Where do I start...?
The starting point for any
e-business project must be to get ready to do business on-line.
As with any undertaking on the World Wide Web (WWW), this
can be a daunting task for those with little or no experience
of the WWW. However help is at hand by allowing yourself to
be guided by the professionals at Webspoke Internet Solutions.
As with any other business
venture, it is important to thoroughly think through your
objectives and strategies - before you begin implementation.
Without a good road map, you are bound to be distracted, miss
the mark or just get lost.
So before building a web site,
ask yourself three basic questions.
The questions are short, and
your answers should be, too. But think long and hard before
answering. What you decide now will have a great deal to do
with whether or not you succeed on-line. They will help to
write a Marketing Plan for your web site.
1.Why are you on the web?
2.Who is your target, or
whom do you want your site to attract?
3.What do you want your site
to do?
1. Why are you on the
web?
This is a personal question
as much as it is a business question. Think about it carefully,
answer honestly, and you just might be successful (at the
very least, you will be far less likely to waste valuable
time and money).
2. Who is your target,
or whom do you want your site to attract?
The web audience is not only
growing rapidly in sheer numbers; it's becoming increasingly
diverse. As a seller on the WWW, therefore, you must decide
exactly whom you want to reach, looking at demographics, psychographics
and other strategic ways of defining your target. Is it women
aged 25 - 54? University-bound teenagers in the Northeast
who spend 12+ hours on the web each day? Or maybe high-tech
male Computer Science graduates in Zambia with an interest
in French cuisine? Whoever you're trying to reach, the determination
of your target audience will affect what kind of external
links you make to your home page, where you advertise your
site as well as what you say (content) and how you say it.
Another basic consideration is whether you're primarily targeting
existing customers, likely "prospects" or both.
3. What do you want
your site to do?
Define your goals. Just what
is it you want to accomplish on-line? Goals can range from
the relatively subjective: "To promote the company as
the happening organisation of the next millennium," to
the more objective: "To increase annual sales by 5% through
on-line marketing".
Make a written list of the
specific things you want to make happen, with time periods
for each goal. You can use your site to generate instant on-line
sales, provide enhanced customer service, reinforce or revamp
your company's image, recruit new employees, provide free
services or information to build up goodwill or create a valuable
database of existing and potential customers.
You should also ask yourself
whether your objectives are realistic, does my budget and
staffing levels match my objectives and most importantly will
your plan make money.
Further Considerations
There is a great deal to consider
before embarking upon an e-business implementation. Some things
are pretty obvious, like defining the scope of the project
and your vision for the site. Formulating a budget. Dedicating
the necessary resources to make your implementation a success.
Answering all of these questions above honestly and completely
will help.
Once you feel that you are
capable and willing to take on the challenge then the next
phase is to develop a marketing plan for your web site. At
Webspoke Internet Solutions we recommend you consider the
following general strategies. Strategies involve making decisions
as to how you will achieve your goals. Below are some on-line
strategy guidelines that can help you as you draft your web-marketing
plan.
Build Brand Awareness
The more people who are AWARE
of your company and the products and services it has to offer,
the more likely they will be to buy.
To increase awareness of your
web site, and your company, you will want to funnel in visitors
from as many relevant sources as possible. That means establishing
"hyperlinks" with other sites that share your target
audience, as well as listing your company on hot search engines
such as Web Crawler or Yahoo. Remember that the on-line world
is a series of interconnected "communities," so
keep this in mind as you develop awareness strategies. The
importance of traditional advertising methods (i.e. off the
web) should not be overlooked.
Direct Response
In addition to building awareness,
many sellers want to stimulate direct action. Direct response
techniques encourage consumers to order products, request
more information, receive a sales call and otherwise "get
involved." Direct marketing also allows for efficient
tracking and testing of various sales messages and the ability
to generate immediate revenues - today!
Tactically, you could provide
visitors with a simple order form along with a secure means
of payment. Or, you could develop promotional giveaways or
contests to generate excitement while capturing valuable customer
information for future marketing initiatives.
Education
You already know how important
it is to educate people about your products and services.
But on the web, you have to offer something more. Like it
or not, to succeed on the web, you have to give away information
and services. People only go, or return, to sites where they
can get something. If you give something of real value to
your target audience, they will be more interested in learning
about your products and services and they'll have a better
impression of you as a company to do business with.
Demonstrate, Don't
Only Tell
Demonstrate your wares. When
people clearly understand your products and services, how
they work and what benefits they provide, they are much more
likely to buy. If your product or service is complex, intangible
or not easily demonstrated, find innovative ways to give them
a "taste" of it. Have some fun. Be creative.
In conventional marketing,
product "trial" is usually critical to long term
sales growth. The web, because it offers the elements of sight,
sound, motion and interaction, provides an inexpensive, highly
efficient way to trial products and services.
On this point Webspoke Internet
Solutions hopes to have a demonstration shopping site available
on-line to get a feel of on-line shopping within the next
four weeks.
Research
Research on the net is not
only cheap, it can help your business expand markets, fine-tune
product offerings, improve customer service and identify new
trends and customer needs.
Use your web site to solicit
feedback from customers. Find out what they like and dislike,
and obtain valuable suggestions on how to improve your products
or services in ways that you never even imagined. Try conducting
inexpensive, free, on-line surveys to answer all sorts of
marketing questions that would normally cost thousands of
dollars and take weeks or months to complete. But remember
to offer something in return.
You can also tap into hundreds
of existing on-line databases and newsgroups to strengthen
your understanding of a new market segment or product area.
Service & Support
To make commerce on the net
really pay off, back up your web site with customer service
and support. As much as possible, try to shift customers from
telephone to on-line support, which is much less expensive,
seamless and the way customer service is going.
Also consider developing internal
service support capabilities. For instance, many companies
enable their sales people to make sales presentations on-line
where they can access great reams of product and marketing
information that can be customized for a particular client
or prospect.
Content, Content, Content!
Content is what drives success
on the Internet. It is the meat of what you have to offer
(fancy design and creative graphics are the dessert). To attract
and keep your target audience coming back, you've got to deliver
information - the right information - in a timely and organised
manner.
Consider what your audience
really wants to know. They probably don't need to know your
company history dating back to 1973. More likely, they'll
want the latest on industry news and trends, helpful tips
and guidelines relating to your service or product category
or access to other information sources.
Obviously, you will want to
skew content towards your products and services. The trick
is to do this in a way that doesn't appear self-serving. Make
the content meaningful, relevant and ultimately helpful to
your target, and they will visit your site again and again.
They'll even thank you for it!
Decide upfront who in your
organisation will be primarily responsible for creating and
updating content. Once you've assigned a Content Master (maybe
it's you), this person can delegate content assignments to
other people or departments. But someone needs to be accountable
for all that goes up and through your site.
Finally, take time upfront
to determine whom, how and how often content will be updated
- daily, weekly or monthly.
There is nothing more un-cool
in cyberspace than a stale web site.
How Webspoke Internet Solutions can help...
Webspoke can help you with
consultancy to help develop your on-line enterprises. This
can take the form of:
1. Help With Developing
Web Marketing Strategies
2. Evaluating Existing
Software
For fitness of your own purpose.
To tailor for your own needs
3. Developing Bespoke
Solutions
To offer simple transaction
handling with shopping baskets, on-line
auctions, order handling and processing.
To help develop a fully integrated
on-line enterprise that complements existing company marketing
policies.
4. Secure Transactions
Webspoke E-Business solutions
employ leading, industry-standard security protocols including:
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
and Secure Electronic Transaction (SET), so that your electronic
transactions are safeguarded, reducing financial exposure
and liability for all parties.
5. Web Site Hosting
Webspoke can offer you a
secure hosting solution for your on-line enterprise so you don't
have to host the web site yourself.
Webspoke will offer a fully
integrated approach to your on-line enterprise requirements
with experience in commercial application development and
hosting.
Should you wish
to discuss the subject of e-business and your own requirements,
please feel free to contact us.
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