(Laura
Schieber, Lana Ulitina, Chun Li, Warren Kennedy)
How to Attract Traffic—Customer Acquisition
Offline Advertising for Online Business
RESOURCES: ClickZ is one of the best sources for marketing websites through traditional advertising. One particular article located at: http://gt.clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/wi/bm/bm.html?user=ffffffffffff&article=1356 discussed the unique challenge of breaking through the noise in order to build an Internet brand. The site also offered many helpful articles on topics such as mini-branding, the future of retailing and how users can help with branding. Both the Business 2.0 (www.business2.com) , Nua.net (www.nua.net) and Fast Company (www.fastcompany.com) sites are also good resources on this subject.
TRENDS: According to a survey done by Jupiter Research (www.thestandard.com), shoppers referred to a storefront by offline sources, including offline advertising spent an average of 14.6 percent more than shoppers referred by online sources. Traditional media including television, newspapers and even national public broadcast are finding the on-line economy a boon to advertising revenue. (www.npb.com)
Online Advertising
RESOURCES: One of the best Websites for information on how on-line advertising can benefit a business is www.nua.net. This site offers information on what works and what doesn’t by industry with new information daily and a weekly e-mail newsletter. A good source for basic information is Net Traffic (www.internetmarketing.com). Wilson Web (www.wilsonweb.com) offers book reviews and articles on many internet marketing subjects.
TRENDS: Most companies have moved beyond the traditional banner advertisement in their online marketing initiatives. An article on CyberAtlas.com points to web-partnerships, e-mail newsletters, sponsorships, micro-sites, new media technology, and real-digital video as alternatives to the banner ad.
(http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/advertising/article/0,1323,5941_228131,00.html)
According to a white paper published by Net Traffic (www.internetmarketing.com) there are several factors that make the Internet an effective marketing tool including: measurability, growth of Internet users, affordability, global research & specific targeting, high information content, open interactive communication channel.
Search Engines
RESOURCES: Searchenginewatch.com may be the most comprehensive web site that provides detailed information about all aspects of search engines. Cyberatlas.internet.com is another site where we can find search engine statistics. Media Metrics and NetRatings are two well-established rating services in the digital world. The survey results released by NPD reveal many interesting search engine user behavior patterns that may be useful for web marketers and search engine managers (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/00/04-npd.html).
TRENDS: Currently, search engine traffic ratings are problematic because they do not reflect the search-specific traffic of the search engine sites (http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/00/04-ratings.html). This will change in the future because correct information is required for both marketing effectiveness and the credibility of the ratings..
Portal Referral:
RESOURCES: Vertical portals (Vortals) are web sites that focus on particular topics and that especially allow you to search for information relating to those topics.PinPoint.com, BetterGetter, SearchButton and especially EoExchange (formerly Aeneid) are several vortals that are targeting the vertical market.
TRENDS: Vortals are attracting ad money away from traditional search engines. Especially, mid-tier search engine will get hard hit. The reason is that web marketers are demanding pay-for-performance deals that only vertical portals and affiliates can deliver. The top three factors that retailers use in choosing a portal partner are ROI (62 percent), audience demographics (58 percent), and raw traffic level (48 percent). (http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/advertising/article/0,1323,5941_297851,00.html)
Email lists
TRENDS: Email lists are still hot pursuits of web marketers due to the vast user base and low cost. Email newsletters with specialized content and small circulation figures are the new targets of the major advertising networks. The current catch phrases are: Stop broadcasting, begin dialoguing; Stop pushing products, offer some value.
RESOURCES: A great source that explains how to build and manage an affiliate program is ClickZ (http://clickz.com/cgi-bin/gt/cj/am/index.html). The site includes the basics up to comprehensive articles that address specific affiliation topics such as promoting an existing affiliate program.
TRENDS:
Affiliate marketing gets a lot of
attention these days. Forrester reported that affiliate programs accounted for
13 percent of 1999's online retail sales. Some of the benefits include a stable
supply of traffic and revenue streams for both the parent site and the
affiliate. One leader in the affiliate model is Amazon (www.amazon.com).
Some of the top affiliates are Be
Free and LinkShare
that provide network of storefronts for shoppers.
Domain Name Strategy
RESOURCES: The best article found on this subject was on the site of Business 2.0 titled “10 Naming Tips” (http://www.business2.com/articles/2000/03/content/smart_build4.html) This article profiled the importance of your domain name to the success of your Internet business.
Another great article on the subject can be found on the Website of Fast Company magazine (http://www.fastcompany.com/online/15/cyberspace.html). This article outlines the entire process of setting up a spot in cyber space including how to register a domain name.
TRENDS: More and more, the company name is also the URL. Examples include www.amazon.com, www.ebay.com and many others. Today top domain names are going for $5,000 up to $50,000 and beyond. It’s common to find companies purchasing multiple domains in order to hold the position to later develop a Website using that address or later selling it to another company. Currently, an organization called The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is attempting to limit the practice. See The Industry Standard for more on Internet squatting. (http://www.thestandard.com/article/display/0,1151,6191,00.html). Business 2.0 also has good information on the subject (www.business2.com). For now, the best practice is to buy up all the options today in case you might use them tomorrow.
How
to Keep Traffic—Customer Retention
Loyalty Programs
RESOURCES: Loyalty Programs are relatively new to the Internet but have existed for decades in the offline world. Loyalty comes in two flavors: site specific (limits the loyalty reward to a currency that only the advertiser can provide) and network (builds brand awareness in addition to loyalty, but typically requires internal support and extremely capital intensive). Top three (in our opinion) providers of loyalty programs:
http://www.MyPoints.com, http://www.cyrk.com and http://www.customerloyalty.org. MyPoints seems to be the most successful integrated loyalty marketing system on the Internet.
TRENDS: Network loyalty Programs are expected to stand out for two reasons: first, customers like network loyalty programs because they can grow their “currency” with purchases from many markets; second, advertisers like them because the cost of the program is spread across the network, shared by all participants.
Understanding customers /
personalization
RESOURCES:
To succeed in E-business, understanding the “invisible customer” is
critical. The soundest site addressing this issue is http://www.broadbase.com.
Broadbase integrates customer
information from e-commerce applications, front-office and back-office systems
and demographic databases into: Measure what is happening, Analyze why it's
happening and Personalize the interactions with your customers.
TRENDS:
Closed-loop applications will analyze customer data from multiple touch
points, and then that information can be used to execute marketing campaigns,
improve online merchandising and content, increase site stickiness and
personalize customer interactions.
Customer Service
RESOURCES: CSR (http://www.csr.co.za/) is a monthly magazine containing in-depth insights into customer service. Customer Service on the Internet, Building Relationships, Increasing Loyalty and Staying Competitive by Jim Sterne is another very helpful tool for Internet businesses (http://www.targeting.com/book2.html). Service Quality Institute (http://www.customer-service.com/), is yet another organization that specializes in helping businesses keep customers, build market share and improve the performance of the entire work force so they develop a culture of delivering superior customer service.
TRENDS:
A research done by both Forrester
Research and BizRate.com indicates that
the future of
E-commerce may rest on customer service.
(http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/retailing/article/0,1323,6061_274891,00.html).
Exceptional service is important in increasing buyers' total satisfaction, which
encourages repeat visits and word-of-mouth recommendations.