Considering that you’re reading an article from an e-zine for marketing tips, it’s a pretty safe bet you’re either already using the Internet as a marketing vehicle or are thinking about doing so sometime soon.
As is the case with any marketing plan, when it comes to using the Internet, you don’t want to throw money willy-nilly into cyberspace. That said, Lloyd Corder, vice president of marketing research and leadership communications at Ketchum/Pittsburgh, has come up with four questions you should ask yourself before you market online:
On the other hand, if you have a potentially large customer base outside your community or if you are a specialty manufacturer who has a hard time identifying prospects, you’ll definitely want to consider a Web site. The most important issue to remember here is that, while there’s a certain business savvy associated with having a site these days, it should complement, not replace your other marketing efforts.
In general, home-based business owners concentrate on the first two, specifically generating leads and tracking how many people visited their site or what they ordered. You should, however, also concentrate on exciting your audience. If you think of yourself as hip and cutting-edge, make sure your graphics reflect that; if you’re constantly designing new products, make sure you show those products on your site.
Corder suggests coming up with a questionnaire or phone poll listing 20 to 30 items that might be of interest to your clients online; ask that they be rated. "In general, people don’t give a hoot about a company’s history or mission statement," Corder says, "but they are interested in new products and promotions – anything that’s going to stimulate a call to action."
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This article was last modified on January 6, 2023
This article was first published on May 1, 2000
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