The Dictionary in the American Marketing Association website defines Online Marketing as, “Term referring to the Internet and e-mail based aspects of a marketing campaign. Can incorporate banner ads, e-mail marketing, search engine optimization, e-commerce and other tools.” It defines E-Commerce as, “A term referring to a wide variety of Internet-based business models. Typically, an e-commerce strategy incorporates various elements of the marketing mix to drive users to a Web site for the purpose of purchasing a product or service.”
Whether you are managing a corporate website that has pretty static content, or you’re using sophisticated search engine marketing techniques – online marketing has become mainstream. Combinations of email marketing, banner ads, search engine marketing, and other tools make up this sophisticated marketing discipline.
It can be intimidating to keep up with the ever-changing world of online marketing. But, the exciting thing about this media is the immediacy of delivery and response – and the low cost per click. You can reach so many more customers, with multiple touches, and you can afford to do more testing and highly personalized campaigns with online marketing. Compared to traditional media like television, radio, and direct mail, online marketing is a bargain. And, it offers the ability to very precisely target ideal prospects.
E-Commerce refers to the function of providing online payment and purchasing of products and services. Most of the sophisticated e-marketers are using online marketing tactics to drive traffic to their website, where they showcase and sell their products and services. Some of the best online sites are retail companies like Amazon.com, Dell, QVC have fully functional sites that offer recommendations, save your preferences, and will let you track your order as it’s processed.
This article is a great review of the 25 best e-commerce sites on the web: www.time.com/time/digital/reports/ecommerce/25best.html
You can learn a great deal by monitoring what successful e-commerce business are doing. Amazon.com has expanded it’s offering well beyond books. They recently rolled out with a new test service - Amazon Prime. This service qualifies members (it’s free for a trial period, then costs around $30 per year) for free 2-day shipping on all purchases, and reduced fees on overnight shipping. They obviously surveyed their customers and found that shipping costs were their biggest barrier to competing with brick-and-mortar retail stores … and they developed a strategy to overcome that impediment.
Many online companies have integrated telephone and email customer service into their websites to allow for more personal interaction – in an effort to compete with the store clerk at the local retailer.
Online sales continue to grow, and more and more consumers are getting comfortable purchasing online … making it a major factor in business success or failure in the modern world.
Today’s consumers are Internet-savvy. And, increasingly, having a web presence is not a competitive advantage, but simply a minimum requirement to be in business. If you check out your competition, it is likely that they have a website … and you should, too.
Advantages of having a Website:
- You meet the minimum requirements to be a “real”, credible business.
- Your competition is already online.
- You can use email and other online marketing tools, and can drive them to your website for fulfillment.
- You can get online relatively cheaply (you would be surprised at how little it costs to get online these days).
- You can begin saving some paper costs by providing certain administrative materials online and directing customers to that location.
The question should not be whether or not to have a website, but instead what content and functionality do you need at your website. Your business model and your website goals should drive the basic functionality of your website. If you are in the retail business, your website should be a virtual store – with at least your most popular items available for online purchase. If you are in a service industry, your website may be more useful in capturing leads – your goal may be to drive potential customers to your website to complete a request for information.
Regardless of your sophistication level – you need to be on the web if you want to be competitive in today’s business environment.
Today, many ten-year-olds are building and managing their own websites. Many of the domain name websites (places where you can “purchase” your domain name) such as the sites listed below, and many more, provide user-friendly services for designing and hosting your website for you.
Additionally, many of the cable modem and DSL services provide some web hosting and limited design services. And, you can purchase software such as Adobe Dreamweaver or Microsoft FrontPage, or find free shareware on the Internet, that will allow you to build and design a website without ever knowing Internet programming languages such as HTML or Java.
Because of these vast resources, you can fairly easily build your own website. This is especially true if you just need simply content and don’t need to build a database that sits behind your website to store data that you capture (from member registration, etc.)
It is a little harder to “do-it-yourself” if you are installing payment processing and shopping cart functionality (key capabilities for e-commerce). However, there are vendors out there like PayPal who provide those services on an outsourced basis on a fee-for-service basis. It is often cheaper and easier just to purchase their services than to build your own version of such functionality.
If you insist on building your own website, here are some simple “Do’s and Don’ts”:
- Don’t do fancy graphics that will take a long time to download.
- Don’t add fancy java scripting just because you can – if it doesn’t enhance the customer experience for both new AND returning customers, then leave it out.
- Don’t be afraid to fill up the white space on your home page. Consumers are used to busy home pages – that typically communicates that there’s a lot of useful content and that your site is “packed” with information.
- Don’t get caught up in trying to build a “pretty” site. Consumers are much more interested in finding what they want upfront, with as few clicks as possible, and with easily accesses levels of information. They will tolerate ugly, but they will not tolerate poor functionality.
- Don’t use video – even if you think it’s cool, it takes forever to load and it will be quickly out-of-date.
- Do offer multiple ways on your homepage to access the “meat” of your site. Navigation links along the top, left-hand topic links, and pull-down menus can all represent different labels/ways to access the same information. Different people think about things differently and, while some people only use the main navigation, others go right for what jumps out at them most.
- Do use banner ads to draw special attention to your best-selling products and services.
- Do build some content areas on your home page that you can change easily to keep content fresh – articles, featured products, etc. You want to encourage repeat traffic and that starts with changing up content to keep it interesting.
- Do ask for feedback from your customers – on your website, on your products, on your purchasing experience, etc. It’s one of the greatest values of the Internet – immediate feedback. You can easily and cheaply survey your customers about everything under the sun … don’t miss out on the opportunity.
- Do provide a Help button and make it easy to contact a person if necessary. Don’t lose a sale just because someone couldn’t find what they needed on your website.
In many cases, it is advisable to involve a savvy Internet marketer in designing your website. This will help ensure that you are building a site that is conducive to marketing. This is especially true if you want to have a website with a great deal of functionality that is highly interactive. Tools keep evolving, and there are many content management tools for websites that can allow you to easily create dynamic content that works well with email marketing, allows you to frequently change banner ads, and capture and track your customer’s movements on your website.
These functions are extremely valuable, and it is recommended that you seek the help of a web programmer who is able to provide layout and design, help with content, and who is familiar with content management tools, the latest functionality like RSS Feeds, Podcasts, Blogs, and Webinars. These tools can allow you to create a dynamic interaction with your customers that builds loyalty and increases the amount of products and services you sell.
Just be careful that you don’t get caught up in all the bells and whistles – while these functions can and do add value, you should only implement them if they add to your customer experience and increase your overall value proposition. For example, having a cool video download might generate many hits and click-throughs, but might actually hurt sales. Remember, that your ultimate purpose is to guide customers down a path that ends in a sale – and too many detours and stops often will derail that process. Don’t add too many functions and end up distracting your customers from your products and services.
There are professional advertising agencies specializing in online marketing, and they would likely be helpful. However, many general advertising agencies will be less savvy in Online Marketing, and you can often find someone who has experience in all the disciplines you need without hiring an agency.
Before you start burning programming hours, however, spend some time laying out a prototype of your website in Word (or some other word processing software). Don’t worry about layout, just use lines and boxes to depict separate areas. Do spend time on identifying your home page navigation, how you want to organize your content, and on building the content as much as possible.
You want to think about the key messages to convey, how you want your site organized, etc. And, you don’t want to do that while you’re “On-the-Clock” with your web programmer.
Helpful hints for building web content:
- Think VERY Short – The Web operates in bulleted format. If you need to offer more detailed information, then provide a short, bulleted summary and offer more detail on a click-through page.
- Use Conversational Language – think few words and simple phrases. You aren’t writing an English paper.
- Put the Customer First – Make sure each headline, sub headline, link, and overall navigation easily identifies what it represents. Don’t make them guess.
- Drive Your Audience to Action – wherever possible. Each page should offer a link to purchase, request information, download something … some action.
- Make it Easy to Get Back to Where They Started – offer links to the home page from every page, show them their most recently-viewed pages, and offer a “back” button. Consumers do not like to get lost – and that often results in them clicking on the “x” and closing the window in frustration.