Tech Article for You

Many firms underestimate the value of using their websites to gain significant competitive advantage in their given markets. Most businesses only utilize their website as a means of displaying their corporate profile, list of products as well as things like their contact details and email address.

At the risk of “preaching to the converted” Alex Margarit highlights some of the ways that a firm’s website, when used as an effective Internet Marketing Channel, can enhance competitive advantage.

It is fairly safe to say that managers should always view web technology in light of the whole marketing mix instead of merely as an extension of their existing advertising efforts. I have seen this happen again and again and therefore feel it is my duty to attempted to highlight some of the ways that a website can positively impact each of the these marketing mix elements:

Distribution (Place)

Ways to enhance your distribution networks may include using the web portal to enhance logistics, create new marketing channels (for example affiliate channels) or provide better or faster product access for customers. Be careful however when creating new e-commerce sites as it is important to conduct a thorough online market analysis of your product to ensure that you are also competitive as far as other Internet based competitors are concerned. Internet retailers such as Amazon are growing in size and dominance and should be taken into account when planning any online strategy. Affiliate marketing channels may also be something to look into in terms of gaining more traffic to your site. New incoming marketing and information channels can be easily established by creating an affiliate program which entails other firms listing your site URL on their pages which in turn can equate to more traffic for your site. Look at your existing business referrers; can you enhance or strengthen these channels through the use of effective and relevant hyperlinks?

Promotions

The growth of the Internet’s accessibility is inevitable and firms would be well advised to start the web advertising function as soon as possible. The reason for this is that “staying power” is paramount with more and more people starting to use the web. Firms that have been around the longest and which have high levels of interconnectivity will always maintain a pretty big competitive advantage over newer entrants. Once a firm’s web page has established a decent ranking and is featured on other related sites, the ability for firms to utilize this coverage to reach out to new domestic and international markets can be quite powerful. The success of large Internet advertising campaigns is well documented. For me the last US election was a real eye-opener as Internet marketing played a dominant role in key advertising campaigns with staggering amounts of marketing messages being delivered via the Internet to target audiences.

Email marketing lists are also a great way to stay in touch with your customers and their effective use can provide a valuable marketing and information channel. The benefits are two fold with the ability for marketers to use them to heighten brand awareness whilst strengthening customer relationships. Newsletters and other marketing can be used to let customers know about new products or services as well as provide segment relevant information to them designed to offer value and a “good read”. A word of caution though, make sure you clearly outline your privacy and anti-spam policy so as not to breach any anti-spam laws. You will need to get your customer’s consent first as well as provide an unsubscribe link so that they may choose whether they want to receive your communications.

Product

Whilst observing the product part of the marketing mix, an Internet portal can substantially strengthens you’re firm’s current product offering. Ways that a web site can enhance your product offering are many, ranging from offering new web related products through to establishing outgoing affiliate programs. Giving customers better services that bolster the appeal of the core product is a great way to effectively relate products to customer needs. This usually involves the creation of secondary or ancillary products that can either be sold or provided for free. These additional offerings can help to generate higher, sometimes passive, earnings as well as increase a firm’s potential differentiation. Ways in which your firm can do this include:

1. Setting up a knowledge base that your clients can have access to that includes a FAQ or query function allowing your clients to query you for information. This helps them to use the service better or more efficiently.

2. Using a feedback form where clients can offer their input as to their needs and product suggestions can help you to determine valuable information about your customer’s needs

3. If you have a product that is hard to operate, providing free or subsidized training can assist your customers to overcome difficulties.

Many firms actually charge their clients for the support component you will have to refer to the existing competition situation to determine whether this is something that you can implement. Either way product enhancements could include increasing the availability of products and services by putting order forms and support forms on your website.

Price

The automation of some of the firm’s functions using web technology usually equates to a significant saving of operational costs - that’s if you are doing it right of course! For instance having an effective inbound ordering form can reduce sales staffing costs. Because ordering online doesn’t require a sales representative to take the call and then effectively turn it around this costs the firm a certain amount per enquiry in staff time. Encourage clients to use the web form as opposed to other methods of product ordering may be an effective means of reducing these costs. Ways that a firm may wish to do this is to reflect the reduced staffing cost in the price by offering a “better deal” to Internet customers. Also, this can help to establish a pattern of online behavior in your customers that can sometimes be translated to other online firm functions such as support pages.

These are just a few of the ways in which an effective online strategy can turn your small web site into a virtual cost saver and income-generating machine. I challenge you to make the most of what is available and remember that constant revision of new web technology is always beneficial if you decide that it may or may not be for you. Naturally, not all web technology is suitable for every firm and it is important that you are conscious that ongoing development can be costly both in terms of time and other development and infrastructure expenditure. Effective development research as well as cost, change and market analysis is paramount to ensure that the benefits of any change out way any given realistic investment cost.

Alex Margarit (http://alexmargarit.com) is a Online Marketing Professional based in Brisbane, Australia. Specialising in the areas of music, fashion, information and legal marketing, Alex has dedicated his life to enhancing the online marketing capabilities of firms by thinking outside the square and offering relevant and timely web marketing tips and insights for businesses.

Tags: design, internet marketing, marketing, Marketing Mix, Place, Price, Product, Promotion, Webdesign, internet marketing, marketing, Marketing Mix, Place, Price, Product, Promotion, Web

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Let me repeat that..

“The technology may change, but human nature remains the same!”

In this wonderful Internet Age, we are all struggling, and succeeding to different degrees, to keep up with the technology. It’s a never-ending battle. Web Technology! When it’s good, it’s often poorly executed, and when it’s bad- it’s fatal.

Frankly, much of the time, the technology gets in the way of the sales and communication process. Unfortunately, it seems that many people responsible for website design understand the technology available and what they want, more than they understand their fellow man- their potential customers, and what THEY want.

Whoever…?

Whoever got the idea to ask for your name and email addresses before you can enter a site? Try that outside the front door of the local McDonalds!

Whoever got the idea for fancy Flash presentations that take 3 minutes of your time to show off how good the graphics designer was? Try telling people that they have to watch a video presentation before they can enter Wal Mart!

Why can’t more than half of Web shoppers find the product they want on a site? Would that be acceptable at the local sports store, or in a mail-order catalog?

Why do more than half of Web shoppers abandon their purchase after they’ve selected goods and placed them in their shopping trolley? Wouldn’t that send your local supermarket broke?

What About The Customer?

This is truly a fascinating time to be a Marketer, and to watch what is being done in the name of Marketing. Look at any successful business in the ‘dirt world’, and you’ll find that it is being rewarded for responding to the needs of its customers, and making more than enough profit to pay its bills. Then look at what has passed for popular success on the Web, and you find that it has to do with how exciting the concept is, how many eyeballs it attracts, how innovative the ‘business model’, or how revolutionary the technology used is. Nary a word about about the customer satisfaction or profit that are necessary in the real world.

I note with pleasure that some wiser heads are now writing about the “New New Economy”, and noting that it’s looking more like the Old Economy all the time! This trend will help give credit to those businesses that have been truly successful on the Web (and there are plenty of them), and set up a realistic expectation for those that come onto the Web in the future.

The Fundamentals Still Apply

Take away the technology, and to succeed in Web Marketing, you still need to deliver the basic requirements of Marketing:

-A good Product
-At the right Price
-At the right Time
-At the right Place

It also helps mightily, if you have a good rapport with your customer.

I was delighted a while back, to be asked to lead a Clickz Forum. It posed the following question…

“Whether, in a high-tech age when dot-coms are rushing to automate as much as customer contact as possible, there’s still an important place for ‘high touch’– old-fashioned one-to-one sales.”

MY answer, was a qualified ‘Yes’, and my belief is that ‘one-to-one sales’ isn’t ‘old-fashioned’ at all! Have a look at all the ‘new-fashioned’ sites that tried to sell autos. They were dismal failures. People used them for information, then went right on down to their local dealership to haggle and buy from real people. No matter how good a job the programmers did of automating customer contact, the customers didn’t feel confident enough to complete the transaction on the website. Some businesses are so “high-touch”, that wise marketers would choose to use a website only as an information, branding and lead- generation tool, with real people following up the leads.

Sure, you’re right, the auto example is an extreme case. And, no, you can’t afford to have a real-live salesperson selling that $9.99 CD online. I understand. Even in the real world, we have vending machines, so we don’t need a human holding our hand in every sales transaction. It varies with the nature of the product.

Understand Your Customer’s’ Needs!

No matter how much money and technology some Web businesses throw at automating customer contact, they’re doomed to failure. You can only successfully automate something you UNDERSTAND. Unfortunately, many of our dotcom whizz-kids have never had to make a living from real customers in the real world, so they just don’t ‘get it’. What online businesses DO need to do, is to understand what the customers’ needs are in the sales process, and fulfil them.

What is really needed, is a caring, thoughtful fulfilling of customers’ needs and expectations at every step in their experience with a Web business site. The better all the small steps are performed, the less need there will be for real-time human intervention (and the higher will be the conversion rate). This means;

-a professional, friendly tone to the complete website

-information about who you are- the company, the founder, the staff. Let your customer know that there are real people there

-sensible ads that don’t mislead and set up unreal expectations

-relevant descriptions from customer searches of Directories and Search Engines

-quick-loading web pages

-easy-to-understand page layout, with clear information

-easy-to-understand navigation

-a Privacy Policy to allay fears on privacy

-a Returns Policy and strong Guarantee to allay fears of making the wrong choice

-a clear description of your products or services, and clear pricing options

-secure credit card and information handling to further allay fears on privacy

-a friendly, easy-to-use shopping cart

-a sincere Thank You, and information about what will happen next

If all of these things are done, there will be little need for one-on-one selling on MOST sites. You will already have done the job. Through understanding your customer and providing excellent service, NOT by spending more on technology!

Of course, offering some ‘one-to-one’ contact is a real plus for any business, and necessary for those that are more “high-touch”. There are now a number of programs, some even free, that allow a customer to contact a live operator at your site. Check out LiveHelper.com and HumanClick.com Making it easy for your customer to contact your business site by phone, fax and email should be fundamental.

I read once that the definition of fanaticism was “Redoubling your efforts when you’ve forgotten your original aim”. Solving a lack of customer rapport by throwing more technology at the problem, comes perilously close to the definition.

John Payne is a lifetime Marketer, Publisher of Web Marketing Ezine, and an SEO consultant.

John also founded and heads up the fast-growing business Enviro-Friendly Products.

Tags: appropriate, Business, customer, internet, needs, online, service, technologies, Technology, Webappropriate, Business, customer, internet, needs, online, service, technologies, Technology, Web

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Sir Tim Berners-Lee was the first Web designer and the inventor of the World Wide Web. He launched the first online website in 6 August 1991. He summed up the Internet communication (compiled with emails) with hypertext transfer protocols.

Initially the Web designing was based upon the simple markup languages, functionality of these languages was very limited. At that time only the hyper linking between the pages and layout services were available; it became more extensible and rich in context with the advancement of Web technology and Web design.

As the time progressed the Web designing languages changed their faces, one of the main drastic change was the dynamicity of the pages along with the database applications. This particular change cropped up some new languages like VBscript, JavaScript, ASP, ASP.Net, Cold fusion etc. These languages are used to create server-side scripting technology.

CSS and Tables:

Tales were hugely used in the time of Netscape Navigator, which even supports the nested tables. But as the Internet Explorer took over the browser market the whole concept was altered by implementing CSS (Cascading Style Sheet). CSS emphasized on the semantic markup of HTML, not on the lay out in the table; by which it helps the search engine spiders to understand what is going on inside the page.

Flash and the web applications:

With the invention of Flash, the web applications became more lucrative and popular, while the technology became more complex. Flash was introduced by Macromedia in 1996 to promote a TV-like application in the world of Web. It was made by Jonathan Gay; it has made its mark within a very short period of time in the World of Web.

The animated figures, movies, games can be made by Flash, so it is very useful for developing attractive web applications. Flash has already crossed its fifth version and contains a large amount of codes for developing graphical interfaces. Today it has over 500,000 developers and runs in over 250 million computers.

Photoshop and Web Applications:

Photoshop was invented by the Knoll brothers- Thomas and John Knoll. The development started in 1987 when they both were working on a digital image process project.

Initially they invented a small subroutine for computer graphics and applied it into a program called Display. In 1990 Adobe published the first official version - Photoshop1.0 which was the improved version of that subroutine.

After its release Photoshop captured the top position in the Graphics market. Now Photoshop 7.0 is in the market and has knocked down all its competitors.
Photoshop is compatible with both the Windows and Mac O.S.

Dynamic web design:

The Web pages can be designed dynamically by two ways - Server-side and Client-side methods.

Server-side scripting is based on the Web server technology where a user’s requirement is accomplished by executing a script directly in the server. This technique is used to create the user-interactive pages where the third-party interferences like databases or animated movies are required.

This technology provides more control over the script and more functionalities of script. Examples of Server-side scripting languages are ASP, ASP, .NET, JavaScript, Cold Fusion etc.

Client-side scripting is based on the modules of Web programs that are run in the user’s browser on client-side. These programs are not executed in the Web Server. These applications are generally implemented for ornamenting the pages and for calling some environmental variables etc. Example of Client-side scripting language is JavaScript.

Business values of Web Development:

People working with web designing are uncountable. Most of the large and medium companies have already promoted their business through the web. Now there are many existing sites which are required to be re-designed and re-generated, as well.

Moreover the companies which have not yet published their sites will launch it in very near future. So the scope of business in Web development sector is very high. Online business is gradually becoming the best medium for advertising, especially for the small companies.

Tags: client, design, development, internet, link, markup, scripting, Server, Webclient, design, development, internet, link, markup, scripting, Server, Web

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