A great deal of interest has started to appear about marketing via the Internet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Ever since the first graphical browser hit the streets, the public has been fascinated and the advertising community intrigued.
"Internet Malls" have sprung up all over the country offering merchants a low-cost way to display their wares to a massive audience of people all over the world. Members of the Internet Marketing mailing list have debated long and hard over this trend, mostly bemoaning the opportunistic nature of many of these ventures. I've visited a few low-rent Internet malls, and they remind me of a moldering central business district of an insignificant city. A curious stew of products, none particulary distinguished sounding, sold at not particulary good prices. From what I understand, they haven't done much business. Creating a mall similar to them would be good for short-term profits, but don't count on your new 'tenants' staying long.
Remember that people are on the Internet for information, preferably interesting, detailed and timely information that changes rapidly. If you want to do an Internet marketing site that people will keep coming back to, here are a few suggestions gleaned from the Inet-Marketing mailing list:
* Choose your prospects well. Sell your services to people who really have information to contribute as well as a desire to buck up their sales. The best prospects for Internet marketing are companies whose customers are passionate about their products. A Harley-Davidson motorcycle web site, for example, would work great, because people who use them are very passionate about them and are always eager for more information. A web site for Crest Toothpaste would probably be a flop, because people don't want to devote much energy thinking about toothpaste. Sure, they want good toothpaste, but it's not what they want to spend time reading about.
An excellent example of this is HotHotHot, a Pasadena hot sauce
shop that substantially increased their sales through their Web
Presence.
* People are unlikely to visit your site without a strong campaign in other media. The best medium to advertise a Web site in is probably USENET Newsgroups corresponding to its subject. However, it's not generally a good idea to write messages doing nothing but advertising the web site. People are most likely to come to the web site if you are an active participant on the newsgroup, asking questions and sharing your expertise with others. Just put your URL in your signature line, and people will come. Like this:
------------------------------------------------------------------------- David H Dennis * Author, Inet-Access FAQ * http://www.amazing.comRemember that this person isn't necessarily responsible for what he says. -------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Don't rely only on the World Wide Web. It's flashy, sure, but many people have email-only access to the net. You should have an email address for information and comments, as well as a "mailbot" that automatically sends information to anyone who sends a message to a dummy user on your system.
* Get on the major WWW indexes, such as Yahoo. Most of them will either have a form you can fill in to add your listing, or a Webmaster you can mail to asking to be added. To increase your chances of being added, be sure to give some details on you, your organization and your relationship to the subject matter.
To get on the Inet-Marketing list, send the message "sub inet-marketing" to listproc@einet.net. For information, send the message "info inet-marketing" to the same address.
Next section: Now that I have users, how should I deal with them?