It seems like the entire business world is in a frenzy to get on line these days. Many will dabble, but how many will have what it takes to become successful in this new medium? It is possible to have a successful commercial Web site, either to complement an existing retail or mail-order business, or as a stand-alone enterprise. However, the Internet is not magic. You will need to market your products and services just as aggressively on line as you would otherwise.
Before You Even Start
There are some important decisions to make as you are setting up your online business, and bringing people through your site will take dedication and work, but there's not much mystery to it and it's not especially difficult. You just need the proper information. Why do you want to be on the Internet? 20 Reasons to Put Your Business on the Web will make you either feel good about your decision to do so, or reexamine your motivations.
What Makes a Great Web Site? It's no use going to all the trouble to make a great-looking Web site if it isn't information that people are going to want to look at. The Net is already flooded with useless information. Since we are creating storefronts, the content of our Web creations is critical. Let's all think long and hard about the items that we are going to market on the Web. If I were a customer, would I buy this?
Start Building Your Store
For a commercial site, your primary content is your products. Good products, good prices, good information, and good layout equals good content. If you have experience with the products, you should be able to supply good information based on that experience. The hard part will be supplying the right amount of information, leaving the customers neither unsatisfied nor bored. Always include an e-mail link in your store's footer so that customers can ask questions. Check this e-mail often. Most customers don't mind waiting a few hours for a response--they're usually at work or working on other projects, but the quicker you respond, the better you look.
Good products and good prices will make all the difference if you intend to succeed on the Web. If you have a retail outlet, what you sell and what you charge in your home town may not fly on the Web. Internet customers have distinctive needs and tastes; they have lots of choices and typically have the know-how to shop around. People shop on the Internet to find the best prices and to find unusual products. These are all generalizations, and they may not even be very accurate, but it is important to do a little research in this regard.
Finish Your Store
This may seem obvious, but many people are so eager to get started that they would make a half-completed site publicly visible. This is not appropriate. Though not so common lately, we have in the past been far too tolerant of "under construction" notices. All Web sites should be constantly updated, therefore constantly "under construction." That is no excuse for them to look sloppy. If the store is still lacking some items, clean it up and open what's there with a "coming soon" message, but don't have dead ends and empty pages.
List Your Site with Search Engines and Directories
One of the best ways to be found by potential customers is to be listed in search engines (like Infoseek and WebCrawler) and directories (like Yahoo! and Magellan). If you're not found on the search engines, you're not on the Web. Submit-it is a free service that provides quick links to the submit pages of all the major Web directories and search engines. You will be asked to provide essential information about your site at the beginning and a site like Submit-it will plug that information into the individual submit pages. You will then be prompted to supply any additional information. Be warned that your site will not be cataloged by some of the sites you submit to for up to several weeks.
Submit-it isn't the only free listing service. The following sites will help you submit your site to the various search engines and indexes, and give you other publicity advice. Most of these sites have a free posting system which helps you list your site to different directories and search engines.
Consider Your Options for Professional Listing Services and Paid Links
There are several companies that will publicize your site for a fee. If you would like to contact one, take a look at the list above. If you don't have the time or the patience to list your own site, this might be a good option for you. Consider these services carefully. Though they may be expensive in some cases, a professional can promote your site in less time than you could do it yourself, and maybe do it better, depending on the effort you wish to expend. Most people with experience in this area, though, would agree that the best way is to do it yourself or have someone in your company do it.
There are also plenty of places, Internet "malls" where you can have your site listed for a fee. In almost all cases, that would be a waste of money. Don't pay for multiple sites on different malls either. You only need one site because you can have links all over the Internet pointing to it. Save your money for buying ad space.
Do Some Market Research
You won't be able to know the best way to market your site unless you know about your potential customers and your competitors. Cuddle up to your favorite Internet search engine and spend an afternoon doing reconnaissance. How many online competitors do you have? How does their site look compared to yours? How are their prices? If they're nice enough to provide you with information by having a counter on their page, how many people visit their site? Based on this information, make some hard decisions about your marketing approach. Do you need to improve the look of your store, lower your prices, or offer some specials or gimmicks?
Who are your target customers? What do they like to do, what other products do they buy? Where would they go on the Internet? Write these things down as you think of them and then begin to search the Internet for the sites that they would frequent.
Here's a tip: visit Alta Vista and type in "link:" and the entire URL of your competitor's Web site and you'll see the sites that are linked to that site. This is a good way to find places that your target customers are likely to be lurking.
Content Links
After you've collected information on the playing field, it's time to visit all the sites that your competitors are linked to and that your customers are likely to visit. Once you have found a few sites, you can find more, because many of them will have lists of "related links." The people who run these sites are usually happy to add your site to their lists. A link at a popular Web site could bring substantial traffic into your site, for free. Often people will link to your site without expecting a reciprocal link. That saves you the effort, but it may not be a bad idea to have a list of links. With enough good links, your store could become known as the "ultimate widgets site" on the Internet.
Establishing link relationships is achieved by searching out sites where your prospective customers are likely to be and finding the administrator's e-mail address, penning a short e-mail message introducing yourself and asking for a link. For example:
Hello, my name is Carlos and I run the Southwest Soccer Supplies Web site. My URL is http://www.host.com/soccer. Your soccer site looks great and I spent a little while looking up some stats. Would you be so kind as to add a link to my site to your links page? I would be happy to return the favor. My customers would most likely be very interested in seeing your site.
A cordial message like this is always received warmly, and as long as it is clear that you are not trying to sell anything and that it is not a mass mailing, most site administrators will immediately write you back and make the link. You may even make new friends.
Many Web surfers look only at noncommercial sites, and haven't yet thought much about shopping on line. They won't come looking for you, but if they stumble across a link to you at one of their favorite pages, they will most likely visit. This should not only increase your traffic (in proportion to the traffic on the other pages) but should increase your sales, since these visitors are likely to be enthusiasts.
The major drawback to link relationships is that it provides an easy exit for someone already in your store. When you link to a site outside of your own, you provide the customer with an "ejector seat"; they might leave and never return. Many merchants, however, have found that if someone is really going to buy their products, they will not be distracted by links to outside the store until they do buy, and after they are finished shopping they will appreciate some suggestions about where to go next.
Newsgroup Announcements
If your product is niche-specific or related to a particular hobby or interest, there may very well be a newsgroup devoted to that interest where many of your potential customers browse every day. If you go about it the wrong way, you can offend a lot of people, some of whom might take it upon themselves to "teach you a lesson." Marketing on the newsgroups is possible and can be effective, but learn how to do it right first. Read Advertising on Usenet.
In short, only make postings to newsgroups directly related to your product, and the postings should be simple announcements of your site with a very descriptive subject line. For example:
Newsgroup: alt.health.alternative
Subject: Announcing New Herbal Extracts Site
Message: Announcing a new site selling extracts of the finest medicinal herbs. Secure, online ordering and low prices. Volume discounts available. http://www.host.com/herbsDeviation from these guidelines could result in bad publicity and scores of nasty e-mail from offended newsgroup readers.
Depending on your products, you may find it difficult to find sites or newsgroups where you can announce your site for free. You may find it necessary to run paid banner ads to publicize your site. Even if you have plenty of free links, banner ads can tremendously increase your visits, and you should consider budgeting for them. The way banner ads work is that you prepare an ad of a size determined by the site you will advertise on and they run it in a prominent place. In many cases, you pay by impression, that is, the number of people who actually see the ad. In some cases, however, you pay by click-through, meaning that you are allocated a certain number of people clicking on the ad and going to your site before your ad is pulled. In other cases, especially on smaller sites, you may simply pay for a certain period of time, no matter how many people see the ad or click on it.
Little sites: Internet advertising is still in its embryonic stages. Lots of small sites, even those with heavy traffic, are still being maintained without compensation by volunteers, students, or companies hoping to heighten their public image. Other small sites do take advertising, but their fees are much smaller than Infoseek or CNN Online. Many of these designers would be happy to take in a little money for their work, but do not quite know how to deal with paid advertising. If there's a site on a subject especially suited to your product, e-mail the administrator and make a deal. Be sure it's a site that lots of people know about and visit. A little research might be necessary. And keep in mind that the highly-targeted traffic on those sites can make your investment pay off in spades.
Big sites/search engines: If you've got more money and want wider exposure and proven results, especially if your product is aimed at a wide market, nothing can beat the big sites. Search engines like Yahoo! and Infoseek and general resource pages like Netscape, CNN, and C|Net will guarantee that lots of people see your ad, and quickly. If you're selling items that are not niche specific, these may be your best bet. One thing to bear in mind, however, is that an ad on a large search engine would be seen by both interested and disinterested parties. You can't get the targeting which comes with smaller sites. What you lose in targeting, however, you gain in speed and raw exposure.
Off-Line Advertising and Publicity
If you are already running print ads for your business, be sure to put your site's URL in the ad. Many people who would be unwilling to call for a price quote or send for a catalog will look up your store on line if they have Internet access. Many people prefer the anonymity that the Internet affords them. Also, if your prospective clientele is served primarily by one or two publications, it may be well worth your while to advertise your Web site. Many people are on-line but never "surf" so they would be unlikely to find your site just looking around.
Free Stuff Sites
If you are offering a free sample or a free product of some kind, there are a lot of sites on the Web with catalogs of "free stuff." These are so well traveled by Internet bargain customers that you could bring hundreds of people into your site with one link on a free site. Be warned, though. You may be expected to give away hundreds of free samples before people catch on and start buying your products. Most free stuff sites insist that your offer be really free, that a SASE be the only cost to the consumer (not "free with purchase" or "pay only $4.95 shipping").Contests and Other Gimmicks
This one's up to you. There are millions of people out there on the Internet looking for something new, looking for something to entertain them. There are thousands of sites that people visit. Anything you can do to get a prominent link from a well-traveled site to yours would be worth the effort. There are all sort of gimmicks that nobody has thought of yet. Do a little brainstorming.Make Them Stay and Bring Them Back
Bringing people into your site is fruitless if they take one look at your front page and go on their way. To a certain point it is, of course, inevitable. Your front page is kind of like the front window of a store on Main Street. Everyone who peers into the window of your Internet store needs to be lured inside. You can do this by having an attractive and informative front page. It needs to provide a professional outward appearance while giving the customer a good idea what's inside. Many people won't bother to venture in out of sheer curiosity, so don't be too mystical.Having a pleasant first experience will encourage people to buy. If your site is professional and well organized so that customers find the products they want without having to dig, they will have a favorable experience, but if they've already purchased what they need, they won't need to come back. This is why the most successful Web sites change constantly. Perhaps your product line doesn't allow for that, but if you are planning to have repeat customers, your site needs to look like it's alive and up-to-date. If your site never changes, repeat customers might wonder if you're still there.
Conclusion
There is no mystery regarding why some Internet stores are successful and some aren't. Choosing appropriate products to market on line, presenting those products in an effective manner, and publicizing the site aggressively are the keys. If you are unprepared to do these things, save yourself the expense and quit now. If you are prepared, plant your feet on the ground and reach for the stars.
For more marketing information, check out First Steps: Cool Marketing Resources and Tools , A newsletter of Internet marketing information updated "nearly daily."
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