The Internet and the World Wide Web are redefining the ways in which companies do business and market themselves. They are leveling the playing field, removing the barriers to entry and making it possible for even one-person businesses to compete successfully with large companies.

The most powerful and compelling benefits to using the Internet are:

1. Accessibility: Worldwide access, any hour of the day, any day of the week.
2. Flexibility: Unlike paper or more common forms of electronic media, such as television or radio, the Internet allows for instant, inexpensive changes.
3. Space: Although there is a cost associated with how much information is on your Web site , the Internet allows you to have volumes of information in almost limitless variations.

While this new frontier is exciting, it can also be frightening. Using the Web effectively requires a whole new way of thinking and a different set of skills than traditional business and marketing models. Web site content must be designed for interactivity; you can't just scan in existing paper materials.

Because the medium is so new, everyone is in a steep learning curve, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't. But customer expectations are changing, and businesses can't afford to sit back and wait to figure it out. We're all experimenting and evolving rapidly. This article will help you get your online marketing efforts off to a successful start.

Marketing on the Internet - Setting The Objective

If you don't know where you're trying to get to, then any road will take you there. In order to understand how to market your business on the Internet, you must first determine what you are trying to accomplish online.

There are three main categories of objectives that a business might set for their Web site. Note that, while well-thought-out sites can accomplish more than one goal, each type of objective requires a somewhat different approach.

1. Information
   
   • Company: You might want a slightly enhanced version of a Yellow Pages ad -- address, phone, fax, hours, specialties, etc.
   • Sales and Support: This could include detailed information on the type of products you supply or services you provide. If you were a coin dealer you might use a Web site to list your inventory. An oil company might want to describe types of maintenance contracts provided, and a landscaper could provide detailed lawn care plans.
   • Variable: One of the most compelling benefits of the Web is that content can be changed easily. Your Web site could post nightly or weekly specials. Restaurants, local hardware stores, travel agents and retailers can greatly benefit from this type of information posted on a Web site. Realtors can show their newest listings along with exterior and interior photos.

2. Sales
   Your Web site can make it easier for your customers to do business with you. You can allow customers to send in orders electronically 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Although fax orders also provide this capability, it is much more convenient for customers to be able to look at the product information they need for a buying decision, and then to order right then and there with just a few more mouse clicks. That convenience can be a very powerful competitive advantage.

   Here are some examples of how different types of small businesses can use the Internet to enhance sales:

   • Florists can display photos of special occasion arrangements on their Web sites and allow customers to order online.
   • Restaurants can place corporate take-out menus on a Web site to encourage office workers to place larger orders for pick-up or delivery. This is much better than phone or fax, for two reasons. First, it allows the person ordering to send the order any time without getting a busy signal, etc.; and second, a restaurant can post the entire menu along with specials, saving valuable time on both ends!
   • Bakeries can show different style cakes for special occasions and take orders right there on the Internet.

3. Market Research A third objective you could have for your Web site is to gain valuable market data about your customers or potential customers. Smart businesses will use this data to market to those customers and prospects more effectively through more conventional mediums such as direct mail, circulars, radio ads, newspaper, etc., as well as through new, online means.

   There are several keys to using your site to get this type of information:

   • Don't make it difficult for the person supplying the information.
   • Don't make the process too intrusive.
   • Always remember, "you can't get something for nothing." If you want the user to provide you with some type of personal information, you need to give them something in exchange. You can get very creative here, however, and offer a variety of incentives. For example, you can have a contest with all respondents, awarding the winner a gift certificate for your company's product or service, or you can offer each respondent a discount on a future purchase from your company.

   Some businesses that can use this approach are:

   • Travel agents - get a profile of a potential customer so that you can inform them of special airfares or cruises that will probably interest them.
   • Realtors - What better way to sell a house than to match up a buyer with the house of his or her dreams as soon as it hits the market.
   • Furniture stores, pet groomers, automobile dealers, antique dealers, financial planners, insurance agents, chimney sweeps--the opportunities are limited only by your time and imagination.

There are many ways in which small businesses can use the Internet to find, attract and keep customers. Just like any other marketing medium, the people who figure out how to use it to their advantage tend to grow a lot faster than those who don't. The Internet has a unique advantage over many of the more traditional media, but it is also very new and changing rapidly. The time to learn and understand it is now.

Contact us now before you put it off any longer. Your clients are already using the internet for email correspondence and to find the products and services they need. Why not use this to your advantage?