Missing the Point and the Opportunity

[TheBigNY]

When I listen to people talk about how to use the Internet for their business, I often hear the same logic that doomed the Internet in the 90's. That logic? Viewing the Internet as "The" channel and not "A" channel. Many potentially great companies died due to this thinking.


The Internet is a channel for business and while it has many great positive attributes, it is not the only channel and your customer base knows that. Look at ecommerce. You would think that would have taught us something since shopping should be an easy habit to change and influence, but ecommerce, while very big, is still only a relatively small piece of the shopping pie. People still go to malls, shop through catalogs, shop through mail order and the like.

The point? Remember that the Internet is only a channel and your customer base has more than likely gotten the services and/or products you are selling before the Internet arrived and therefore has no problem using a channel other than the Internet. Have at least one other method for clients to buy from you. Whether it's a telephone number, fax number, or actual people walking the pavement. Add another channel, because the Internet is not "The" channel, it's only "a" channel. It is then that you will trly reap the benfits of the power of the Internet to bring channels together.

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Best Regards
iSegue - We Make Small Look Big!
www.isegue.com

[DeanClark]

The Internet is a channel for business...it is not the only channel and your customer base knows that...ecommerce...is still only a relatively small piece of the shopping pie. People still go to malls, shop through catalogs, mail order and the like...

Have at least one other method for clients to buy from you... Add another channel, because the Internet is not "The" channel, it's only "a" channel...

Hi, BigNY

Couldn't agree more - too many people jumped in the cyberspace hotrod & hit the gas to get their dough, while leaving their trusted-traditional marketing stuck on the dirt road.

There are companies that have pumped nearly all their energies into marketing online and downsized mail-shots, word-of-mouth, press ads, magazine ads, tv, store presentations etc. All the stuff most profits used to and still come from.

I mean, you even see the SEs & ISPs like Yahoo, Ask Jeeves and AOL plus online banks doing TV, mail-outs, magazines and press.

Looking at QVC and home shopping channels with their URLs onscreen, for instance, you can bet most people still order by phone while they're watching the screen. Charities still advertise on TV and have fundraisers walking the streets talking to people to raise cash - website or not. And a lot of corporate sites are just brochures online without the adequate back-end stuff to network with.

As more e-commerce info emerges thru seminars, articles, forums like this one, let's hope for this situation to change soon.

[dealercrm]

Like any new media channel, there is a race to saturate the media's market before its cost rises. We saw that with the Internet. What was once easy to obtain traffic with popular topics is now highly competitive. The economies of scale are being applied to Internet advertising. The big boys as mentioned above use traditional advertising on top of their currently developed Internet channel currently and in the past. This trend should be duplicated and followed by even the smallest of business. Your only hitting one market if your advertising through one channel, very simple.

Has AOL always used ONLINE advertising exclusively. NO.... They have been sending people AOL 1.0 - 9.0 CD's since the demise of Prodigy. Will they continue to? You bet!!! Those 6 cent cds are a great ROI for them.... AOL is not only in your inbox there in your mailbox...

Using a smart combination of online and offline marketing is always needed for any business that can sell their products and/or services online.

[weegillis]

The internet has received a bad rap (a very bad rap) as a result of the hand full of scoundrels who have found all manner of means and methods to exploit every facet of global network communications.

Their #1 asset? Stupidity, ignorance, laziness, avarice, &c., of the masses that glibly gobbled up the early WWW.

They proved in the forties and fifties how poorly informed the average consumer is, and how vulnerable they are to social engineering. (Read Vance Packard's writings from the fifties.)

Also proved that the buyer is a liar, as Packard postulated. They will not be embarrassed with impunity, even if it is their own (read #1 asset) that would be the cause. They will put a blight on everything that embarrasses them.

With such a powerful information tool at their disposal, how many people could be counted upon to be responsible users? I'll tell you... maybe 1 in a hundred... at best.

You don't need to be a shark in these waters, just someone with their eyes open. Advertisers have taken full advantage of the medium, at first rather like a storm, and have learned a lot about folks in the 21st century: just as stupid, ignorant, lazy and greedy as in the 20th.

But folks have long memories when it comes to things they don't know about or don't understand, just take the Bible or the Koran for example. They won't be thinking in abstract terms on the intricacies of how and why, or on the possibility of them being able to think and reason out the truthful aspects. No, they will either be 'for' or 'against.' No REAL reason necessary.

So now we have folks who won't do business on the net (even while it saves time and money) and won't communicate through e-mail (though they pile up fifty and a hundred dollar long distance bills). Ironically, they are paranoid of perceived threats, while these same folks won't harden their machines against ever-present internet threats because they have nothing to hide.

People cannot be counted upon, enmasse, to do anything right that might be in the interests of many. Their closed world and closed minds are the only world, to them. All else is superfluous.

But, the advertisers and NASDAQ wannabe's really did shoot themselves in the foot, with this one. This, too, is nothing new--remember they're people, also. They were hoping for a bang in the numbers game. They believed that anything could lead to an explosion due to the magnitude of the internet communication medium--you don't even need to pick up your phone, just point and click. They were wrong.

I'll bet television advertising still has the most bang for the buck on a national scale. And radio and newspaper advertising is no less prolific, so they, too, must still work.

Probably more people see the Monistat (sp?) commercial on TV or the ad in Reader's Digest than will ever see it on the net.

[segue]
The search phrase ""monistat"" yields 56,900 results, all of which are advertising
[/segue]

My point in all this... Bad rap? Get used to it. The WWW will not disappear anytime in the near future, but like all forms of advertising, it has definitely reached its zenith as far getting its messge out to the masses. Sales graphs look more like standard general curves, and things have levelled off to a realistic range. The 'closed system effect' has reduced many wild dreams to cinders; now we can get on with what the net was intended as: open communication medium for intellectuals, entertainment medium for young and old, transaction medium for business, and information system for managers and scholars, alike.

[DrTandem1]

TheBigNY

I completely agree. So many people come to me with the idea that putting their business on the internet will some how cause it to become successful. I have lost a lot of potential clients by telling them the truth and not what they wanted to hear. On the other hand, I have gained respect from those that have listened to me when I told them just what you have stated.

The internet does have at least one silver lining. It allows the Davids of the world compete with the Goliaths. If not actually defeating the larger competitior, at least allowing for the opportunity of doing so and possibly establishing a niche, if not completely victorious.

[janeth]

I agree 100% you should advertise off line and online.

At this time we only advertise online and do not spend any money doing it.

That will change soon, but my point is this we make a very good living online.
There is money to be made with the internet and it can be your only source of advertising, but it depends on how much time you want to put into it.

[ron sheldrick]

I disagree 100%. I believe that in 20 years time 95% of retail purchases will be made on the net.
True the bubble did burst....but the medium is starting to mature, the lessons are being learnt... They said 'man would never fly' Evolution means everything changes ....I could be wrong...who knows ? I hope not ...no more trips to the supermarket ...hoorah

[janeth]

It is fun to do things online.
But it is also fun to go out in public.

I love to dress up and go shoping not sit at home in front of the computer to do everything.

I'm sure I'm not the only one.

They have not stoped building malls

[DrTandem1]

Ron,

I'm not sure with what you are disagreeing. 100%? That means everything. I don't think anyone was saying that the internet is not a great opportunity to make money nor did anyone argue about purchases over the internet.

Most were saying the simple truth. There is no guarantee of making a fortune simply by having a website and trying to sell something on it. This is probably the biggest misconception of those just starting out in e-commerce.

To be successful on the internet (make sales), you need to do the following:

Have people find your site (marketing)

Have what people want/need (product/service)

Have the visitor find it (good navigation)

Have a site where they will feel comfortable ordering on-line.

Of all of these, the first is the most important. If they can't find your site, the rest is useless. Simply marketing on the internet with a number one result for a search term or two will not be enough. If you have a good product and service, eventually word-of-mouth will help sales, but do you have the time to wait for that? Magazines, newspapers, TV and radio are the heavy hitters for marketing. Forget spam and banner ads. They don't work.

The last point I make about making the the visitor feel comfortable in making an on-line purchase requires a lot of work. They may have found your site and like what you offer. They may have navigated to the POP (point of purchase) where all they have to do is click "order" to start the purchase. However, if the site doesn't show any signs of recent updates, if it's unprofessional looking, if there's no privacy or guarantee statements, if there's no contact information including a real phone number, it is doubtful they will order from the site on-line.

The competition is so fierce on the internet, that most businesses will not survive, just as they don't in the brick-and-morter world. Now, just exactly where do you differ in opinion?

[janeth]

Now I would disagree

I think the web site look and feel is just as important as marketing.