Efficiency in Marketing on the Web

by Tim Berry

Build a better website and they will come? Not a chance. The value of your website will depend on traffic, and traffic depends on marketing. A website without a marketing plan is as useful as a freephone number that nobody knows about. If you have an online store, or simply use your site as an information tool to communicate with existing and prospective customers or clients, you want to optimise the power of your website where ever you can.

There are four basic guidelines that may offer insight for your web marketing strategy.

Know your customers Research your customer base. Your present customers are probably your most important market. Know as much as you can about who your present customers are, how they found you, and what they like about your business or organisation. Your present customers can lead you to future customers too.
Perform a target segment analysis Who is your ideal customer? Use customer surveys, random interviews, feedback sheets, and common sense to identify this group. Gather as much information as you can about your existing customers, their common characteristics, and build upon what has proven to be successful.
Conduct market analysis Market analysis is the foundation of developing your Web marketing strategy. Every Web plan should include a clear explanation of the market segmentation, target market focus, and a market forecast. It should include detailed information about each of the target market segments.
Perform your competitive analysis Who competes with you for your customer’s time and money? Are they selling directly competitive products and services, substitutes, or possible substitutes? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How are they positioned in the market? Answering these questions may provide focus and direction for your e-business marketing.

There is an amazing wealth of market data on the Internet, much of it free. The challenge is to sort through this information and determine what is useful.

For example, your access to competitive information will vary, depending a lot on where you are and who your competition is. Competitors who are publicly traded may have a significant amount of information available, as regular financial reporting is a requirement of every serious stock market in the world. Competitive information may be limited when your competitors are privately held. If possible, you may want to take on the task of playing the role of a potential customer and gain information from that perspective.

Web links for fundamental demographic data
There seems to be no way to keep up with and catalogue the ever-growing abundance of marketing information on the Web. Your first quest in market research is for your fundamental demographic information. That means the basic numbers and the “how many” and at what growth rate is important.

Fundamental demographics
It is important to understand the demographics of your target market and to assess the shifts in age, GDP, population trends etc.

Fundamental demographics for other countries Demographic and economic statistics are becoming more available throughout the world. If you are working on market data for your own country, don’t assume you can’t get statistics where you are. Check with your local business development agencies, business schools, and industry trade associations to find the information you need. The following are some website links which might also be helpful:

Resources for economists on the Internet has a good list of statistical availability for several countries.
United Nations Statistics Division has a U.N. collection of statistics and sources, and also a good list of national sources within different countries.
Department of Commerce International Trade Administration information site has a collection of data sources, including the country business reports.

Information from magazines and publications
Industry-specific magazines offer a wealth of information on your business and your market. Business magazines are an important source of business information, in addition to major general-interest business publications (Business Week, The Economist , etc.) there are hundreds of specialty publications that address the needs of specific industries. Specialization is an important trend in the publishing business. Magazines are an important medium for industry-specific advertising, which is important to readers as well as advertisers. The editorial staffs of these magazines have to fill the space between the adverts. They do that by publishing as much industry-specific information as they can find, including statistics, forecasts, and industry profiles. Paging through one of these magazines or visiting a website can sometimes produce a great deal of business and marketing forecasting, and economic information.

If you don’t already know what magazines focus on your business area, then the best place to start looking is on the Internet.

Information from trade and industry associations Some industries are blessed with active industry or trade associations that can supply you with market and industry information at a relatively low cost, often even free. Most industries have an active trade association that serves as a vital source of industry-specific information. Such associations regularly publish directories for their members, and the better ones publish statistical information that track industry sales, profits, ratios, economic trends, and other valuable data. If you don’t know which trade associations apply to your industry, find out by inputting your industry name into a search engine such as Google.

When in doubt, call or email the industry association offices and communicate with the managers. Associations are often led by elected officers or a board of directors, but managed on a day-to-day basis by professional employees.

The bottom line
The ultimate goal is information. The most important aspect to this process is to access information that is valuable to your organisation for better web-based marketing. When done correctly, it will offer you insight, enhance the efficiency of your marketing efforts, and show those results in your bottom line.

To learn more about this and other web marketing information, the online book “InSite: the Book on Web Strategy” will be valuable along with other resources such as the “eBusiness Primer” found at www.paloalto.co.uk.