Market your Web
Marketing Considerations
1. Are you marketing your Product(s), your Company, or Both?
Your goal with marketing your Product is to make sales. Your goal with marketing your company is to sell your company's image, as for example good corporate citizen, or a high quality manufacturer. With each marketing goal you are attracting different markets. The way you need to appeal to them is also different. As a result you will need separate marketing strategies. Ideally, your product and your company have separate brand identities. Each of your marketing strategies should promote the individual brand identities.From a web perspective, this means you need:
- Two web sites, or one web site, where each part has a very different Look and Feel.
- Two different brands will probably mean you have two different logos.
- Different tone of copy ("Buy my widget now, it's just the Best!" vs ."We are a truly dedicated and concerned company") .
- Your differing strategies will be reflected in the way you utilise web media.
| Media | Product/Service | Company |
| Search Engines | Tailored keywords - eg "Product name" | A different set of keywords - eg "Company name" |
| Portals | Product/services sales sites; create your own! | Organisations you are affiliated with; create your own! |
| Partnerships | Complementary, versus competing products/services sites | Non Profit, Environmental sites- those that reinforce your Brand |
| Your own web | Your corporate site; other sites in your network | Your product/service site; other sites in your network |
| Bulk email list | More tailored email to select recipients, including investors |
Likewise from an Offline perspective:
| Media | Product/Service | Company |
| Search Engines | Tailored keywords - eg "Product name" | A different set of keywords - eg "Company name" |
| Portals | Product/services sales sites; create your own! | Organisations you are affiliated with; create your own! |
| Partnerships | Complementary, versus competing products/services sites | Non Profit, Environmental sites- those that reinforce your Brand |
| Your own web | Your corporate site; other sites in your network | Your product/service site; other sites in your network |
| Bulk email list | More tailored email to select recipients, including investors |
Top of Marketing Considerations
2. Are your Online and Offline target markets the same?
A "Bricks & Mortar" business will naturally gain customers on the web. As a result of having a web presence your potential customer base will be expanded because you can now reach customers who could not be accessed through "Bricks & Mortar" marketing. At the same time you may also lose or gain competitors. As a result the pricing of your product/service may potentially need to reflect this change in competition.As you can see from the previous Section 1., there is a whole different set of media to use to reach your market. You really need two separate marketing strategies. So yes, if you do online and offline marketing for your company and one product, it would involve 4 separate strategies: two different media "Worlds", each with their own target markets. You don't create additional brands. The product brand is related to your product, nothing else. It is the marketing plan that is related to all the parties - product, media, target market.
To those who would suggest making your online marketing just an addition to your "Bricks & Mortar" marketing plan, we would say you have missed the full potential of the web. It can obviously be argued that the web is just another media like TV or radio. However the difference in the way this media works and is utilized is dramatically different from all offline media. Hence the use of our description above of different media "Worlds".
Top of Marketing Considerations
3. Some marketing considerations in the online world
- Do they know the difference between Quick Time and Windows Media Player? Do they know if they have the latest versions? Do they know how to check if they have the correct plug-Ins/Software to use your site?
- Would your user be comfortable giving his credit card info Online, and would they know that https:// means it's an SSL connection?
- Different makes and different versions of browsers respond differently to websites. Older versions generally won't support the more recent versions of certain scripting.
- Firstly, MAC or PC? An older OS won't support certain software running on your site. Usually an older OS implies an older, and hence slower computer.
- Not much point in getting someone with a dial-up connection to view your graphic heavy web site.
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With Bricks & Mortar marketing initiatives, you want your customer to read your brochure or watch your Ad, run to the store and buy a 100 widgets.
With an e-commerce web site, you want your customer to do the whole process there and then. Obviously the web site design and content needs to be
structured so that it entices them through to the "Buy a 100 widgets" page.
What is your User's Computer Savvy?
What is your User's Internet Savvy?
What Browser do they use?
What Operating System (OS) do they use?
What Internet connection do they use?
How do you get them from the Home Page, to your "Buy Me Now" page?
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