ISA Expo 2003 ... From Search Engines to B-Blogs: What's Working in e-Marketing
By Shari Worthington
President
At ISA Expo 2003, we were asked to present what has become an annual update
on what's working ... and what's not ... in e-marketing. This year the focus
was on web sites, search engines, and b-blogs (business weblogs). Let's take
a look at the highlights.
First and foremost, 98% of all engineers are regular users of the Internet.
The Internet has become the primary information resource for the technical markets.
Engineers and scientists, alike, tend to turn to search engines for the bulk
of their information research needs. Overall, about 75% of all web users rely
on search engines, visiting their favorite at least five times a month. Now
that we know where our prospects and clients are, how do we reach them?
Well, you can't launch a good e-marketing campaign until you've taken care
of the most important component of the program…your corporate web site.
Without a compelling, information-rich site, it's guaranteed that you'll lose
virtually all the potential customers you attract to your site. So make sure
you've taken a long hard look at your web site before you invest in a marketing
program that will attract more people to it.
Top 10 Steps to a High Impact Web Site
1. Take the Web Seriously & Don't Skimp.
A B2B web site isn't about art or ego. It's about information. It's about facilitating
or closing a sale. It's about building long-lasting relationships with your
customers, suppliers, channel partners, and the community. But if your site
looks as if it was designed by a kid in a garage, understand that your customers
won't take you or your products seriously. How many manufacturers do you know
that are willing to risk a million dollar production line on what appears to
be a less than serious automation supplier?
2. Develop Your Brand Identity.
Make sure your web site is integrated into your entire marketing and sales
program. Use a consistent design that incorporates the company's primary messaging,
logo, and associated colors. The look and feel of the site should be of the
same professional grade as the rest of your sales collateral, whether it's a
product catalog, newsletter, or company presentation. Prospects and customers
need to have an easy way to remember your company when you're not around. If
they don't, you won't get the follow-on sale. So create a memorable message
and a striking look-and-feel that will play into the rest of your marketing
program.
3. Content is King.
This is the age of self-service. Engineers and scientists are highly educated
consumers. They have a pretty good idea what they want and they want to look
for information on their own schedule. That means your job is to make sure the
information is readily available, whenever and wherever they need it.
Start with a first-rate online product catalog. If you have a lot of products
with many options, make sure they're organized into a database that customers
can use to easily sort through categories by key specifications. Add technical
notes and customer case studies to the site to increase your credibility. Use
FAQs (frequently asked questions) to address issues that continually arise,
e.g. when do I need 12-bit vs 14-bit resolution I/O. Organize the site according
to the types of customers that will be visiting. Some will be visiting the site
before a sale, looking for information that will help them decide whether to
buy from you. Others will frequent the site after a sale, looking for product
updates and technical tips to improve the efficiency with which they're using
your products. Keep everyone in mind.
4. Get Organized.
When I visit a site, I start with the technical library and review the types
of articles the company is publishing in their area of expertise. Then I browse
the corporate newsroom; here I can get a feel for how innovative the company
is…are they introducing new products at a decent clip, are they really
keeping pace with the industry? If the company passes all these checkpoints,
then I turn to the product catalog, looking for key specs. But before I make
a purchase, I read the corporate overview; it's important that I know what the
company is all about and that they are an industry leader.
But that's just me. What about your customers? Each will move through your
site at a different pace and with different criteria in mind. Your job is to
make that easy. So…is there consistent site navigation that lets site visitors
easily move from one section to another? Are the pages within each section logically
organized and cross-linked with each other? Or do you dump everything on one
page and expect visitors to slog through it all at once? Remember to make it
quick and easy or your customers will get frustrated. When that happens, you'll
lose them in a flash, as it's all too easy to jump to your competitor's site.
5. Generate Leads ... or Sales.
Once you've gone to all the effort of creating a decent web site and a marketing
program that attracts prospects and customers, make sure you're also collecting
the leads. Once a person gets to your site, make sure you provide incentives
to get them to give you their contact information and product interest level.
Use fill-in-the-blank boxes to collect e-mail addresses, sign people up to receive
your info-packed newsletter, or create a series of information-rich white papers
that require the site visitor's contact information to download. Above all,
don't attract large numbers of people to your site, then forget to ask for their
information.
And depending on what you're selling, you may need to take the order online.
If you're offering a commodity product, operating in a highly competitive market,
or looking for ways to differentiate yourself from the rest of the players in
your market, an online store is practically mandatory. As long as the customer
orders from you, you shouldn't care if they phone, fax, e-mail, or e-commerce
it to you!
And online storefronts are nothing to be afraid of any more. They can be quick
and easy and affordable, when you work with a firm that knows it's e-commerce.
Next month, what it takes to bring your web site to the next level and a first
look at the latest information on search engines.
|
