Making It Work As An Integrated Part of Your Business
"Electronic Marketing" rose from the rush of internet-spawned technologies to take the business world by storm. Or at least that’s what we thought in those wild times that were the 90s.
The promises of e-marketing were astounding. It incubated and nursed whole new businesses, it forged new industries and it radically changed markets, almost overnight. And then, as quickly as it had seized the day, emarketing began to stumble under the weight of looming economic realities, carrying entire industries to the brink of disaster, pushing businesses into oblivion and creating dilemma after dilemma in markets throughout the world. Marketers who had been quick to invest in and expand their electronic marketing strategies began to pull back and ponder.
But e-marketing has arisen Phoenix-like from the ashes of its earlier excesses and mistakes to establish itself as a promising and effective tool for companies committed to strategic growth and market presence. The problem is that some people, including your employees, your customers and perhaps yourself, are wary of falling again into the web of e-marketing promises that went unfulfilled the last time around.
Despite its resurgence, the path to e-marketing success is still fraught with hidden pitfalls and uncharted wilderness. Unlike its "early" days when almost every e-marketing effort was something of a shot in the dark, today we can embark on the journey with an extensive array of mapping information on which to chart our course.
As with just about any business initiative, e-marketing will only succeed if it meets the needs of the people who matter most. E-marketing works best when it’s integrated into a strategic business plan that reflects the needs, wants and uniqueness of your customers. And, most importantly, it must be positioned to supplement the overall sales effort with solid buy-in from the sales and marketing staff.
Critical to the success of any e-marketing program is the thinking that has gone on before its implementation. To help ensure that your e-marketing efforts meet the needs of your customers and employees, we thought it might be helpful to compile a quick checklist on the do’s and don’ts of electronic marketing.
1. Make Sure Your Message Is Making It Into the INBOX
It’s a spam-filled world out there. Thus, it’s likely that you have more than one customer or potential customer that’s built a formidable electronic fortress to prevent e-marketing onslaughts that clog and weary its business operations. In order to assure that your message is delivered, look to partner with an e-marketing expert who is intimate with the ins and outs of the system. They’ll help you create productive relationships with major ISPs to prevent being blacklisted (put on a universal list of "bad" e-marketers). It’s also important to develop an effective tracking tool to make sure that your messages are arriving at their destinations...and actually being read. By 2006, it is estimated that the average user will receive 1600 unsolicited emails each year, costing organizations $10 billion annually. Know that even if your e-mail is legitimate, there are many spam filters that are identifying "false positives." This inappropriate identification of emails as spam costs US companies over $3.5 billion per year. (Source: Exact Target) So, just getting in the "inbox" is no small task. You can never take for granted that a message you sent is actually received — let alone read. And without both, you by definition will have nothing to show for your efforts.
2. Never Underestimate The Power Of Your Word Choice
E-marketing has given birth to a new business lexicon that brings unregulated and uncontrolled opportunities for abuse and misuse. Technology wizards and standard-setters have partnered to create algorithm thresholds that trigger message rejections when you exceed certain standards or use too many "buzz" words. Sending an invitation "to adults only" will get you screened from many servers, for obvious reasons. Knowing these words and limiting your usage, will help you get in the door — or inbox, as the case may be. Obvious words such as "free," "guarantee," and "order now!" are like putting huge placards on your email, inviting the spam busters to bar your message from entry. However, did you know that words such as "profits" and "luxury car" are on the same list? Not all the trigger words are as obvious as you may think. In the world of electronic communications, it isn’t only what you say but how you say it that determines whether or not your message is acceptable. Again, if you don’t get into the Inbox, you’ve got nothing.
3. If You Build It, They May Still Not Come.
You may think you’ve built a great and clever site only to find that you’re like a movie with fantastic reviews that nobody goes to see. If you’ve developed your electronic presence based on input you’ve gathered from your customers, you are probably on strategically sound ground. But once you’ve got the foundation up, you have to drive customers to your site. Search engine marketers like Google, Overture and others are important allies to help drive this traffic. And they can be remarkably cost effective if you choose your approach wisely.
But you also have to make customers aware of your site and what it has to offer. Include its address on everything you print. It’s all too common to see organizations spend extraordinary amounts of money building a fabulous Web site, only to pinch pennies when promoting it. When possible, spend equal energy and budget building your site and promoting it. Make sure your sales force promotes its existence as well. They are your promotional feet on the street. Encourage your entire workforce to plug the site. And measure...measure...measure the traffic and the effectiveness of your message and presence.
4. Before Advertising, Be Strategic
We’ve all heard the goods and bads of electronic advertising. Unfortunately, the technological ability to deliver messages far exceeds our ability to effectively measure the actual impact of the message. Sure it’s cheap by classic measures, and there are ways to accurately measure clicks (the number of visitors). But what about buying habits, demographics and the like? If you are looking to employ traditional methods to determine how to use and measure the impact of electronic advertising, you’re bound to come away frustrated and discouraged. Remember that as a new and much different media, it demands innovative and creative thinking. Don’t get mislead by promises of the "millions of impressions" your ad will garner. For many companies, targeted ad usage may make sense — as long as you keep your customer, your demographics, and your objectives front of mind.
Think out of the box when trying to determine which sites might be best suited to draw traffic to your new online gem. There are hidden goldmines out there --- like weather.com for example. Here’s a site that almost everyone visits, yet without any real work, you can geographically target your product exceptionally well. If you are selling snow blowers, for example, you can post your online ad on the areas of the site showing the northern state weather. People living in Florida will most likely have less use for your products, so you don’t want to waste valuable effort soliciting their traffic. Geo-targeting sites such as these, where demographic targeting is simple, may prove highly effective in driving traffic.
Make sure you’ve enveloped online advertising use as part of your overall strategic marketing plan rather than as a stand alone. And never employ electronic gadgetry like pop-ups unless you’ve worked out your objectives and strategies thoroughly.
5. Good Content + Bad Design = No Results
In case you haven’t noticed, one of the primary attractions of the Internet is interactivity. Whether it’s marketing, games or just buying, visitors expect seamless and uncomplicated search capabilities and information. Navigation from one page or piece of electronic fabric to another is vital, and on the Internet it’s easy. Visitors lost at Web sites just hit that always accessible "X" and leave. Once lost, they seldom return. Keep things simple. Yahoo and Google, two of the most visited sites on the web, are universally simple, easy to navigate and hence keep visitors coming back regularly.
All electronic explorers have become used to certain technological givens. Don’t trifle with their comfort zone. Give them what they’re used to and lean to a minimalist approach where graphics and content are concerned. Treat the site like a billboard. Visitors are passing by on their way to somewhere else. If they carry a single message away with them, you’ve accomplished something important in the world of electronic marketing.
If you offer them something easy to access and valuable, maybe — just maybe, you can keep them coming back.
6. Shhh...Privacy Please
It’s no secret that people are becoming outraged at the indiscretions of telemarketing and spam operators. And as more and more of us become victims when we sit down at the computer, we’ve honed resistance mechanisms and educated ourselves to our emerging rights in the electronic world.
As an e-marketer, don’t resist...respond. Develop a privacy policy that works for people, and be blatant about detailing it. In a recent study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, 57% of people who use the Internet assumed that if a privacy policy existed on the site, it meant that their information would not be shared with others. Unfortunately that’s not always the case — it’s not even the case the majority of the time. From selling lists, to a technique called "e-mail append," customer information is commonly bought and sold among marketers. Give people the option of providing or withholding information and let them know clearly how you intend to use what they give you.
Be uncompromising about protecting the privacy of the user. Customers are a finicky group to begin with, and protecting the trust that you’ve worked hard to gain, may begin and end with a privacy policy that protects their information. If you choose not to protect their information, at least be overt about it.
And don’t send people through hoops if they don’t want to be bothered. Annoy them and you can count on them holding a grudge. Above all, be intelligent and honest in dealing with the user. A bad experience on the Internet is just like a bad experience at the local grocery. Most often you look for somewhere else to spend your money next time.
Our Conclusion
Electronic marketing and the Internet in general are driven by emerging and evolving forms and functions. What works today may not even exist tomorrow. Most businesses are used to maximizing complete control over their marketing efforts. But emarketing is a whole new ballgame for which many of the rules haven’t even been written. As such, it’s not safe to just plunge into its cool waters. Get knowledgeable, seek expert advice and don’t succumb to being part of the latest fad or fancy. Make the use of emarketing part of your greater plan and determine a list of realistic objectives with which to measure its effectiveness. Above all, treat visitors to your site with respect, honor their privacy, and avoid annoying and unresponsive practices.
Too many people view the Internet as akin to a brave new world where the rules for interaction are somehow totally different from those of the world at large. In fact, the rules on the Internet are the same. Building customer relationships, including via electronic media, begins with treating customers as you would want to be treated. That, coupled with smart application of the unique technological opportunities the Internet presents for emarketing, can help make the Internet a vital engine for overall business growth.
Make sure that all customerfacing employees within your organization know, understand, and buy into your e-marketing strategy. Without internal support, the external promises of e-marketing cannot be realized.
