Issue 32, April 23, 1997
Welcome to Issue 32 of Web Marketing Today, which is sent out free to 20,679 subscribers around the world. This is an joyous occasion to thank God for Web Marketing Today passing the 20,000 subscriber mark! Thanks also to each of you for recommending WMT to your friends and business associates. You've helped this happen, so please celebrate with us.
In this Issue
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
A Web animation loads and then flutters, the front flap of a rural mailbox iconng and closing three times per second, like a mindless dog, lapping endlessly. "Send me mail, send me mail," the pathetic mailbox beckons. "Go somewhere else, go somewhere else," says a little message in my brain which activates the index finger on my mouse button to click and depart.
But despite the lapping of annoying mailboxes, I believe that learning to use e-mail effectively can be one of the most important tools in marketing a business on the Web. If no one contacts you after visiting your Web site, why have it there at all? To move you past e-mail response links you need to learn about some other technologies. (Some of these require some experience; ask your Web site designer or Internet Service Provider to set these up for you.)
Forms-to-Email
While I encourage clients to include an e-mail response link on every Web page in their system, I believe that a response form is vital to gaining information about clients. The response form is powered by a CGI* program which resides on your Internet Service Provider's computer. The program takes information from your form and instantly sends it to you in a nicely formatted e-mail message.
Forms are vital, since they ask for various kinds of contact information. If you rely on merely e-mail response links on your page, people will forget to give their phone number and address. With a form, you can also ask multiple-choice "qualifying questions" to see how serious a prospect is. Of course, forms can also be used for ordering products, when used with SSL Web server security and PGP e-mail encryption to ensure safety of credit card information.
Aliases
I said "alias" not "alien." You learned about aliases from Dragnet and aliens from Star Trek. Keep them straight! An alias is an e-mail address you go by in another life. Let me explain. Many times the Web server host you choose will be different than your local dial-up Internet Service Provider. For example, I have the domain name http://www.joyfulheart.com hosted in Utah. I set up an alias on the Utah Web site, to forward any mail sent to rfwilson to my local dial-up address of rfwilson
Of course, I can set up multiple aliases with my Utah Web host, each for a different purpose. A business might use info, as well as sales@, support@, jimdandy@, and dozens of others. Each alias can be forwarded to a different local e-mail address -- or all to the same address if you like. This is how you can distribute e-mail to different individuals at your company.
I hope that after this discussion aliases won't be alien to you. Ask your Web host provider about them.
Filters
Of course, if on your Web site you invite people to send e-mail to you, you may receive more than you can handle. For that you need an industrial-strength e-mail program like Eudora Pro 3.0 which offers filters. Let's say you get too much junk mail. You set up a filter that looks for multiple dollar signs and uses the words "fabulous" or "rich" and it will automatically put such e-mail into straight into the trash. ;-)
Of course, filters help organize the e-mail from your Web site as well. The filter can look for a key word on the Subject line, or for one of your aliases, and put all mail with that name into a separate folder.
Databases
Let's say you are collecting information from a survey, or names and addresses of visitors. You can set up a program that automatically enter this information into a database on your Web site, which you can download occasionally for merging into your desktop database. E-mail to database programs are becoming more and more popular. (See PolyForm and Survey Internet in the sidebar to this article.) Once in a database you can study the responses from many different angles, and learn a lot about your Web visitors.
Autoresponders
Sometimes you desire to distribute information from your Web site by means of e-mail. The more information you can distribute automatically, the more time you save. There are several ways of doing this. The first is an autoresponder or autobot. This kind of program automatically sends a specified text via e-mail whenever it receives an e-mail message. The more sophisticated programs will send different messages depending upon the word placed in the Subject field. Ask your Internet Service Provider about setting one up for you. Typically they cost $5 to $15 per month.
A second method involves using a forms-to-email CGI program such as Cgiemail (see sidebar). You place the information you want to distribute -- say prices or product features -- into a text file on your Web server. Whenever a visitor places his e-mail address into a form on your Web page and presses the submit button, your text is automatically sent to him.
If you have Eudora Pro 3.0, you can use filters and the "stationery" feature to automatically send out responses from your desktop computer whenever a certain word or phrase appears in an e-mail message to you. For example, one of my forms allow visitors to request prices. Eudora's filter searches for the phrase "E-mail prices to me" in the body of all incoming messages, and automatically replies with prices, while sorting the prospect's e-mail in a special folder for my attention.
Subscriptions
Another powerful way to extend your Web site marketing strategy is to allow people visiting your Web site to subscribe to an e-mail newsletter. On multiple pages in my site, I invite visitors to place their e-mail address in a form box and press the "Subscribe Me" button. The Cgiemail forms-to-email program automatically sends an e-mail message to the Majordomo program which keeps the Web Marketing Today mailing list, and -- voila! -- they become new subscribers. Every week hundreds of visitors do just that, and I am able to market to them -- to you -- issue after issue. Of course, your newsletter had better offer valuable information, or people will bombard you with e-mail telling you to unsubscribe them. Make sure you give clear instructions on how they can unsubscribe themselves in each newsletter to minimize the unsubscriptions you have to process by hand.
If you're just getting started, you can use Eudora to manage your mailing list. Set up an alias (there's that word again) which contains all the e-mail addresses of your subscribers. Just make sure you put their addresses in the Bcc: field (blind carbon copy) so all the e-mail addresses aren't visible to your subscribers.
Another form of subscription can be to a Discussion List. This function is also run by Majordomo or similar mailing list manager program which resides on your Web host computer. In this type of list, Majordomo echoes one participant's message to all other participants automatically. In this form of e-mail marketing, you might act as moderator of a discussion of your industry or installing a particular product. As the number of subscribers to the list increases, you gain a reputation for being an expert in the field, and can subtly market your products and services in that role.
E-mail can bring in a significant amount of business if you learn how to incorporate it into your Web marketing strategy. Don't put it off. But do me a favor, please. Don't use one of those forever-lapping mailbox icons to point me to it!
* CGI stands for Common Gateway Interface, the interface between the Web pages themseles, and programs which run on the Web server computer itself; aren't you glad you know?
We invite you to respond to this article at the Web Marketing Forum
The are several excellent forms-to-email CGI programs, some freeware, some for purchase.
Cgiemail, a freeware program written by Bruce Lewis at MIT, is the Cadillac® of forms-to-email programs for Unix operating systems. Once the program is installed on the ISP's computer in a cgi-bin directory, e-mail messages are formatted via a simple text file alongside your Web pages, no programming required.
FormMail.pl is written by Matt Wright in Perl, and can be installed easily on most Unix, NT, and Windows 95 Web servers, though it isn't quite as versatile as Cgiemail.
PolyForm, which sells for $149 from O'Reilly Software, requires the Web server to run on a Windows 95 or Windows NT operating system. It allows you to take data from a form and insert it directly into a Windows-compatible database such as Microsoft Access.
Survey Internet, for purchase from Aufrance Associates, allows both entry into, and queries from, a dynamic Microsoft Access database. Requires a Windows NT server.
Ask your Internet Service Provider or Web host provider if they provide Majordomo or another mailing list manager program. You can learn more about setting up a Majordomo newsletter from my article "Majordomo Newsletters for the Novice."
Occasionally, someone inquires, "What business should I go into to make money on the Internet?" Now I have a book to recommend: Webonomics: Nine Essential Principles for Growing Your Business on the World Wide Web, by Evan I. Schwartz (Broadway Books, 1997, 244 pages, ISBN 0-553-06172-0, $25.00).
Many Web marketing books are a thinly veiled Internet 101 wrapped in a business shell. Webonomics ("the study of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods, services, and ideas over the World Wide Web") is a careful reflection on what has worked on the Web and why it has worked. Schwartz organizes the book into "nine essential principles for growing your business on the Web," one per chapter. But don't mistake this for a simple book. Sure, the principles are simple, e.g., "No. 4: Consumers will shop online only for information-rich products." But why it is true? And how can a Web marketer apply the principle to his own product or service? Answering those questions is where Schwartz shines. Using examples from dozens of successful, and not so successful, Web sites, he outlines the reasons for their performance.
This isn't a book for a plunge-ahead-regardless Web marketer, but for a more thoughtful one who is willing to analyze and think and learn. It is my pick for the top Web marketing book of 1997. -- Dr. Ralph F. Wilson, Editor
If you'd like to purchase the book for 10% off, you may click here, or you can find it at our Web Marketing Bookstore.
by Paul Byrne
Customs issues create problems with shipping product worldwide from a Web site. Many products are restricted either for export or
for import. Even if you become the master of trade for your product in
terms of export restrictions, you may have difficulty in dealing with
the 219 some import restrictions.
For example, you have a site selling classical music CDs on the Web and
receive a Credit Card order from Saudi Arabia for Handel's "Messiah." The
customer pays your heavy $15 international supplemental shipping fee.
You package up the product and ship it off, paying $8 to
ship and ensure the thing. Eight weeks later you get the package back
marked up in Arabic with a bill for return postage. The product has beend and scratched, having clearly gone through several postal
inspector's hands. Visa informs you that your client has recanted his
payment (you deduce because he hasn't received his product after two
months). You don't know why shipment has been blocked; you've shipped a
couple of CDs to Saudi Arabia before. You're also stuck with a damaged
product, $8 bucks in shipping and insurance plus the return fees.
What you didn't know is that all media with "Christian" content is
banned in most Arab countries. Thus, while your "Magic Flute" and "Bach
Organ Recitals" made it through, the "Messiah" was too religious for the
dutiful customs inspector.
Companies shipping container loads of CDs from a factory to an importer
in another country have the size and scale to understand and work with
customs issues. On the other hand, an international "storefront" on the Web is selling
directly to individuals.
Even merchandise that travels freely across borders can be stopped if a
government official on either side doesn't feel you have respected
proper procedure. On small-ticket items it will be very difficult to
make the economics pay out if you truly want to sell to everyone.
I recommend focusing on a smaller number of countries when you set out.
Work with an export broker to determine the best way to ship for your
product to individuals and identify all costs clearly. You will
probably want to have an "export cost review" every six months or so
with your broker to make sure you don't get any surprises.
Clearly spell out on your Web site the countries you ship to and
apologize that you can't ship to others "yet." You may even want to use
a drop menu so that it is impossible to select a country you do not ship
to. By focusing on several countries, a region, or a linguistic group
(e.g. the EC, NAFTA, French-speaking countries), you can concentrate your
efforts on developing your site in those languages, selecting partners
for a mirror site, and for getting on the right search engines.
The US
Dept. of Commerce has trade representatives in most cities that can help
you understand which countries tend to import your product already and
help you identify export brokers and trading partners overseas.
My advice to anyone who gets into international business is to expect
the unexpected. However, if you
are able to handle the complexity you can make it very profitable.
Fortunately we have the Internet to help us communicate world-wide.
Paul Byrne <pbyrne>
This has been an interesting three weeks in which we've been quoted in the Wall Street Journal (Online Edition), the Atlanta Business Journal, Investors Business Daily, and Inter@ctive Week.
We're also proud to announce several new Web sites we launched recently:
Placer County, California, an extensive Web site spanning 28 departments of this diverse 2,000 employee, $236 million organization. To aid navigation throughout the site, we've included four different navigational devices. Take a look at the photo montage at the entrance to the site, and the on-line WebEvent calendar for several departments.
Whitney Oaks Residential Golf Community, Rocklin, California, is a graphically rich site designed to make you want to live there.
Golf Irland Plus, is an Irish firm that arranges golf tours of Ireland. Lots of beautiful photography here, too.
One of the joys of editing Web Marketing Today is hearing from an increasing circle of subscribers whom we consider friends. Though we aren't able to reply in any length via e-mail, we appreciate your kind words of encouragement, and wonderful suggestions. With this issue, the Web Marketing Today family has grown past 20,000 subscribers. You're a wonderful group of people!
We invite you to consider sponsoring an issue of Web Marketing Today to get your word out to over 20,000 people who are involved in doing business on the Web. Complete details and rates may be found on the Web.
Brief Survey: Which is your favorite e-mail format? Text or HTML?
Wilson Internet Services
http://www.wilsonweb.com
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.
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