4 Elements of a Web Marketing Philosophy

German Translation: Die vier Elemente einer Web Marketing Philosophie
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Web Marketing Today, Issue 31, April 1, 1997 "I already know that! Tell me something new." If only we put into practice what we have already learned!

Successful marketing of a business on-line flows from a philosophy, a foundation of convictions rather than a list of do's and don'ts. I hope that as I rehearse what you already know, some of it will strike fire -- and help you find success which may have thus far eluded your efforts on the Web. Here are four vital elements to a successful on-line marketing mindset.

1. Focus on your customers

So many Web sites talk about themselves: Our product. Our service. Our company. But where is the customer in this? Why should the potential customer come to your site? Why should she be interested? Web sites must be designed with the customer in mind. What are her questions? Develop a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page which speaks to commonly voiced concerns. What are potential objections? Offer a rationale to counter them.

For example, a common question potential customers ponder about our Web site design business is: Can your business be responsive to my needs when you are thousands of miles away? We developed several Web pages to respond to this potential objection, such as: "Webbing across a Continent", which begins with the sentence: "Is it really practical to hire a Web designer in another state to construct your Web pages?"

Dealing with a customer's concerns is one aspect of marketing, but getting him there in the first place is even more important. The more information you can give your potential customer on your field or industry, the more likely she is to find you on the Web search engines -- sheer number of Web pages counts with AltaVista, you know -- and the more helpful the title sounds, the more likely she is to click on it and come to your pages. The classic Web marketing strategy is "Give Something Away, Sell Something". A vital marketing question is: what do I have to give my potential customers a reason to come, to speak to their needs, and to give them a reason to trust me?

2. Offer excellence

With millions of Web pages and thousands of competitors' sites on the Web, they only way you can succeed is to offer all around excellence in your company's presentation on the Web. Nothing less will do.

I can make a strong case that the Web is primarily a text medium. Unlike the way I leaf through National Geographic, people surf to read, not just look at pictures. The Web calls for excellence in writing and logical presentation. If you've developed a Web site, you now appreciate how much time goes into writing the copy for the pages. Don't just skim the surface with generalities. On the Web you have space to explain in detail, to make your case, to highlight the benefits, to give your customer multiple reasons to buy, and to stimulate him to click on the "order button.".

But I could just as easily argue that the Web is primarily a graphical medium. Web marketers have over-learned the dictum that you shouldn't have many graphics on your site in order to minimize download time. Your Web pages must look attractive if you expect to capture your Web visitors' attention, to convince her that your company is a high quality, reputable firm, able to deliver on your promises. Excellent photographs, sized appropriately, contribute to a high class look and feel. Don't just scan in snapshots. Spend enough on either stock photography or custom shots that photos tell your story with panache.

And don't believe the Web editor hype that all you need is their product to produce a professional-looking Web site. True, the tools are great and getting better. But without a trained artistic eye and months of Web design experience with numerous clients you can't except to equal the effect which only a skilled graphic designer can produce. And in the competitive milieu of the Web, only excellence will do.

This applies to your business approach as well. Don't just be a generalist; be unique. Highlight your specialties. Show off what you do best with photos, testimonies, graphs, and prose. Being just another gourmet coffee bean vendor won't make you a Web success in an already saturated market. Find an unfilled niche in your industry, and make your mark there. Offer excellence and your excellence will be rewarded.

3. Keep tweaking your Web strategy

There's an old saying that goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Good advice. TQM, on the other hand, preaches "continuous improvement." Which is it? Combine the two. First, analyze your Web and financial statistics to see what seems to be working, which pages are bringing the most hits, what approach seems to attract the most orders. You can also learn a lot from simple on-line surveys of your Web visitors. Next, retain the strategies which are working and drop those that aren't.

Six months ago we introduced the Web Marketing Cafe with considerable fanfare. After a successful event or two it bombed. No one came. Now I sympathize with radio talk show hosts who substitute monologues for dialogue when no one calls. Chat may work for you -- it is working quite well for several businesses -- but it didn't work for us. We dropped it from our main menu to make space for something new.

Improve the elements that are working, but don't change the elements essential to their success. Recently someone suggested I charge for Web Marketing Today rather than offer it free. But WMT is working famously. To shift its primary purposes from client generation to revenue generation could be disastrous. Understand why your strategies are working before you change them.

But then tweak them until you can find a better formula. Mail order marketers have learned that while one classified ad may be a dud, a slightly different wording may be a winner. So they make minor changes and track results using different "Departments" in the return address. (Web marketers just put up a different URL so they can track hits.) You won't know what works best until you try different things. So plan on continuous, incremental improvements until you get it just right.

The Web is so new, and each of our businesses so different from each other, that no one has it all figured out. Constant experimentation is the only way to maximize your business on the Web. And constant experimentation requires that you bring your updating function in-house. By all means hire experts to bring excellence to the look and feel of your Web presence, but then train someone on your staff to make minor changes to the pages, or learn HTML yourself -- it's not rocket science, you know.

4. Schedule marketing time and money

Whose business should come first? Your customer's or your own? Even though I try to be very customer-responsive, I realize that if I do not actively, aggressively set aside regular time to market my business, it just won't get done. I'm extremely busy. There's not enough time to develop strategies, to improve my Web site. But I make time. I give it priority. I also give it the money it needs to succeed.

We found we need to take both a short and a long view toward our marketing efforts. To stay one step ahead of obsolescence, our firm is constantly learning new technologies, developing new strategic partnerships, and then, when they are mature enough, announcing them to you, our potential customers. Our strategy includes planning articles as well as new Web site sections which will help position our business more effectively in the constantly-changing Web site development market. Does it take time? Yes. Will it be effective? There's only one way to find out!

Most of you have been disabused of the myth that all you have to do is put up a Web site and the world with beat a path to your door. Web marketing is no less work that marketing in any other arena. It can be effective, and for some businesses extremely effective, but it is hard work, make no mistake about that!

Fail to plan, plan to fail. Plan your work, work your plan. You've heard these phrases countless times. Nor is there anything unique about any of the four points in this marketing mindset.

1. Focus on your customers
2. Offer excellence
3. Keep tweaking your marketing strategy
4. Schedule marketing time and money

The only unique element for you will be if they inspire you actually apply what you know to your Web marketing efforts. Just presenting a great product on the Web is not enough. You must market it effectively if you expect to sell it. And you can't market effectively without utilizing my four marketing mindsets. So get going already!

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