Issue 1, November 3, 1995

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In this Issue:

• Introduction
• "How Much Can You Get On A Web Page?" By Ralph F. Wilson
• "8 Ways To Get Results From Your Web Site," by Al Bredenberg
• Book Review by Ralph F. Wilson of Guerrilla Marketing Online: The Entrepreneur's Guide To Earning Profits on the Internet, by Jay Conrad Levinson and Charles Rubin
• Miscellany

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Introduction

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Web Marketing Today. I am happy you subscribed. Let me outline our rather narrow focus. WMT is designed to:

• Help small business people learn how to market their products and services more effectively by means of a Web site.
• Provide on-going support, encouragement, and marketing ideas for small business Web marketers worldwide.
• Offer an intensely practical, hands-on, how-to-do-it, how-I-did-it approach.
• Emphasize marketing which can be accomplished with the limited budgets typical of small businesses.

If you're looking for a professional marketing e-zine, this isn't it. If you're just investigating how your organization might set up a Web site, or you've begun with a Web site but feel like you're floundering, this e-zine is for you.

We will treat topics of interest to novices and intermediates. Hopefully, you'll get tips here that will both save you money and earn you money.

Some housekeeping items:

• Please do not respond to this list. This is a one-way only mailing list which will not send your comments to other subscribers.
• If you wish to unsubscribe send the message UNSUBSCRIBE WEB-MARKETING to MAJORDOMO@wilsonweb.COM but do not send me that message.
• Please submit questions you want discussed in WMT to me, though I won't necessarily have time to reply to your inquiry. We'll be putting together a FAQ of your most frequently asked questions over the next several months, though none is available yet.
• Feel free to visit the WMT home page to examine back issues which will be archived there:
  http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt/

• We desire to have you submit articles, ideas, information you've run across on your Net-travels, interesting URLs, and other things to share with fellow small business Web site builders. Enough, housekeeping. Onward.

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How Much Can You Get On A Web Page?

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

If you've got this question don't feel bad. So does everybody else new to the Web. A single Web "page" is equivalent to one file on a computer, not to a typewritten page.

So how much can you get on one "page"? This morning I downloaded a single "page," which, when I printed it out on my printer came out to sixteen 8½" x 11" pages. But the real question is not "How much can I fit on a page." It is "How much should I fit on a page."

Adapt To The Web Medium

The Web is a hypertext medium, that is, people read some and click on a highlighted word or phrase to get more information that interests them. A long document has to interest them, or they'll soon click to something which captures their fancy more.

Interest is created by a combination of things: content is essential, and therefore first. But graphic interest is important also. A well-designed page includes color, texture, interesting text, and intriguing pictures artfully arranged on the page.

Avoid The Most Common Mistake

While the pictures and graphics add interest, they also add to the time it takes for the page to appear on your customer's screen. One of the big mistakes inexperienced Web designers make is including too many large graphics and too little content. Click.

So coming back to our question. How much should fit on a page? To fit the Web medium it's best to keep closely- related items on a single page. A markedly different product or service belongs on its own page. Each page might have two or three photos or graphics. You get much more than that and the graphics outweigh the content. Click.

Tricks Of The Trade

Here's one trick I've learned. Since most Web browsers "cache" (store in memory or on disk) the graphics they look at, when these same graphics appear on another page, they come up very quickly, since they do not need to be downloaded from the Net. I use a wide and thin top-of-page graphic, colored horizontal lines, and a tiled textured-and- colored background to add unity, color, and visual interest to each page, but since these are cached the first time you see them, they add no overhead whatsoever to successive pages. Thus you can get away with a couple of pictures per page which add to the content, but are sized small enough that they don't take too long to download. How much CAN you get on a page. As much as you want. How much should you put on a page. Text about one topic area, repeated graphical items, and two or three small new pictures. Can you break this rule of thumb. Sure. Just don't break it too often. Click.

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8 Ways To Get Results From Your Web Site

by Al Bredenberg

Some business people complain loudly about the Web as a marketing medium. Nobody can find you, they say. It's just a big jumble. Nobody's buying anything. It's not worth it.

I've studied and researched online marketing from the point of view of a direct marketing copywriter and small business marketer. Early in 1995, I set up a World-Wide Web site as a means to promote my services as a copywriter and Internet marketing consultant. As a result of this and other online efforts, I've gained a number of lucrative copywriting and Web development assignments. Recently, I began using the site to advertise my new electronic book, "The Small Business Guide to Internet Marketing." In just three months my book has been bought direct from me by business people in 10 countries all over the world.

I'd like to share eight Web marketing strategies I've learned:

1. Make Your World-Wide Web Effort Part of an Overall Marketing Plan.

It's basic business practice to create a marketing plan. Depending on the size and nature of your business, your marketing plan may be a complex multi-volume epic or as simple as "Uh-oh, I gotta remember to renew my classified in the Weekly Shopper!" I think any business will benefit from a written plan, especially if you're going to launch a World-Wide Web effort. If you don't know anything about marketing plans, do some reading. You can find books on the subject at the book store or library, and business magazines frequently publish articles about it. As you work up a plan, think about each phase -- market research, competitive analysis, promotion planning -- in terms of the unique World-Wide Web environment.

2. Don't Abandon Conventional Advertising.

Don't cut back on successful conventional advertising to go on the Web. The benefits of direct mail, print ads, and other media are measurable. You might want to think of your Web venture as a test. Or as a long-term effort that may or may not pay off. Don't bet the bank on it until you're sure of the results. Monitor the costs and benefits.

3. Don't Build Your Web Site In A Vacuum.

Your Web site should be tied into the overall marketing effort of the organization. Don't just leave it up to your technical staff. The Web is a communication medium, so marketing staff should be involved. Figure out procedures for channeling content to the site, updating content, responding to e-mail inquiries and orders originating from the site, integrating Web orders into your regular fulfillment procedures, and similar tasks. Think it all out.

4. Provide Useful Content.

"Useful content" includes thorough information about your services and products. But you can also serve your potential customers by providing resources and background material related to your industry. This positions your company as an industry expert, draws users to your site, and helps you gain visibility.

5. Get Help If You Need It.

Web technology is developing fast. To learn some HTML can be useful and can be fun, but full-time designers can keep up with new standards, features, and programming tricks. You might do well to focus on your overall strategy and promoting your site, while outsourcing the more technical tasks.

6. Make Sure Your Web Site's Design Fits the Marketing Purpose.

Even if you farm out much of the development of your site, you need to stay aware and exercise control over the overall concept and presentation. Remember that your site is created to play a role in a marketing program, not to serve as a creative outlet for anyone. Most good business Web sites are content- driven. They don't have to be boring, but design features should enhance the marketing message, not make it confusing or hard to read.

7. Promote Visibility Through Offline Channels.

Advertise your URL in all your conventional promotions -- company stationery, business cards, print ads, mailings, signs, packaging, invoices, TV commercials, whatever you can think of. Publicize your site with press releases. When I released my "Small Business Guide to Internet Marketing," I sent out press releases to area newspapers. Within a month, I was featured in four newspaper articles, which resulted in book sales and speaking engagements.

8. Devote Online Time to Building a Community.

Appoint someone in your company to be your "Internet Ambassador" or "Designated Schmoozer." Even if you're a one- person company, spend some time online regularly (every day, if possible) communicating by e-mail, participating in forums and newsgroups, exploring relevant World-Wide Web sites, and building relationships and linkages with other companies.

These are a few key strategies I've been using to sell my book and develop my consulting and creative services business. Adapt them to your own circumstances, and you're sure to see greater Net results!

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Al Bredenberg provides copywriting, creative, and Internet marketing consultation services for small- and medium-sized businesses. He is author of "The Small Business Guide to Internet Marketing," an electronic book delivered over the Internet. He writes "Net Results for Business," a column appearing in electronic and print media. To get in touch with Al Bredenberg or to find out how to order his book, send e-mail to ab@copywriter.com or visit his Web site at http://www.copywriter.com/ab/bizctr.html.

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Book Review by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Guerrilla Marketing Online: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Earning Profits on the Internet by Jay Conrad Levinson and Charles Rubin (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995, 303 pages, softcover, $12.95)

"Marketing is war," write Levinson and Rubin. "It is a war against a host of competitors in the same business as yours who are competing with you for the same customers and the same sales dollars."

Of course, war has been Levinson's theme since his phenomenally-successful Guerrilla Marketing. Levinson is the champion of the small, but smart player, who can move faster, more deftly, than his more ponderous opponents. In this book he teams up with Charles Rubin, a computer veteran. Together they produce an outstanding contribution which all small business on-line marketers need: a $12.95 guide to Internet marketing which contains a wealth of strategies and ideas.

One of my pet peeves about Internet marketing books is that they spend half the book explaining the basics of the Internet, and little time discussing marketing strategies. Levinson and Rubin spend a few pages describing the marketing climate on the Internet, but quickly delve into how-to ideas.

Characteristically, they focus on lower budget strategies of advertising, such as keeping a presence on mailing lists and news groups. For example, spanning both the Internet and on- line commercial services, with an occasional nod to BBSs, they explain how to use classified ads (and their equivalent in certain newsgroups), offering details on the most effective way to title an ad, how to make it stand out from others, wording the message, and keeping the ad near the top of the list so it will be seen first. Their chapter on electronic storefronts is one of the best I've seen. They weigh the pros and cons of setting up your own server vs. carefully choosing rental space on an Internet Service Provider's server. Their seven strategies for electronic storefronts include: (1) choose the right location, (2) make the store attractive, fun, and easy to navigate, (3) make the store an information source, (4) reassure customers about your permanence, (5) pay attention, (6) tell the world, and (7) follow up.

After looking at some of the basic forms of Internet marketing, they outline several other approaches to boosting one's on-line reputation: initiating and participating in on-line conferences and becoming an information provider. "Seventy-five Online Guerrilla Marketing Weapons" is the distillation of the entire volume in a single chapter, providing a useful checklist for the Web marketer who wants to cover all the bases. As I read through the list, I found several ideas which weren't new, but which I wasn't using: testimonials, lists of customer e-mail addresses, and publishing an on-line newsletter to keep my name and business before potential customers. You'll find strategy ideas here that fit your own gifts and market.

"Online guerrillas recognize that information is the major drawing card for their business," the authors write. "... Teach people something new, and you'll distinguish your store from your competition. Information is what people seek, and the more of it you provide and the better you are at providing it, the more customers you'll have."

A chapter on "Planning the Attack" focuses on the mission statement, too often forgotten in the rush to get on-line. Standard business advice, of course, but here applied to the on-line arena.

Here's an insight on the types of Internet marketing: "Active battlegrounds require your constant attention. These include discussion groups and bulletin boards. Passive battlegrounds hang around in cyberspace delivering your message. These include storefronts, billboards, and classified ads." The authors then offer guidelines for what is a reasonable on-going approach for each of these battlefields. The book concludes with a glossary to get novices up-to- speed with an entirely new vocabulary, and an appendix listing important resources: books and magazines, as well as a careful selection of on-line resources.

My advice: buy the book. You'll earn back your small investment very rapidly if you apply only a few of the authors' insights.

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Miscellany You Might Want To Check Out

1. Keep checking "Small Business and Effective Web Marketing" Web site for links to new articles on Web marketing. I added five new links last night, for example. (http://www.wilsonweb.com/webmarket/)
2. Subscribe to a brand new mailing list which gives many sites where you can link your pages. To subscribe to this mail list:
   Send e-mail to: hub@xc.org
   Subject: Subscribe
   Body of letter: Subscribe 4him-linker

   The list has a special bent towards Christian organizations.

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That's it for this issue. In the next issue we'll be discussing whether or not a custom domain name is important for your business.