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June 1998
7 Steps to successfully
marketing your business online By
Marc Phillips For the estimated 50,000 Australian businesses that have an Internet presence, many are successfully marketing their business online and taking advantage of what the virtual marketplace has to offer. Here is how many companies are using the Internet as a means to market their products and services to over 2.5 million Australians who regularly access the Internet. Step One: Develop A Web
Site with an Interactive element
Developing
a web site should not be a panic response to your competitors launching a
website online. Most businesses that follow this approach lead to little more
than an electronic version of their existing corporate sales brochure.
Although a static website will establish a virtual presence for your
business, it ignores the very essence of marketing on the Internet - the ability to interact on a one-to-one
basis with your customers. To
ensure your website is successful, it should provide value-added content - a
combination of information which is educational, entertaining and
interactive. Adding value to customers with dynamic and informative content
is important because it gives customers another reason to return. The NineMSN
website at (www.ninemsn.com.au) is proving to be a leader in this area. Interactivity
is the most attractive element to web users yet often the least prominent on
a website. As marketing is about contact with your customers, remember to
provide interactivity and functionality on your website. The concept that the
Internet is a two-way channel implies a commitment to honour the
communication. Any feedback you receive requires a prompt response. The
benefits of multiple interactive components of your website and the value
added content could also lead to productivity savings. Filling out order
forms online can eliminate the need of tele–sales and avoid data retrieval
and entry errors by operators. By providing key information in a frequently
asked questions (FAQ) section within your company’s website, you can save on
answering telephone enquiries on trivial and repetitive enquiries. Many
Australian organisations have been surprised how many people will visit your
website just to find your contact details, so make them as visible as possible.
Step Two: Advertising your Website via Search Engines Search
engines collect descriptions of website programs with ‘robots’ or ‘spiders’,
which actively cruise the Internet looking for new web addresses to
catagorise into their database. Be sure to have Meta Tags embedded into your website home page. These are key
descriptive words that allows the search engines to categorise your business
by relevant search criteria Internet users will be able to find your company
website listing under. When considering
Meta Tags, it is important to ask
yourself, “What keywords would my customers enter into a search engine if
they wanted to find my company?”. If the search engine you are listing with
asks for a company description then make sure it is informative and
appealing. Alternatively
there are several organisations who charge a small fee to register your
website with up to 100 search engines sites. Register-It! (http://www.registerit.com) offers a variety of marketing services including
search engine registration and monitoring. Step Three: Banner
Advertising and Sponsorship
Banner
advertisements are the equivalent to billboard advertising. Strategically
placed, they can act as a detour into your company’s website for some
well-targeted and potentially valuable traffic. Banner advertisements take
the form of a banner placed in a highly visible position on a web page which
visitors can click using their mouse and are then taken directly to a
designated page on the advertisers web site. As
banner advertisements are usually 468 X 80 pixel size, it is important that
in this limited space you get a clear
and engaging message inviting visitors to enter your website. Here’s a few
examples of good banner advertisements.
Given
that this may prove to be an expensive exercise, there are three key points
to remember when selecting a website to advertise on. Firstly, make sure that
the website reaches the right target market. Secondly, ensure that the
website you advertise on is efficient and reliable. Finally, make sure that
your designated arrival page is the most appropriate for the visitor to land
on. The Alta Vista search engine (http://www.altavista.yellowpages.com.au)
offers a great example on the use of banner advertising. Effective
sponsorship involves forging partnerships with on line publishers and
tailoring content to fit the website. A good example of this type of
arrangement is the 60 Minutes website, which like its television counterpart,
is sponsored by Toyota (http://www.sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au) Step Four: Hyperlinks
With Other Pages
Step Five: Email
Just
like traditional direct marketing methods, you can purchase targeted lists of
email addresses from such places as Postmaster Direct (http://postmasterdirect.com). You usually pay per listing and receive
addresses of people who have requested to receive information on certain
topics. This is made clear on the email you send unlike the practice of
spamming, which involves sending unsolicited junk mail to those who do not
want, nor need your email sales message. Every
email you or your employees send allows you to create an interactive
advertisement by including a signature
line with each email. The signature line can be created by nearly all
email programs and involves signing outbound email with such items as your
name; address, website address and an inviting catch phrase designed to
direct users to your website and hopefully a response. Step Six: Contests and
Giveaways
Contests
and giveaways on your website are an effective way of attracting attention to
your virtual store. It is important to remember however that you should use
these promotions to capture information about the visitors. A great example
of this is Business Product Review (http://www.bpr.net.au), a successful
direct marketing publication, which launched their website with the chance to
win prizes after purchasing online. Step Seven: Cross Media
Promotions
The
cross promotion of your website with your traditional forms of marketing
media can be a very effective ingredient in the success of your website. The
most obvious way to do this is by promoting your website address on all your
corporate stationery including business cards, letterhead and brochures as
well as on traditional press and television advertisements Earlier
this year, Ammirati Puris Lintas Online leapt into the forefront of Internet
technology by creating what is believed to be the worlds first interactive
commercial on the Internet. The ‘Trapdoor’ ad was created for the
Commonwealth Bank to highlight its Home Loan features. Although this example may seem a little out of reach for most business people, it highlights the versatility the Internet offers you for marketing and promoting your business. Unlike the more traditional methods of marketing however, marketing on the Internet is only a mouse click away. For further information contact APT Strategies at info@aptstrategies.com.au |
