In this issue:

• Redesigning a Low Performing Web Site
• Protecting Your Business Information from Web Theft
• Letters to the Editor
• Book Notes: Vassos, Strategic Internet Marketing
• Sponsorships Available
• Celebrate Thanksgiving on the Web

Redesigning a Low Performing Web Site

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Oh, what dreams motivate us would-be netrapeneurs! Millions of customers, truckloads of money. We put up a Web site, and then wait… and wait… and wait. And gradually, we begin to get some new customers from the Web.

"We're starting to get a lot of hits," one of my consulting clients told me, "but no one seems to be buying anything. Why?" You can sense the potential, but how do you take advantage of it? How do you redesign a low performing Web site?

Purpose

It all begins with your objectives. You need to define on paper the most important objective you have for your Web site. You're past the "make me fabulously rich" stage. Now you're ready to look more realistically. These are the usual objectives:

1. Enhance our company image. Of course, every company wants this, but this is the prime objective only of companies who have already established a national brand consciousness of their products and services. For smaller companies this is usually secondary.
2. Have potential customers contact us so we can generate prospects and then consummate a deal or establish a professional relationship via phone, fax, e-mail, or snail mail,
3. Sell products or services directly from our Web site without use of phone, fax, e-mail, or snail mail.
4. Provide services to our existing clients in hopes of future orders

Be very clear on this. The way you design your Web site will depend upon your answer. I've found the most confusion between points 2 and 3. If your product is expensive enough that people won't make an outright purchase without contacting you first, then you don't need to develop an on-line system for taking credit information. However, if you expect people to buy products on-line via credit card, you need to offer an SSL-secure Web site to be taken seriously.

Appearance

A professionally-designed masthead graphic can make the difference between a ho-hum Web site and one which creates a strong first impression. Next I look for a bright, clean, professional feel. Too many novice Web page designers go a bit wild by including this cool animated GIF image, and that rainbow colored line, with a rippling blue, semi-transparent background.

What was acceptable style six months ago looks dated today. I try to give my Web site a facelift every few months just to appear up-to-date. To look business-like, mimic the larger professional sites. Notice how often you see white backgrounds? They make text more readable and graphics pop out better than our early infatuation with intricate background textures and colors. Using "tables" or columns allows you to pack a lot of information on the first page.

Choose graphics that convey your message and minimize clutter. Avoid cutsey images which flash back and forth until your customer leaves just to get away from the distraction. Understate. Finally, be very aware of the total graphics load on your initial home page. 50K may not seem like much if you look at a page via an Ethernet or ISDN line, but your customer with a 14.4K modem on a slow Internet day may well give up.

Ease of Use

Too many Web sites make sense to a company-insider, but are obtuse to a Web visitor. Put yourself in your customer's shoes. What is she likely looking for? What does he need to know? Is your copy written in industry jargon or in friendly, chatty English? Ask some friends to look through your Web site and give them permission to be honest in their confusions and criticisms. You'll learn a lot!

Your navigation system is crucial. How easy is it for your customer to learn what's there? How easy is to get lost? Paying a professional to analyze your Web site and set it up with logical subsections is well worth the price. Maybe it's also time to set up navigation bars or image maps, and install a search engine so people can find what they're looking for quickly.

Easy to Contact You or Place an Order

The bottom line, however, is getting your customer to take action. Here's where we come back to your goal. Direct marketing people tell us to ask multiple ways and multiple times for action. If I want visitors to sign up for my newsletter, I give them that opportunity on several of the most-traveled Web pages, not just one. If you're trying to build a prospect list, how easy is it to fill out the response form? Do you ask so many questions that people get tired of answering and go somewhere else? Do you ask "qualifying questions" that help you sort out the serious inquirers from the window-shoppers?

If you have an order page, how many products have you cluttered it with? There comes a time to install a shopping cart system to make it easy for your customers to order an item from the page on which it was described, not just from your order page. Have a friend try to order products on your Web site and then tell you how easy it was.

Marketing Strategy

Redesigning your marketing strategy is perhaps most crucial. Have you answered the crucial question: "Why in the World Should Someone Come to Your Web Site?" Find a suitable answer to that question before you redesign your Web site. Once you get people to visit your site, do you have a system to get them to return? To conserve and nurture the contact you've already made? If you neglect developing a strategy to do this, you'll have wasted much of your Internet marketing effort.

It's hard in a single article to tell you all the things to look for in your redesign, but this will get you started thinking about it. If you're going to have a Web site, you owe it to your business to make it work just as hard as it can to bring you new business.

Is it time to redesign your Web site?

Protecting Your Business Information from Web Theft

by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

You have a great idea to market your product or service. It works well, and soon you've developed a growing business from the Web. Then you get an e-mail message from a friend that www.copytheft.com looks a great deal like your Web site. Sure enough, there are your graphics, and whole swatches of your carefully written text. How do you protect your copyrights on the Web when theft is so easy?

Everything on your Web pages -- text, graphics, and HTML code -- is protected by US and international copyright law, whether or not you have gone to the trouble of formally applying for a copyright with the Library of Congress (though registering makes it easier to prove your ownership in court, should that become necessary). Knowing this, be very careful not to use someone else's materials, photos, or graphics on your Web site. Always ask for permission and be ready to pay for using someone else's hard work to enhance your business Web presence. You would be wise to include a statement at the bottom of each Web page saying something like "Copyright © 1996, Ralph F. Wilson, all rights reserved," and then perhaps link the word "copyright" to a Web page which spells out your ownership of the materials to put potential plagiarists on notice.

It may be easy to steal copy, but you as a business owner have two important allies. The first is a powerful Web search engine, such as AltaVista or HotBot. I might take the phrase "put potential plagiarists" (I must like alliteration) from the previous paragraph, type it between quotation marks on AltaVista, and press "Submit". In a few seconds, AltaVista will search its index of 30+ million Web pages for the words in that phrase. Do you know how many times the phrase "put potential plagiarists" is used on the Web? Not once, at least not until this article is published on my Web site. If your search reveals violations, decide what your objective is. Do you seek damages or merely removal of the page? Usually, a polite but firm e-mail message to remove the offending Web pages by a certain date is all that is necessary to accomplish the latter.

But if not, you may discover a second ally in the violator's Internet Service Provider. A decision in Church of Scientology vs. Netcom (Civil Action No. C-95-20091, slip op. (N.D. Cal. Sept. 22, 1995)) indicated that ISPs may be liable for contributory infringement after being put on reasonable notice of an infringing file, if the ISP fails to take reasonable action. (You can see a discussion of this issue by Anthony V. Lupo of Arent Fox in "Current Development in Copyright Law", March 1996. Such a ruling makes prudent ISPs willing to listen carefully to complaints of copyright violation.

If you don't act to protect your business materials on the Internet, your business may lose its uniqueness, some of your potential customers, and ultimately, even your claims to the copyright itself. Make up your mind to pursue this vigorously and relentlessly. A periodic search might just help protect your business; I've found it necessary to protect mine.

Further information is available at http://www.wilsonweb.com/copyright/

Letters to the Editor

Tracing an IP Number

"You write that it is impossible to see if your competitor saw your site when he uses his IP number. If you're a bit adventurous you can use several small programs to find out.

"While on-line in Windows '95, go to the MS-DOS prompt window and type: "tracert www.competitor.com" [without the quotation marks]. It shows all the stations your request goes through, till ending up at the sight where you want to go; on top of that it gives you an idea where the problem lies when traffic is slow, or seems to be slow, and it will show you the IP Number!

On the Mac use WhatRoute 1.2 (shareware). For Unix, the command is traceroute. For the Mac there exists a Shareware-program called WebStat4Mac, written by Peter Hardman, which can analyse just about any statistic, as long as it is in the 'common log format'. It is very easy to use and still very powerful. The package only costs $10." -- Freddy Werdmoelder, Marketingberatung, Zuerich, Switzerland

[Editor: Thanks, Freddy, that tracert tip works nicely!]

Recommendations

"I have spoken with two individuals from xxxxx today about their services and have been sorely disappointed in their response. This is a site link that was recommended on your newsletter...." -- Scott

[Editor: We seldom "recommend" services, just link to them, unless you see an "excellent!" or something like that. As always, it is "let the buyer beware," but we appreciate your heads-up on this company.]

Sponsorships Available

Sponsorship opportunities for the e-mail version of Web Marketing Today are presentlyfor our January 27, February 17, March 3, and March 24 issues.

Book Notes: Vassos, Strategic Internet Marketing

Last year my pick of Internet marketing books was Levinson and Rubin, Guerilla Marketing Online (Houghton Mifflin, 1995, US $19.95). This year it is:

Tom Vassos, Strategic Internet Marketing (Que, 1996, US $24.99)

As Internet Strategies Manger for IBM Canada, Vassos knows how to use the Web for business. What I like about this book is the way he blends a sensitivity to strategy, with an easy-to-understand discussion of the technological possibilities available on the Internet.

Vassos begins by describing the ethos of the Internet community, expounding his Internet Underwear Theory (e-mail is informal because people read it at home -- in their underwear) and Gift Economy Theory (the Internet penchant for free information). Next, he develops a rather sophisticated Internet Bullseye Marketing Model to enable a business to decide whether its product or service is a good fit for marketing via the Internet (well worth the price of the book!). The main structure of the volume is Vassos' "17 stages of Web site development". While a particular stage may not be applicable to every company or industry, in general, the higher the stages your company can achieve, the greater benefit it will derive.

The stages are: (1) launch--plan your strategy, (2) repository--publish your content, (3) link--connect to other Web sites, (4) cool--use advanced technologies such as Java, Shockwave, RealAudio, etc., (5) interactive--interact with other stakeholders, (6) database--integrate corporate databases, (7) advanced repository--use advanced content update strategies, (8) advanced interactive--use instant and automated interactive strategies, (9) personality--give your site character, (10) mass customization--create customized content for individual visitors, (11) outbound--reach stakeholders proactively, (12) integration--integrate with content or services from other Web sites, (13) commerce--conduct commercial transactions, (14) application--extend the reach of your corporate applications, (15) global--meet the needs of the global community, (16) strategic alliance--align with corporate partners, and (17) closed loop--monitor results and evolve your strategies. Vassos covers three or four stages per chapter.

He is careful to illustrate each point with screen shots and URLs of sites he designates "Web Diamonds," each of which is kept updated at the publisher's Web site. This is one book Web marketers will want to ask Santa for. ;-)

Celebrate Thanksgiving on the Web

Chances are you have a lot to be thankful for this year. This year, celebrate Thanksgiving on the Web. Here are some articles which might bring some spiritual enrichment to your family's celebration. Feel free to print one out and read it at the table: "Pilgrim Daughter," "Cranberry Sauce and Pumpkin Pie," "Squanto," "Bitter Winter, Better Thanksgiving," the story of Miles Standish. These can be found at: http://www.joyfulheart.com/holiday/. Happy Thanksgiving!

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Copyright © 1996-2003 by Ralph F. Wilson, all rights reserved. Text, graphics, and HTML code are protected by US and International Copyright Laws, and may not be copied, reprinted, published, translated, hosted, or otherwise distributed by any means without explicit permission. Trademarks and terms of use.