increasingly
common. Most pressrooms have gone digital in the past decade,
so it is much easier for them to simply take a press release,
and photos from a web site than it would be for them to strip-in
hardcopy.. The easier you make it for the press, the more likely
you are to have your press releases turn into articles in a
timely fashion.
7.
TO OPEN INTERNATIONAL MARKETS.
A
company was recently confronted by an issue where a foreign
customs official held a package of print proofs for ransom.
If these proofs have been available on the WWW, this could not
have happened. As we are discovering nowadays, digital or electronic
information has little respect for international boundary lines.
Because of this, markets that may have once been too difficult
to approach can now be very profitable. With a Web site, you
can open up a dialogue with international markets as easily
as with the company across the street. We'll go so far as to
say that you should decide how you want to handle the international
business that will come your way before you start a Web site,
because it is a good possibility that your online marketing
will bring international opportunities - whether it is part
of your plan or not. We once posted an ad for an old Jeep on
Ebay and were contacted by people as far away as Netherlands.
Another added benefit: If your company has offices overseas,
it can access (and even add to) the home office's information
for the price of a local phone call. So the Internet and Web
make possible easier international communications within a company
as well.
8.
TO TEST MARKET NEW SERVICES AND PRODUCTS.
The
advertising cost of rolling out a new service or product can
be enormous. Many times, because of the cost of printing and
mailing, companies hold off releasing new products until the
next generation of their catalog. On the Web, new products and
services can be released globally and instantly; updating a
Web page to include a new item costs a fraction of what it would
to print a new catalog. The Internet's two-way communication
also enables you to receive immediate feedback from your markets.
9.
TO REACH A HIGHLY DESIRABLE DEMOGRAPHIC MARKET.
The
demographic of the WWW user is probably the highest mass-market
demographic available. College educated, high-income, credit
card holders (most ISPs require credit card deposits) - it is
no wonder that magazines that deal with the (Internet and WWW
are easily able to get high-revenue ads on a regular basis.
10.
TO REACH THE SPECIALIZED MARKET.
Thinking
of selling nude photos of George Bush? With millions of Internet
users, even the most narrowly defined interest group will be
represented. An, because of the search capabilities of the WWW,
your potential customers will be able to find you.
11.
TO PROVIDE 24-HOUR, 7-DAY ACCESSIBILITY.
A
fax may come in from Tokyo at 2:00 in the morning. By the time
someone comes in to open the office, the sale is already lost.
By accessing your WWW system, however, the same potential client
could have surveyed your brochure and placed an order - for
less that it cost to send the fax.
12.
TO SAVE MONEY.
Save
your company prints 10,000 copies of a brochure. You send 2,000
out via email, give 2,000 to the sales staff, and put 6,000
in a warehouse for later use. Over the next few months, you
add a new product/services, you move offices, or you add partners.
You now have thousands of outdated brochures. One of the main
reasons that so many of the largest corporations in the world
have rushed to the WWW is to try to contain print and print-storage
costs.
13.
TO SELL.
Obviously,
sales is the most important part of any business - so why didn't
we make this the first item on the list? Because a good businessperson
would have seen that all of the other points listed add up to
increased sales. The WWW is perhaps the most powerful marketing
tool ever devised, but it is only a tool. Even the most perfect
promotional system can't make up for a poor product or service,
inept staff, or any of the hundreds of intangible stumbling
blocks that lie in the way of successful sales. However, with
the powerful communication tools and enormous market available
in the Internet marketing, there is far less of a gamble.
The
fact is that clients can find you; review your information in
text, pictures, and even sound and video; contact your sales
staff; and place an order from their own desks within a matter
of minutes, 24 hours a day. No other from of business communication
provides this degree of sales support.
