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Ah, the magic and glitter behind the Internet. At best, it’s very seductive. Our clients and customers have great expectations. The technology is very “cool.” And, with the extreme competition for time, dollars and overall eyeballs, the Web could get you there. But before you invest the resources and money, you have to answer this very basic question: If you build it, will they come?
Some Realities
In an article about “Who’s Fast” in the December issue of Fast Company, it was said, “The Internet is about much more than email, web sites and e commerce. It is quite simply the most powerful laboratory for business innovation ever created.” That may be true. However, it’s important to balance that statement against this reality: the Internet is, in fact, one more addition to a very cluttered marketing communications environment.
Seth Godin (author of Permission Marketing) recently stated that people now receive 3,000 messages each day, including email, voice mail, pages, faxes and promotional messages. That boils down to a whole lot “stuff” to break through to get your ideas heard, or, in this case, get your website noticed.
Pit Godin’s number against Gorilla Marketing guru Jay Conrad Levinson’s Rule of 18 (a mere three years ago): people had to see, hear, receive your marketing messages at least 18 times to have an impact. Add the new definition of free! due to last year’s web giveaway of 10,000 computers. The bottom line: an extremely aggressive marketing climate to combat when your website enters the fray.
To Web or Not to Web
That is the key question. And it’s one best answered with a series of questions:
What are your overall business goals?
How will your web site synch to your overall strategic focus?
What is the mindset of your audiences, i.e.: will they welcome, and use, a website?
What are your audience’s technology capabilities?
Why would they care if you build a site?
Unless you can answer all of the above – with real facts, not just “gut feelings,” you’re not ready for the web.
It’s important to remember the words of former Intel CEO Andy Grove, “How well we communicate is determined not by how well we say things but by how well we are understood.” The significant investment in even the best site in the world (by your standards) will be wasted if your strategies aren’t on point.
Doing It the Old Fashioned Way
Talk “web marketing” to most site developers today and they’ll spout off mind-boggling statistics about number of visits, search-engine registrations, meta tags, traffic profiles, banners ads, and more. It’s like listening to a foreign language.
True, a successful site needs all the techno mumbo-jumbo and magic. But, what everyone is finding out the hard way is this: successful web marketing is less a mix of magic tricks and much more an application of good old fashioned marketing techniques. You know the drill: direct mail pieces, response mechanisms, ads (print and electronic) and any other “typical” promotional tactic.
Yet, a key to your web success is to remember these tactics fall prey to the same climate of clutter that every other marketing activity does. The messages have to be breakthrough, highly creative, interactive (eliciting some kind of response or call to action) and, most important of all, strategically right on the money.
Finding Your Own Voice
In that same Fast Company article, Chef Charlie Trotter said, “To me, searching for perfection isn’t anywhere near as interesting as trying to find you own voice.” As you make the journey for your site development, keep these seven principles in mind:
1. Don’t overestimate. Do what will work and makes sense, strategically, for you, even if that means starting smaller than you would really like. Don’t do it until you can do it right.
2. Brochureware is no better than Tupperware. Just sticking up an electronic version of your corporate capabilities piece and calling it a web site doesn’t cut it. The brochure serves a specific purpose. Make sure you website meets the specific objectives you have set.
3. Use the KISS Principle. When it comes to all the techno bells and whistles, don’t go overboard. Remember your end users and what kind of technology they are likely to have. If the best feature of your site only works with a state-of-the-art software that must be downloaded onto someone’s equally state-of-the-art system, don’t go there.
4. Speak in your voice. Make sure your site resonates for your organization, not because your competition has one or you just want to have a web presence.
5. Communicate with your audiences. This has two parts. First, find out what your constituents want, why they would use the web, what their needs are. Second, communicate with them about what the web site will do – and what it won’t.
6. Give clear, non-jargon instructions. This is especially critical for e business sites. Make sure your users can figure out how to make the transactions they want.
7. Be able to provide tech support. Even the easiest sites occasionally have a techno-burp. Make sure you have the ability to respond to problems in real time. Frustrated potential users will quickly turn into somebody else’s business.
Remember the Grateful Dead
Building a web site and reaping the rewards for your efforts is possible as long as you keep to the following guidelines:
Synch your strategies to you overall business goals
Make it work for you – you organization, your constituents, your prospective users
Don’t be wooed by too much technology
Make sure it works at the lowest common denominator
Find your own voice
You’ll be successful as long as you remember what Jerry Garcia said about the Grateful Dead: It’s not that they were trying to make the most different music, or the best music. They were trying to make music that only they could make. If you listen to Jerry when you build your website, they will come.
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Sidebar
Two Women Who “Built It” Right
The goal for Sally Hodge was to use her web site to position her full-service boutique-type, public relations firm (Hodge Communications), right along side the big pr companies. So, she set out to have a site developed that would make her organization look as competent and competitive as it truly was.
She launched www.hodgecommunications.com two years ago for a development cost of $9,000, including customized search-engine registration. The site paid for itself within the first six months. She receives countless new business queries and uses the site primarily for leads generation. Over $30,000 of income is attributable to the site in 1999 and Sally is looking to double that for year 2000. And that’s a good thing because it’s time to give the site an overall overhaul and facelift.
Jan Schunk’s company, Carmel Music & Entertainment, wanted to provide a better vehicle for potential clients to “sample” the musical sounds and styles of the talent they represented. So, the primary goal for their website was to let people have tangible tastes of the entertainers represented by Carmel. By dialing up www.carmelformusic.com, prospects decide who they want to hear more of (and order demo CDs or tapes) or, even better, make the buying decision on the spot. The site has lowered Carmel’s overall selling costs and shortened the time of sale overall. In addition, the company has seen an increase in its national sales due to the global nature of the web. The graphics, promotional pieces and educational information on the site all synch with Carmel’s other materials. The website gives this company one more highly effective venue for getting its message across.
Copyright Randi B Enterprises, Inc., June, 2000. All rights reserved.
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