Review: World Wide Web Marketing (Second Edition)

It's been a long time -- four whole years -- since the first edition of Jim Sterne's World Wide Web Marketing was published. Since then a lot has been learned about how to market on the Web. This complete revision reflects that learning.

When you hear Sterne give a lecture, he does a splendid job of communicating, moving from principle to principle, illustration to illustration seamlessly. That kind of polish is found in this book, too, the most readable introduction to Web marketing in print. Sterne doesn't assume that the reader knows a great deal about the Internet, so he explains how it works and its implications for doing business.

After the introduction he outlines the various ways the Web can be used for marketing. A chapter on Internet customer service condenses his book-length treatment of Customer Service on the Internet. Then he moves on to business website design. Using examples from major corporations, he illustrates the good, the bad, and the ugly, and educates the readers' taste for fast loading, attractive Web pages. He describes how a site should empower the customer, and explains how to get feedback in order to develop a better understanding of customer demographics and needs. How do you make a site interesting? Even fun? He illustrates from corporate sites, and describes the power of personalizing a site, at the same time providing cautions about maintaining the customer's privacy.

Following chapters cover ways to attract attention to a site without spamming, proper use of search engines, getting links from other sites, and purchasing banner advertising (the topic of his book What Makes People Click: Advertising on the Web). Next, Stern explains how to monitor site traffic and discern what it is tells you about visitors. After a brief look at some of the most perplexing current Internet marketing problems, Stern provides a very helpful chapter on how to assemble a team to develop a corporate Web presence. He concludes with prognostications about where marketing on the Web is headed.

This is the kind of book you'll want to give to those assigned responsibility for the company's website, but don't have much Internet background. Sterne will gently take them by the hand and lead them through all the important issues, while entertaining them and making them happy they have him for a tour guide.

Read additional articles from Web Marketing Today, Issue 51, December 1, 1998