 Is
your Web Site Passive or Active?
Published
in the June edition of
Computer Link Magazine
Is
your Web Site working actively for your
business? Today, many Web sites are
like billboards in the desert…no
one sees it unless you actively promote
it.
Too
often when talking with companies, they
wonder if their Web site is providing
a return on investment for their company.
The key difference between Web sites
that work and Web sites that don’t
is that the ones that work are being
actively promoted. Without question,
Internet marketing and most commonly
email marketing are the foundation for
success.
I
was speaking with a venture capitalist
the other day that was telling me about
a major online retail Web site in his
portfolio that was floundering until
they adopted the practice of email marketing.
By communicating with customers at mass
on a regular basis via email, this company
was able to strengthen its customer
relationships while ultimately boosting
its sales and profitability.
Be
assured that the practice of email marketing
is not limited to online businesses,
as it is also highly effective in traditional
businesses. Today, the best way of using
the Internet is to improve your traditional
processes. I believe that there is not
a business in existence that would not
be better off if they communicated more
effectively with their customers. With
the cost of US postal service mail increasing
by 10% the end of June, this communication
can be handled far more efficiently
and cost effectively on the Internet.
A
common complaint I hear from businesses
thinking about switching to email marketing
is that they don’t have email addresses
for their customers. Surprisingly this
is a very simple problem to solve. By
placing a simple sign up form on your
website requiring just first name and
email address (not a lengthy, complicated
form that often deters people from filling
it out) your customers and prospects
can simply and easily sign up to receive
your information making it easy for
both parties involved to collect the
information. With a well-planned Internet
marketing campaign you can collect any
additional information you would like,
later, by running a sweepstakes or through
a survey.
Today
with many people hesitant to sign up
for anything on the Internet due to
uncertainty as to where all of the Spam
in their inbox comes from, there are
some measures you can take to assure
people that it doesn’t come from
you. The best way to assure people that
signing up for your information is “safe,”
is to add a link from your sign-up page
directly to your privacy policy and
tell your customers and prospects that
you will not share or disclose their
name, email address or any other personal
information to anyone. Provide a privacy
policy that reassures people and encourages
them to complete the opt-in process.
By using a double opt-in process a confirmation
email with an activation link is sent
to the subscriber ultimately confirming
their permission. The final step in
assuring your subscribers that they
won’t be spammed is by providing
them with the ability to opt-out of
receiving your information with a simple
click. This capability has become a
necessary component of email marketing
in order to assure your customers that
they will not end up receiving any unsolicited
email.
Now
that you have your database built, what
information of value should you send?
Often I hear from companies that they
don’t know what they should send
and it appears to them that there must
be a lot of additional work required
when email marketing. Nothing could
be further from the truth! Active email
marketing is simply communicating information
about what is going on in your company.
Information that you are often times
creating, and delivering already in
other forms within your organization.
Now you have the opportunity to improve
what you tell customers and how often
you tell them. Think of it as the personal
one on one conversation with your customers
that you don’t currently have the
time to do with each of them separately.
This works not only for B2C but more
importantly in B2B where you are providing
information to sales representatives,
dealers, and distributors.
Using
the Internet to manage your customer
relationships should not only include
the ability to distribute information
but also to receive information back.
The simplest way in which to do this
is to survey your customers to gain
input from them on your products and
services. Their opinions and ideas can
strengthen and guide the future direction
of your business. Allowing customers
to express their attitudes and opinions
strengthens your relationship by showing
them you care about what they think
and completes the full circle of bi-directional
information flow.
Continuing
to expand your audience and grow your
database is an important part of your
continued Internet marketing success.
By using incentives such as a free T-shirt
you can not only collect additional
information about those you already
have in your database but also grow
your list of contacts. These practices
often work so well that many times you
have to structure your offer to appeal
to a very narrow audience. An offer
to win a Palm Pilot can get many people
to sign-up but they may not be the audience
you would like to communicate with or
market to, so plan your campaigns carefully.
With
an active Web site you will also need
to track the activity you create with
your communication programs and determine
what is valuable to your customers and
audience. Link tracking can be invaluable
in this process. The ability to embed
links into your email message and track
the number of people that reacted to
your information is important. Normally,
we suggest that this information be
collected in an aggregated form so that
privacy concerns don’t become an
issue.
Your
Web site can be your best salesperson.
Just as you would not have your salespeople
sitting around waiting for the telephone
to ring, get your Web site working actively
for you as well. Through the use of
these combined processes your Web site
can become active. Active Web sites
provide a very high return on investment
for the businesses that own them.
For
additional information and a weekly
series of case studies about these topics
sign up for a Marketing Sherpa newsletter
at http://www.marketingsherpa.com.
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