MONEY & ENTERTAINMENT

Asking why you should market your business, service or product on the Internet is a little like asking why you should have listed your business in the phone book 20 years ago: simplistically, the Internet is the phone book of this generation. If you ask any 25 year-old today how they get information, from a business’s hours, to their inventory, to their mission statement, they will tell you that they first check the Internet.

Internet marketing has been a viable marketing strategy since about 1994 when the Internet began expanding, and the generation of consumers that is entering the market have never known a world without it. To this younger generation, if something (from products to services to information) is not available on the Internet, it does not exist.

Why Build A Web Site
There are very few businesses that would not benefit from at least having a well-built Web site, without even pursuing Web marketing any further than that. Just having a site gives your business certain advantages over those without. The first is 24-hour, local and international presence. Not only does your presence on the Internet provide immediate information about you without relying on restrictive office hours, it also means a global presence (from local to international). Because of the Internet, consumers do not see geographical boundaries in seeking what they need on the Net, and they also don’t have the patience they used to: if they want information now, and you are not available to provide it, they will go elsewhere.

Aside from the business opportunities that a Web site provides, it is also an opportunity for potential customers to learn more about your area of expertise. A Web site can be a place where people come to get questions answered using FAQ or informational pages. It is also a great networking tool: the Internet is a place that does not depend on geographical closeness to build communities of people with common, specialized interests. If you deal with a very specialized product or service (for instance, film paraphernalia from 1940s American film noir or Swiss watch repair), then the Internet will likely be one of the first places that your very specialized clientele will look for you.

Plan Of Attack
In order to use the Internet effectively without wasting time or money, you need to begin as you would with any marketing plan: with a strategy. So many people go into building a Web site with unclear ideas about what they want it to accomplish, what audience they are trying to reach, and how they are going to reach them. The other big mistake that people make is assuming that Web designers have marketing expertise. Web designers are graphic designers, not business school grads. Their expertise is getting your message across; your job is to tell them that message so they can recommend how to best support it.

Some question you should ask yourself when developing your strategy are the following:

• What do you want a customer to come away with when they visit your site? This can be information, an actual product, or opting-in for a lasting relationship (through signing up for a newsletter or introducing them to a blog or chat).

• How much is a new customer worth to you per year? This is an important question when deciding how much money to invest in your Web site development as well as the marketing tools that will follow the launch of the site. Perhaps you only need a few customers to generate a lot of income in one year, and your purpose is simply to provide those customers with easy access to their accounts, updates, and information about you. Or perhaps your business is Web-based and requires a large volume of click-throughs to generate income. These are all important answers to have available for your designer.

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• How are you going to bring your customer to you? Is the Web site going to simply support other, non-Web based marketing you have going on, or is it going to be your primary marketing tool? If it is going to be your primary marketing tool, then you should consider how you are going to invest those marketing dollars. Online marketing can be done in several ways, including pays-per-click, banner ads, search engine optimization, link exchanges, and opt-in email blasts. You should discuss the price and suitability of each of these strategies to both your market and your budget.

Mistakes
There are several mistakes people make when developing their Web site identities and their marketing strategies. The first is poor Web site design. When you are designing a Web site, it is easy to get taken in with the latest technology in graphics and video and forget that what you are selling is your service or product, not your Web designer’s Flash animation skills. The most important marketing tool on your Web site is the text.

If you don’t have clear, concise copy on your Web site, then potential customers will get frustrated, or lose interest, and move on. Again, patience is not a characteristic of an Internet surfer. If your graphics are very elaborate, the time it takes for them to download on a potential customer’s slow server is longer than the time it will take them to seek what they need elsewhere, at a more efficient location. If you want to minimize the potential of a browser wandering away, make sure you have a clear idea of what you want the Web site to accomplish, then hire a professional copy writer, and make it clear to your Web designer that clarity and simplicity is the primary goal, with frills to follow.

The second mistake is thinking that online marketing is the answer to all of your business woes, and that it will generate a ton of business for you. Online marketing is a good tool to use in your overall marketing strategy, but very few businesses, especially those that have a brick-and-mortar presence, make their millions with simply their online presence. It is easy to get caught up in the excitement and potential of new technology; the Internet may be the largest demographic in the world, but it is also saturated with advertising. Don’t overspend on Internet marketing with the idea that it is the only way to market.

Lastly, do not underestimate the value of human interaction in our increasingly wired and impersonal world. It is tempting and easy to keep online interactions with new customers relegated to cyberspace, but a lack of personal interaction creates no brand loyalty. If you want to build a customer base that is loyal to your service, the key is still adding a personal touch in this impersonal medium.

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