Everyone that's selling on the Internet must first be
successful at selling (or more accurately, "capturing") two things: "Personal
Bandwidth" and "Visual Real Estate(sm)".
Let me explain. Every prospective
buyer of our products and services has a finite amount of personal bandwidth available
to hear your marketing message. Since they must eat, drink, sleep and work for
a living, this will be some amount of time less than 24 hours per day.
Let's say that the average user is online for 10 hours per week. The more of this
bandwidth that you can "capture", the higher the probability that you will be
able to sell them something (or at least positively influence your brand image
in their mind).
If you can capture their attention for several minutes
or several hours, your chances of selling them something will be much greater
than if they simply browsed your Web site for a few seconds. The next item you
must capture to be successful is their "visual real estate".
Each user
chooses the content (Web pages, discussion group notes, etc.) that will appear
on their 15 inches of real estate - the display screen sitting on their desk (or
in my case, lap). The more of this real estate that you can capture, the better
your chance of selling this person something. The reason I am viewing this as
real estate is to try to get you to break away from the misconception that you
must only use techniques to try to capture 100% of their real estate.
Yes, it is nice when someone visits your Web site, because for that moment, your
content fills 100% of their display screen. In a moment, however, I'll review
advances that may allow you to capture 5 or 10% of this real estate, on an ongoing
basis throughout the day, week or month. Real estate can also refer to content
you're able to convince the user to print out on their printer, or to receive
on their fax machine. The concepts of bandwidth and real estate are closely tied
together. The more paper real estate you capture, the more likely you will capture
a higher percentage of their bandwidth (regardless of whether they're online or
not). Well now that we've covered this theoretical aspect of marketing on the
Internet, let's review several specific strategies for maximizing the bandwidth
and real estate that you can capture. The first step taken by most companies to
sell goods on the Internet is the creation of a Web site. In fact, this is often
the only strategy the company will take. They wait for visitors to find the site
and then hope that they'll find the content so compelling that they'll voluntarily
come back to the site on a regular basis. I call this approach an "Inbound Marketing
Strategy(sm)".
Advice that is often given to Web site creators is that
they must constantly update their content to encourage users to visit frequently.
But how does the user know that your content has been updated? What is in place
to trigger the user to even think of coming back to your site? Think about the
quicklist/bookmark list you have created on your Web browser. I personally have
about 150 sites bookmarked, but I have never once returned to 95% of those sites.
If you base your entire Internet marketing strategy around the creation of your
Web site, you will not maximize your share of users' bandwidth and real estate.
To do this, you must have a pro-active "Internet Outbound Strategy"
in place. An outbound marketing strategy refers to any technique on the Internet
that is pro-active and takes you to the consumer, rather than being inactive,
waiting for the consumer to come to you.
Good examples of "Outbound
Marketing Strategies" include the use of e-mailed Newsletters/E-zines, "Reminder
Notices", "Profiled Information Streams(sm)", Discussion Lists, and getting "WebWired(sm)"
(i.e., registering your Web site at hundreds of directories, search engines, cybermalls,
etc.).
REMINDER NOTICES
Reminder notices (via e-mail) typically
highlight activities about the company, new announcements, highlights of additions
to their Web site, specific URLs where detailed information can be found, etc.
For example, C|Net and HotWired both use reminder notices to maintain visibility
with their readers. C|Net has over 600,000 people on their mailing list, and HotWired
has over 150,000 people on their distribution list. I personally subscribe to
both lists, but never visit the Web site unless there is something specific in
their reminder notice that is of interest to me. These reminder notices have a
major impact on driving traffic to their respective Web sites.
"PROFILED
INFORMATION STREAMS"
"Profiled information streams" refers to customized
information which is sent to each subscriber, based on their own personal information
needs. Each customer creates a "profile" requesting specific types of information.
Then, on an ongoing basis, they receive any information which meets the needs
of their specific profile. This approach is most relevant when a company has a
wide range of offerings, and customers require timely information on an ongoing
basis. At IBM we have implemented this type of profiling capability (iSource)
where customers can subscribe to receive announcement letters regarding specific
products, services and technologies.
NEWSLETTERS AND E-ZINES (ELECTRONIC
MAGAZINES)
Newsletters/E-zines can also have an impact, acting as an extension
to the Web site with the objectives of strengthening the brand image, increasing
sales, and creating a sense of community with readers. For example, almost a year
ago, I found a Web site that sells lobster called "Lobster Direct". Since it was
an interesting site, I added it to my quickList/bookmark list. However, I have
never been back to the site. Who has the time? While at the site however, I subscribed
to their free newsletter. I have now received several issues of their newsletter,
and although I have not yet placed an order, I have been positively influenced
by the company, and will likely place an order soon. The newsletter has kept my
interest for a number of reasons. They have a "Jokes of the Month" section where
they poke fun at themselves (i.e., Canadian Maritimers). They have a draw every
month for free lobster (which keeps me from unsubscribing). They try to interact
with their customers through lobster-related fun- filled surveys. They provide
lobster recipes, and of course they try to sell me some lobster.
DISCUSSION
GROUP PARTICIPATION/CREATION
Participation in relevant discussion groups
(lists) is also important. For this technique to be successful, the list members
must be part of your target market. You must add value to the list through direct
participation with the group. Your signature file must be compelling, and relevant
to the type of group you are participating in. This approach will keep your name
and your company name in front of your target market on a regular basis. This
can be a powerful tool for building your brand image.
Something else that
you may also want to consider is the creation of a new USENET or e-mail
discussion group. This discussion could be unmoderated or moderated, meaning that
you can control the content the list members see. Through your own discussion
group, you can support your customers, market to customers and prospects, or simply
research the marketplace by staying close to your customers.
One strategy
for leveraging this type of exposure is to assign an individual(s) in your company
or department to become the Internet Communications Specialist. This person could
maintain your presence on certain appropriate lists, create new lists where appropriate,
or use USENET search tools to locate and respond to relevant posts across several
lists.
GETTING "WEBWIRED" A common myth about the creation of Web pages
is that "if you build it, they will come." I can tell you, they won't.
To build traffic to your site, one of the things you must do is register your
site in several places. You must register in the Internet directories and search
engines that are used as jump sites by users to find Web pages.
You can
also register in several online cybermalls and other Web sites for free. Altogether
there are over 200 places where you can register your site to get fully "WebWired".
To help you sort through this process, I have identified several resources
that will help: http://www.interlog.com/~bxi/diamond9.htm
SUMMARY
One major advantage of outbound strategies via e-mail is that almost 100% of Internet
users have e-mail access.
However, probably only about 60% of users have
access to the Web, which is the backbone to most Internet inbound strategies.
Of course, the key to a viable outbound strategy is that it must be totally based
on the customer's desire to receive your information.
The rules of marketing
"netiquette" must be followed. It's unfortunate that most companies base their
total Internet strategy on inbound approaches without considering the use of outbound
approaches.
An Internet outbound marketing strategy is an ideal way
to pro-actively build relationships with customers, rather than hoping they'll
come back to your Web site one day.
Tom has been with IBM since
1979 in various marketing and management positions. He is currently the Internet
Strategies Manager for IBM Canada. Tom is the author of the book "Strategic Internet
Marketing" which is also being translated into Japanese, Polish and Spanish (Estrategias
de Mercadotecnia en Internet). He has written articles about the Internet that
have been distributed to over 55 countries. He has taught marketing and technology
courses at the University of Toronto since 1983. He is currently teaching "Strategic
Internet Marketing" in the MBA program and in the Strategic Leadership program.
Tom has spoken at Internet conferences and events in several countries and continents
around the world, and is a business ambassador for the Ontario Government. Visit
his home page at http://www.interlog.com/~jac
