IN THIS ISSUE: September 15, 1999 To Archive Index Communicating Online: Keep It Really, Really Simple The Four Best Ways To Destroy Your Online Business

Communicating Online: Keep It Really, Really Simple

By B.L. Ochman

Like most people, I pass on the names of sites I think friends and associates will find helpful. So when I read about a cool sites newsletter I sent the url to my architect friend, John Chadwick.

Bidcom is a site that helps companies in the building industry to find sources and suppliers for their projects. So I sent John the url, and an email saying I thought he'd find it useful. "Maybe," he wrote back, "but I can't quite figure out what they do from a cursory visit."

Well, truthfully, I hadn't looked at the site before I passed its url along. When I went and looked at how they described themselves, you'll see why my friend felt that way:

"Bidcom helps companies manage risk, drive down costs, and complete building projects on time. Bidcom's services are uniquely designed to support all participants through the complete lifecycle [sic] of multiple building projects. By providing a highly flexible, secure environment for communication and collaboration, commerce, business process management and the delivery of up-to-the-minute content, Bidcom is creating the e-marketplace for the building industry."

You'd reasonably expect the rest of the home page to tell you how bidcom accomplishes these feats. Well, guess what? There's not one more word of description beyond their vague and formal first paragraph. What follows, inexplicably, by,is a bunch of headlines from Fortune, CNC, ComputerWorld, Red Herring and others, saying things like:

"Money Talk: Which companies do you feel represent the "hot" IPOs for this fall?

Harmon: Hard to say since some issues I think could be hot, haven't filed to go public yet and may not file for the fall. Bidcom.com may be a hot one. It provides a link between builders, real estate developers, contractors...very B-2-B and cool."

Yeah, but what does bidcom actually DO?

My friend wrote back and said, Bidcom should have a click on the very first screen for:
What we can do for owners
What we can do for architects
What we can do for general contractors
What we can do for construction managers
What we can do for subcontractors
What we can do for suppliers

Why do people so frequently miss the obvious, he asked.

Nowhere is the obvious more important than on the Internet. It's crucial to remember that a web site is a place where one person can talk to and interact with another. Even though millions may see what you write, your words are read by one person at a time. The internet is as one to one as business communication can get. Online people expect to be entertained, informed and involved in a two-way conversation.

Old-time business-speak like bidcom's self-description is dead. (Good riddance!) The web is no place for phrases like "the above referenced," "to whom it may concern," and all the other constipated phrases best left to lawyers and business fossils. None of it works in this new medium. Skip the jargon too. This was pointed out to me clearly when a subscriber to my newsletter, referring to the headline "How To Increase Your VC Appeal," wrote to say "I don't know what VC means." You can be sure I'll spell out Venture Capital next time!

The internet has given us a powerful new way to talk to each other. It's a place to say "I," "We," and "you." Skip any language that sounds stiff, artificial and contrived. Obsolete business notions of control, command, formality, arrogance and hucksterism have no place online. Communication on the internet occurs when people share relevant information in a straightforward way. Nothing else has any real impact in this community.

Despite appearances to the contrary, the web is a consumer medium, not a technology medium. Your copy needs to be designed so no experience in your field is necessary for it to be understood. Otherwise, you won't ever appeal to a broad cross-section of customers.

Even the most staid business institutions try to sound human online (with varying degrees of success.) Credibility and clarity go hand in hand online.

Funny thing! Abraham Lincoln articulately described the consequences of unclear communication when he said "If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem."

THE FOUR BEST WAYS TO DESTROY YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

Don't build marketing into your budget:

"We spent so much on the site we have no money for marketing." These are words of online business doom!

The Wall St. Journal recently noted, for example, that and have great ideas for a new kind of customer-centric shopping service that lets ordinary people buy in bulk, but that neither has spent enough money on marketing to create widespread public awareness.

In fact both those sites have a concept that can revolutionize the way people shop online, but they can't do that until they get their new and original concept across. Unfortunately, a lot of online businesses have excellent ideas that nobody knows about. They put up their sites, they did their best to optimize for search engines, maybe they ran some classified ads or got a few links. And now they are wondering where all the customers are. I'll tell you! They are spending their time and money on sites that understand that marketing is a lifeline for internet businesses.

Marketing means publicity, sales promotion, cross promotions, newsletters, contests, surveys, advertising and any other tactics that will get your site noticed, talked and written about.

Count on search engines for your site traffic. I wouldn't want to ignore search engines because traffic undoubtedly comes from them -- maybe about 15% of a well-positioned site's traffic. But with 23 million pages being added to the web every month, there is no search engine that can find every site in every category. And search engines are so backed up it takes six months to see results under the best of circumstances. Your business could be dead by then.

Only advertise online
In my opinion, the web simply is not an advertising medium. I don't care how flashy, annoying or even clever your ads are, most people ignore them. Recent surveys by Jupiter and others prove that more and more people come online seeking a specific site which they get to by typing its name into their browser. So if I'm looking for a pop-up book for children and your ad for widgets is on the page I'm not going to be paying your site a visit. Perhaps the most annoying ad I've seen recently has a little creature zipping back and forth across the top of the page, demanding that I catch him and win a trip. Yeah, right! I scroll right past that annoyance. Even if you do come up with a good way to advertise, like sponsorships of newsletters and e-zine which have audiences likely to be interested in your product or service, you are still preaching only to the choir. Unless you mix the media carrying your message, using both online and traditional media, you are not going to reach those who would buy from you if they knew you existed.

Ignore word of mouth (viral marketing)
The internet is the first medium that can simultaneously reach millions of people all over the world and let them talk to each other. That is why it is important to institute reciprocal links, cross promotions with non-competing sites, and a newsletter that provides more than a sales pitch for your product or service.

But most of all, you need content on your site
That is simple, deep and straightforward. Then you can start the viral chain in motion. Then when you use various marketing tactics the payoff can be one of the most convincing forms of promotion -- one person emailing to his or her friends and saying, "check out this great site." And then those people check out your site and recommend it to their friends, who recommend it to theirs and .......

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