IN THIS ISSUE: April 11, 2001 To Archive Index Fairy Godmother Marketing Syndrome How About Some Good News for a Change?

FAIRY GODMOTHER MARKETING SYNDROME

Even now, with hordes dot.coms on the brink, the same marketing mistakes are made again and again by companies desperately competing for customers. 

Many failing or struggling companies subscribe to the theory that one great e-mail campaign, or the right banners, or the ultimate press release could rescue their business. I call this illusion Fairy Godmother Marketing Syndrome.

The size of ads is on the rise, the variety of novelty e-mails is growing, as is the sheer volume of press releases. But no medium can solve the problem of a hard-to-use site or a boring site. As my grandma used to say "Always clean your house before you invite people in."

Despite the lessons of a slew of failed dot.coms, an awful lot of online companies present half-baked web sites. How many times have you left a site in frustration because you couldn't find what you wanted, couldn't deal with the complex order form, or were just plain annoyed by the amateurish level of the content? Judging from the number of abandoned shopping carts and 2-second visits to sites, a lot of people are just plain fed up with online businesses. 

To make sure you don't turn into a pumpkin while waiting for your Fairy Godmother to make everything all right for your business:

• get your site in order before you begin a marketing effort, 
• then avoid these top five marketing mistakes:
  
  1. Making people work to do business with you
  Let's say that yours is one of the less than 20 percent of e-mails that I actually open and read. And let's say I click onto your web site and don't immediately find a way to sign up for the offer you told me about. 
  
  Perhaps you want me to sit through a flash presentation about your business and click through several pages to get to your offer. Or maybe you expect me to click 10 times to place an order.
  
  Did you hear that sound? Click! That was me leaving.
  
  2. Not testing e-mail offers
  Your ROI will drop precipitously unless you test, test and re-test your e-mails before you send out a large number. Direct response is scientific. You can measure what works before you go live on a grand scale.
  
  3. Not capturing customer information on your site
  Making yourself heard through the marketing noise and getting people to your site is no small feat. So why would you waste the opportunity to capture every visitor's e-mail address? An e-mail address and permission to use it is still the most valuable thing a netizen can give you.
  
  4. Advertising before your metrics infrastructure is in place
  Don't advertise until you have mechanisms in place to measure and analyze the responses. Otherwise you can't measure which offers, lists and copy work best. And that's kinda like winking at someone in the dark.
  
  5. Blaming your tools
  No medium can do all the work for you. It will not matter whether you use direct mail, advertising, PR or any other form of marketing if your site is not optimal, your order process is not 100 percent intuitive, your customer-interface is not completely intuitive and your content is not clear.

Better take heed, dear, before those coachmen turn back into mice!

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What's Next Online works on a project or retainer basis to evaluate, develop and execute Internet and traditional marketing and business strategies for Internet and Outernet companies. Ask us how we can help your business build global traffic and sales.

Contact B.L. Ochman BLOchman@whatsnextonline.com  212.369.8312

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Error Messages 
"Dream Come True" 

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become one of the world's great writers. When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!" 

WELL... HIS DREAM FINALLY CAME TRUE.
He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages. 

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HOW 'BOUT SOME GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE?

VETERAN B2B FIRMS STARTING TO SHOW PROFIT

It appears the length of time a B2B firm has existed online directly correlates to how profitable it is today, according to the latest ActivMedia Research report. Its latest set of data shows 46 percent of B2B sites that have been online for three or more years are profitable today. This compares to only 32 percent across all B2B sites regardless of number of years online. ActivMedia found because of the recent economic downturn, many B2B businesses plan to start selling online over the next 24 months as a matter of survival. However, B2B e-commerce veterans are less likely to have seen a decrease in business, probably because they came online early in the e-biz cycle.

SOURCE: DIGIT

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