Subj : Marketing on the Internet Without Getting Burned To : alt.bbs.ads From : "Advanced Web Technologies" Date : Tue Jul 08 2003 05:04 am Marketing on the Internet Without Getting Burned *1,000,000 FREE VISITORS ON YOUR SITE! - Author: John C. Mozena Archive: Last-Updated: 09/17/97 * Introduction: You want to market your products or services. You think you might want to use the Internet to do this, but you're not sure how. You're not even sure if it's going to be worth your time and money. This document is intended to help people in your position. The Internet is a big, confusing place with rules and traditions that often seem silly or counterproductive to the new user. However, if you treat the Internet as a separate society, and learn to respect the Net's etiquette just as you would respect the etiquette of a foreign country in which you were doing business, you and your business will prosper. The Internet allows you to reach more people with your message for less money and effort than any other invention in history. It also allows you to anger that same population with amazing speed and ease. Follow some very simple rules, and you'll avoid that fate. * Rule 1: Follow the Net's Golden Rule. Each of the interconnected computers that comprise the Net is owned by somebody. The owner of that computer is the only person who can decide how that computer's time and memory are to be used. (Governments dispute this, of course.) A very quick way to prove that you don't know what you're talking about is to argue that you should be allowed to send as many messages as you like, to whomever you please, because "nobody owns the Net." The people who own the machines on which the Net runs will dispute this, and rightly so. To remain in harmony with the Net, you need to use the Net's resources in such a way that you would like your resources used. It's much like the "Golden Rule" of the Christian tradition, in that a society works best when people treat each other with the respect with which they would like themselves treated. Every time you send somebody an e-mail, their computer, their Internet Service Provider's computer and a varying number of computers in between you and them expend time and memory to get your e-mail to them. The owners of all these computers allow this to happen because of the implicit agreement that your computer or your service provider's computer will do the same thing for their data. This agreement, this implied contract is the basis of the Net. Marketing efforts that take this into account will prosper or fail on the merits of the product and the marketer. Marketing efforts that ignore the Net's Golden Rule will fail, regardless of the merits of the product or the brilliance of the advertisement. The majority of Net users will not do business with net-abusers. * Rule 1a: Don't "Spam." A corollary to the Net's Golden Rule is this: Don't ever, ever, ever send out unsolicited commercial e-mail. It doesn't matter how good your product is, it doesn't matter how targeted your mailing is, it doesn't matter how well-intentioned you are. This is known as "spamming," and will cause you to lose your account on 95 percent or more of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) now in existence, will ruin your company's name and image, will cause you to receive a deluge of complaints and will generally leave you wishing you'd never thought of the idea. If you take nothing else away from this document, believe that spamming is a Bad Thing. "But I do direct postal mail, what's the difference?" you ask. The correct model for spam isn't direct postal mail. It's the junk fax, which was made illegal by the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. You're using the recipient's resources -- disk space, computer time, ISP connect time and personal time -- without their permission to propagate your advertisement. While the legal status of spam is still uncertain, at least one judge has called it analogous to trespass. There is no incremental cost for bulk e-mail -- it's as cheap for your average user to send 10,000 as it is to send one. If everybody were to spam their advertisements, the Net would crash and burn as computers everywhere tried to deliver millions of spammed ads. We're back to the Net's Golden Rule here. * Rule 2: Content, Content, Content. Be honest. How often, unless you're sitting in a lobby somewhere bored out of your skull, do you read those corporate brochures that litter offices everywhere? Well, a Web page that does little more than give your company's name, address, vision statement and product list is the 90s equivalent of the corporate brochure and will create the same underwhelming response. You need to give Net users a reason to visit your Web page, which should be the centerpiece of any Net-based marketing effort. A product list isn't going to excite anybody. You need to provide them with content, so they come back to your site again and again, cementing a relationship and placing your brand identity in their field of vision when they decide to make a purchase. How do you create content? It depends: If you sell sporting goods, try setting up a Web page listing all local amateur athletic leagues with game times, scores, highlights and other associated information. Offer a small discount to participants in leagues that provide you with schedules, scores and highlights. People will want to see their name on the Net, and will think of your company when it comes time to buy shoes or jerseys. If you run a record store, create a site for local concert listings and post record reviews from local amateur reviewers. Offer to your local high school English teacher the ability to post record reviews written by composition students. Let site visitors register to win a free CD once a week -- but they have to visit the site to register, re-registering each week. Post upcoming album releases, and let people reserve copies online. Promote small local bands and list their concerts. If you are a lawyer specializing in a specific field, create a weekly or monthly e-newsletter, sent out to subscribers for free. Use the newsletter to keep the subscribers up-to-date on current issues in your field. Explain how court cases might affect various businesses, and advertise your ability to determine specific potential liability for each client -- if they come in and visit you. For every field, there is content that can be created to give Net users a reason other than your product to visit your site and think about your company. Be creative, take risks, be "silly." If the e-newsletter fails, you're out a lot less money than one run of a print newsletter would have cost. * Rule 3: Know Your Audience. We can assume that you understand the market for your goods and services. If you don't, you're dead anyway and the Net isn't going to help you. However, the average Net user is a bit different than the shopper you're probably used to serving. A recent (mid-1997) study by Binary Compass Enterprises suggests that the online shopper is generally a white (74 percent) male (79 percent) college graduate (81 percent) with an annual income of $75,000 who spends $126 per initial purchase online and is 96 percent likely to buy again from the same online vendor if they received their initial purchase on time. Repeat customers spend an average of $251 per purchase. (These numbers are changing, however slowly, as the Net becomes more diverse.) The Net user is also used to separating the wheat from the chaff, and is very skeptical of "free" stuff. If you are up-front about your sponsorship of the content you're creating and about why you're creating it, you will get a better response than if you try to disguise your commercial motives. Be honest, be realistic. Tell them you hope your content convinces them to spend money with you. Reassure them that a purchase isn't a prerequisite for continuing to receive the content. Promise never, ever, ever to sell their personal information. In short, build a relationship. In time, someone who is interested enough in your field to be receiving your content will want to buy something associated with the field. You'll be there. Net users are also used to the ability to instantaneously and effortlessly make their opinion known. Make sure there's a mechanism (an e-mail address is fine) for your users to give you their opinion of your content or your products or services. You'll get good suggestions from people who, if they like your content, will want to see you succeed. * Conclusion: The Net is still young. Commercial use of the Net is even younger. As a result, businesses are still experimenting with marketing online. Some of the things you do will work, others won't. This is OK. Remember, one of the glories of the Net is that it's still a very cheap medium of communication. You can go out on a limb without any great risk to your bottom line. Net-based marketing can even, in some cases, supplant traditional marketing methods and end up saving you money. Good luck. 1,000,000 FREE VISITORS ON YOUR SITE! - Finding it tough to make money on the Internet? Want to know some well guarded secrets that will essentially make all the difference between not making money and earning a good income online? Now just imagine the difference to your online business if you can get a million Free visitors on your website! That's right! A MILLION FREE VISITORS! Your sales will explode! You just cannot imagine what are the incredible secrets that Free Ad Guru, Stephan Ducharme is going to share with you! You will get visitors on your website as easily as turning on the water faucet! Big corporations are spending thousands of dollars in banners advertising to get the traffic that Stephan is getting for FREE. You will slap yourself if you miss this unique opportunity to learn these techniques. And it is absolutely Risk Free! Stephan is providing a 100% Money-Back Guarantee. Click here : http://www.freeadguru.com/cgi-bin/i.pl?c=a&i=12660 * Author's Note, Copyright Information and Administrivia: This document is intended to promote responsible commercial use of the Internet. It may be reposted or forwarded in its entirety only and the copyright information must be retained.. The author is not responsible for any damages to individuals, businesses or organizations as a result of any suggestions made within this document. Entire contents copyright (c) 1997, John C. Mozena. All rights reserved. --- MAF Anti-Spam ID: 20030626003433Q1z3CzV1 .